Xinhua news agency, Seoul, January 15th, violence, sexual assault, embezzlement bonus: Why do Korean sports frequently expose scandals
Geng Xuepeng Zhang Di
Korean sports frequently expose scandals in recent times, including sexual assault, beating, bullying and coach’s deduction of team bonus have aroused high attention from Korean society. South Korean President Moon Jae-in recently urged the sports world to make fundamental changes and reflect on the training atmosphere of athletes who are first in performance.
On 9th day of this month, the South Korean short track speed skating star accused Zhao zai fan, the former national team coach, of sexual assault on Shim Suk-hee, which caused quite a stir. Zhao zaifan was sentenced to 10 months in prison in the first instance for allegedly beating a member of the team. During the subsequent trial, Shim Suk-hee accused him of long-term indecent assault and sexual assault.
A few days later, South Korean speed skater Jin Baolin claimed that he was bullied by Lu Shanying, a “elder” teammate in the national team. Jin Baolin was originally accused of isolating Lu Shanying with the team members during the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, and was criticized by the domestic people. However, her latest exposure made the plot instantly reverse.
On last November, the women’s North Gyeongsang province team of the Korean cold water jug Sports Association, who won the silver medal in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, publicly identified it. The head coach Min-Jeong Kim and his father and husband abused the players, squeezed out the players, and stole the bonus. The popularity of the cold water jug team, nicknamed “Golden Team”, soared after winning the silver medal in the Winter Olympics. The rumors that the coaches and players in the team had turned against each other shocked the public.
Besides ice sports, scandals have also been exposed in other sports fields.
In 14th day of this month, Shen Yurong, a former judo player, accused his high school coach of sexual assault for about 20 times in four years. On last September, a coach of the Korean women’s volleyball team was accused of being a female worker in the drunken obscene team during the training of the women’s volleyball world championship. On last March, Li Qingxi, coach of the national team of rhythmic gymnastics, said that he was molested by former senior personnel of the Korean Sports Association from 2011 to 2014.
A material published by South Korean MP Jin Rongzhu on the 11th showed that there were 124 disciplinary cases involving violence, sexual assault, abuse and other acts in South Korean sports in the past five years, there were 16 cases of sexual violence, and the victims of the two cases were minors. The Korea Ice Sports Alliance has the largest number of disciplinary cases involving sexual violence, with a total of 5 cases in five years.
South Korean media and sports industry insiders believe that the root of the problem lies in the fact that a few people, such as Korean sports coaches, have the centralized management of “the right to live and kill” and the relatively closed internal structure of sports. In South Korea, coaches can decide whether players have the chance to participate in the competition. It is difficult for athletes to refuse coaches with absolute power.
South Korean parliament member Yan Cangyuan once said that the sports environment is closed and there is a clear relationship between the superior and the subordinate. If the victim reports the offender, he or she needs to face the risk of losing his career.
In addition, the punishment of sport in South Korea institutions is not thorough enough and they are also criticized. The Korean Sports Association introduced the principle that players and coaches involved in violence should be permanently removed in 2009. The Korean Ministry of Culture and Sports proposed a plan to establish a registration system for coaches involved in violence in 2013, and established a plan for competition fraud, sexual violence, four special committees for disciplinary and team-based misconduct.
However, according to Korean media reports, in the past five years, among the 860 cases in which relevant sports institutions have made disciplinary decisions, 24 cases have been reinstated or reemployed during the disciplinary period, there were 299 cases of reinstatement or reemployment after punishment.
Member Jin Rongzhu said that the violence and sexual assault continued to spread because the people involved were not punished as they deserved. For example, a former coach of the national swimming team was banned for six months due to violence and indecent behavior in 2015. Last year, he re-served as the steering committee of the Korean Swimming League.
The scandals that have been exposed successively have aroused high attention from Korean society, and also prompted Korean authorities to issue measures to further strengthen sports norms. After accusing his coach Zhao zaifan of sexual assault in Shim Suk-hee, South Korea’s Ministry of Culture and Sports published a series of countermeasures aimed at eliminating sexual violence in sports.
These measures include: expanding the scope of relevant penalties and including serious indecent acts in the relevant penalties for sexual violence; Establishing a disciplinary information sharing system among various sports groups, prohibit sexual violence offenders from engaging in sports-related work; Establish coordination mechanisms with international sports organizations such as the International Olympic Committee and Sports institutions of various countries to restrict the offenders from overseas employment; Carry out non-governmental-oriented, it involves a comprehensive survey of national teams and local sports groups at various levels, improving the conditions of athletes’ villages and strengthening preventive measures.
The sports scandal directly shocked the president of South Korea. According to South Korean media reports, South Korean President Moon Yin said at the qingwatai meeting on the 14th that recently, many violent and sexual assault designations in sports have damaged the image of the country, and similar signs have appeared in the past, but because no fundamental change measures have been made, it continues to this day.
He demanded that the atmosphere be fundamentally changed through internal thorough investigation, severe punishment of personnel involved and protection of reporting personnel. He also urged relevant agencies to consider improving the training methods that athletes need to stay away from schools and families for a long time and train in a closed environment.
Wen Zaiyin said that he hoped that the sports community would turn the recent events into an opportunity to fundamentally investigate and change the performance-oriented training methods of athletes, whether it was the improvement of training results or medals in international competitions, neither can be a reason for any bullying or violence.