Korea Skating Union
The Korea Skating Union is the national governing body for the sports of figure skating, speed skating and short-track speed skating in South Korea, recognised by the International Skating Union and the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee.
History
Ice skating was introduced to Korea at the end of the 19th century. Early competitions were held in the 1920s on the Taedong River and Han River. The Joseon Skating Union was established under the leadership of Choi Do-yong on November 24, 1945. In April 1946, it was divided into separate organisations for figure skating and speed skating, before merging again in 1947. It joined the International Skating Union the same year. In September 1948, it was renamed the Korea Skating Union, in line with changing naming practices at the time.In 2014, the South Korean government launched an audit into the Korea Skating Union over allegations of corruption and factionalism. Vice president Jun Myung-kyu resigned due to accusations of preferential treatment and encouraging factional conflict. The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee abolished the union's executive committee in 2016 in an effort to avoid factional feuds. In 2018, the Korea Skating Union was again audited by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism following a series of corruption scandals, resulting in the dismissal of its executives. Jun Myung-kyu resigned yet again, having been reinstated in 2017, after it was found that he had maintained "undue influence" at the union through the operation of an unofficial executive board, in violation of KSOC's 2016 order. The audit found further evidence of wrongdoings, including inappropriate hiring practices and selection of national team athletes, and suspicious processes in choosing sponsors. It was designated as an organisation needing "special care" and came under the management of KSOC. It returned to self-government in November 2020.
Presidents
Controversies
Factional strife and abuse
Since 1992 to 2022, South Korea won a total of 79 Winter Olympic medals. Out of these, 75 were obtained in ice skating events managed by the Korea Skating Union. The Short track speed skating event alone accounted for a total of 53 medals, with 26 being golds.However, the Korea Skating Union and short track speed skating have been a stage of controversies since the 1990s. In 1994, Chang Myung-hee, the union president at the time, was accused from athletes and skating professionals for the alleged financial bribery and corruption involving coaches and high-ranking officials of the union. And all these controversies and allegations of assault never ceased. Since then saw officials and national team coaches being investigated by the police for match-fixing, bribery, embezzlement, breach of trust, assault, and sexual assault.
The elite sports system in Korea was characterized by a hierarchical power structure between coaches and athletes, and amongst athlete ranks, surpassing the traditional teacher-student relationship. Athletes who defied, confronted or disobeyed the coaches instructions faced retaliation. Moreover, Incidents of physical and sexual assault were covered up, ignored, and silenced. In January 2019, when the Korea skating union was all over the news by a sexual assault scandal, some athletes who testified to the South Korean media stated that, "Even with guaranteed anonymity, the risk is too high." and "Even a famous athlete like Ahn Hyun-soo had his whole career change after speaking out. The moment I speak up, my career as an athlete could be over."
Within this situation, athletes were divided among coaches, universities, and semi-professional teams, leading to competition and eventually forming factions within the union.
Victims of assaults even included renowned Olympic medalists and world champions. In 2005, Ahn Hyun-soo and Sung Si-bak were assaulted by senior athletes during an international competition. Moreover, two vice-presidents of the Korea Skating Union were investigated for receiving money from the parents of the athlete who was excluded from the national team due to assault. According to statements from six female athletes in November 2004, including Choi Eun-kyung, Yeo Soo-yeon, Byun Chun-sa, Heo Hee-bin, Kang Yun-mi, and Jin Sun-yu, they experienced severe physical abuse, with hair being pulled out and being beaten with hockey sticks by coaches. But these incidents were soon forgotten. The perpetrators of assault were appointed again as national team coaches in subsequent Olympics. The 2004 assault case involving the women's team remained under the surface for a decade until it was brought back to attention in 2014, in connection with Viktor Ahn's naturalization. It caught more attention in 2018 following the assault case by Shim Suk-hee and an interview with Byun Chun-sa, who first reported the assault, on JTBC Newsroom.
In December 2018, Byun Chun-sa testified about the situation at the time, stating the following.
"It was even worse than what was reported in the media at the time, in reality. The coaches told us that, 'If you say anything about being assaulted, we will ruin you to the very end, no matter where you go' But we exposed the truth because we felt like we might actually die. After that, my life as an athlete was extremely difficult. Even after retiring, working in the same sports industry was challenging. Even 14 years later, the memories are still vivid. We are all living with a lot of phsycological pain."
