hankyoreh

The intense factional infighting in Korean short track skating had been hastily quieted with some quick-fix solutions, but at the welcoming event for skaters returning victorious from the world championships the discord surfaced again and the event was turned into a fistfight. It was ugliness that spoiled the sportsmanship.

Korea has won 31 medals in the winter Olympics (17 gold, 8 silver, 6 bronze), and of those 29 were won in the short track (17 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze). It is natural that the country feels boundless pride towards Korea's short track skaters. Because of the ugliness, however, the pride is about to turn into disappointment and shame. How can people take pride in their skaters when they are forced to doubt their basic qualities as athletes?

The problem lies not with the skaters themselves. It is their elders who are at fault, for splitting them up according to school and personal connections and fighting amongst themselves over the upper hand in choosing team members and operations. They turned the management of Korea's only gold medal event in the winter Olympics into a fight over the spoils of success. The factions have engaged in ugly disclosures about each other, encouraged skaters to refuse to the training village and to avoid certain coaches, and they have made skaters practice in separate groups. Not wanting to offend their coach, skaters are afraid to congratulate members of different groups when they win. It would have to be pretty serious for Ahn Hyun Soo to say he wants to quit.

The Korea Skating Union needs to make dismantling the factions its highest priority and take all possible action. It needs to consider the idea of keeping leaders belonging to specific groups away from the national team. Everyone knows how the miracle of Korean football's success in the 2002 World Cup originated in coach Guus Hiddink's insistence on sticking to principles, which made him free from factionalism. Korean teams in other sports need to learn from the situation in short track and protect their athletes from factionalism.

The Hankyoreh, 6 April 2006.


[Translations by Seoul Selection]