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Badminton champion An Se-young’s knee after being bandaged during her run in the women’s singles badminton event of the 2024 Paris Olympics. (pool photo)

Olympic gold medalist An Se-young sent shockwaves throughout the country after slamming the Badminton Korea Association for its lackluster management of athletes and less-than-systematic training methods, prompting even the government to weigh in on the issue.

Regarding the recent statements by An, the presidential office stated Tuesday that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism “will investigate matters once the Olympics are over,” adding, “President Yoon Suk-yeol has also been notified of the situation.”

The ministry also sent out a press release on the same day stating, “As the Paris Olympics are in full swing, we will investigate the situation as soon as the competition is over to reveal the truth. According to the results of the investigation, we will review whether appropriate measures should be taken for the sake of change.”

On Tuesday (local time), An, 22, chose to be absent from the badminton medalists’ press conference for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games held at the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee’s Korea House in the Maison de la Chimie. However, she was all that every reporter asked about.

Kim Won-ho of Samsung Life Insurance and Jeong Na-eun of Hwasun County, winners of the mixed doubles silver medal in badminton, were bombarded with questions concerning the veracity of An’s claims instead of being congratulated on their victory.

“Since we were split up, we didn’t really notice the issues that An raised,” said Kim. “The atmosphere in the team is rather frigid right now, as so many articles are being released on the topic.”

Jeong went so far to say that she would “not respond to any questions concerning An.” Despite achieving so much by winning a gold and silver medal in the competition, South Korea’s badminton appears to have little to celebrate.

With a bandaged knee, An Se-young faces off against China’s He Bingjiao in the gold medal match of the women’s badminton singles event at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Aug. 5 (local time). (pool photo)

After nabbing the gold medal in the badminton women’s singles the day before, An immediately slammed the Badminton Korea Association and called for change.

“I feel like the association interferes with everything while also neglecting its athletes under the name of ‘freedom.’ Badminton has so much potential, but the association needs to reflect on why we only managed to claim one gold medal,” An said while speaking in the joint press area. 

“I was waiting for a chance to talk about the inadequacies concerning the protection and management of athletes. I also wanted to talk about the problem of communication rather than authority,” she went on to write on her personal social media account.

An, who has been competing for South Korea since she was only 15 years old, started to despair over the inadequate management of athletes after suffering a knee injury at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, held in 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the hospital at the national training center told her that all she needed was two to five weeks of rehabilitation, a rather short period of time, a private independent hospital informed her that the injury “was not one that would get better in a short amount of time,” and that she needed to push through and keep up with her sport as much as she could and “get used to the pain” ahead of the Olympics. 

An focused on rehabilitation with one of her personal trainers, but the trainer was unable to travel with her to Paris as their contract expired just before the beginning of the Olympics.

After the group stages, An shared that “a personal trainer that I wished would accompany me was unable to come, and having a foreign coach makes communication difficult.”

An commented, “Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying was accompanied by two trainers and one coach and China’s Chen Yufei was able to bring along two personal trainers.”

The champion athlete also took aim at the slipshod training program. During an interview with Yonhap News, An stated, “Singles and doubles are clearly different and we have to train in different systems. Singles players all have unique styles, but the national team tries to steer them all in the same direction, which causes difficulties.”

She also criticized the authoritarian decisions made by the association. “Once, I couldn’t play at tournaments in France and Denmark against my will, and no one gave me any explanation. The association just removed me from the lineup without any communication.”

The Badminton Korea Association has yet to release an official statement. The South Korean national badminton team, including An, is scheduled to land at Incheon International Airport at 3:30 pm on Wednesday.

All eyes are on An as many wonder what she will say next.

By Jang Pill-su, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]