KNSU and non-KNSU
The internal conflicts of Korean short track skating were publicly exposed in 2006. Right until before the Olympics, Ahn Hyun-soo trained with the women's team, while Jin Sun-yu and Byun Chun-sa trained with the men's team.Ahn Hyun-soo, who was from Korea National Sport University, exposed the aiding and abetting assault by the national team coach in 2005 and, after conflicts with the Skating Union, he ended up training with the women's team. Jin Sun-yu, who was not from Korea National Sport University, had her race interfered with on the instructions from the coach. The coach of the national team had ordered her teammates to sabotage Jin Sun-yu’s race and prevent her from winning because she had gone against the coach’s directives. This incident was exposed through Byun Chun-sa’s testimony. The men's national team’s athletes and coaching staff were not from Korea National Sport University, while the women's national team’s athletes and coaches were from Korea National Sport University. There were two distinct teams within one national representative team: one from Korea National Sport University and the other not.
At Incheon International Airport, Ahn Hyun-soo's father assaulted the vice-president of the Korea Skating Union, after the World Championships. He claimed that coaches and athletes conspired to prevent Ahn Hyun-soo from winning the overall championship. The airport incident and the collision between athletes during the 3000m race at the World Championships were broadcast live in news footage. This led to the Korea Skating Union's Investigation Committee decidung on disciplinary actions for the athletes, but after video reviews and athletes' testimonies, it was concluded that there was no malice in the collisions involving Ahn Hyun-soo, Lee Ho-suk, and Oh Se-jong. However, the media and the Investigation Committee pointed out that the deepening factional issues were due to the leaders trying to showcase their power in the selection process of national athletes and team leaders.
After the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the Korean short track was embroiled in scandals such as match-fixing and internal factions. Deals for rights of Olympic and World Championship participation took place among athletes and coaches of the same faction. However, this soon caused divisions between the athletes leading to subsequent exposures. The word of these incidents spread among the athletes’ parents and was exposed by Ahn Hyun-soo's father. Ahn Hyun-Soo's father has decided to reveal the match-fixing of the national team trial for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver due to the following reasons.
A family of Lee Jung-Su noticed that Lee lost his opportunity to participate individual event for the World Championship. The family of Lee has informed this event to theother parents of the athletes, and they have decided to report the Korea Skating Union to Korean Sports Council Investigation Committee for thorough investigation. They started a petition for the investigation and more than 200 people agreed to join the petition, yet more than 300 people’s engagement was needed in order to file the case to the committee. In this sense, they requested the father of Ahn who is influential to the public to post this scandal on his son’ s Fan Club Page and finally this scandal has been completely revealed to Korean society and the public. This shook the Korean society and sports community. Lee Jung-su revealed that he had not injured his ankle, but the coaches went on to force him to write a statement claiming he could not participate due to his injury. After the Vancouver Olympics, a blame game ensued between the participating athletes and coaches. Although the disciplinary actions for Lee Jung-su and Kwak Yoon-gy were reduced from three years to six months, all coaches, including Kim Ki-hoon and Chun Jae-mok, faced penalties. However, Lee Jung-su who received a penalty, protested that the coercion had turned into collusion.
Ahn Ki-won, Ahn Hyun-soo's father, pointed out the Korea Skating Union's leadership, including the then-resigned vice president Yoo Tae-wook and Jun Myung-kyu, for exerting undue pressure on coaches and athletes.
The aftermath of the 2010 match-fixing incident revolved around Ahn Hyun-soo regardless of his intentions, consequently leading to his naturalization. The scheduled national team selection was moved to accommodate Ahn Hyun-soo's military training, and the selection method changed, leading to controversy. In 2010, the Korean media JoongAng Ilbo and The Chosun Ilbo reported that the Vancouver Olympic qualifier were held when Ahn Hyun-soo, who had won three gold medals at the Torino Olympics, and Jin Sun-yu, were injured, aiming to exclude them. Another South Korean media, MBN reported that Ahn Hyun-soo was excluded from the Olympic qualifiers for not following the faction leader's orders.
In 2010, the Seongnam City Hall Skating Team, which was Ahn Hyun-soo's semi-pro team, was disbanded, and no team wanted him. Together with these controversies, Ahn Hyun-soo changed his nationality to Russia in 2011. After that in the 2014 Winter Olympics, he won three gold medals and one bronze medal, just like in 2006. The South Korean men's team failed to win Olympic medals, and the Korean media and public criticized the Korea Skating Union. Especially, Jun Myung-kyu, the vice president of the Korea Skating Union, who was known to have issues with Ahn Hyun-soo after he graduated from the Korea National Sport University and chose a semi-pro team, became the target of criticism. In March 2014, the day Viktor Ahn won his sixth World Championship overall title, Jun Myung-kyu resigned from his vice-presidential position.