Short Track Skater Shim Seok-hee Appears at National Audit Hearing Amid 'Deliberate Collision' Allegations

'Swearing Controversy' Shim Seok-hee, Separated from Teammates [Image Source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyungsoo Park] During the National Assembly’s audit, questions continued regarding the allegations of intentional collision attempts by short track national team athlete Shim Seok-hee.

On the 12th, at the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee audit targeting four organizations including the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation, the Taekwondo Promotion Foundation, and the Korea Paralympic Committee, Democratic Party lawmaker Jung Cheong-rae questioned Lee Ki-heung, president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, about the Shim Seok-hee controversy.

Lawmaker Jung asked, "Are you aware that private text messages presumed to have been exchanged between Shim Seok-hee and Coach A during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics were made public?"

He pointed to the part where Shim allegedly targeted Choi Min-jung by saying, "We need to make her the female Bradbury," raising suspicions of intentional collision.

Steven Bradbury, an Australian national team member, won the gold medal in the men’s 1000m short track final at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics after the leading skaters fell.

Lee Ki-heung, president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, responded, "Currently, the Sport & Olympic Committee and the Korea Skating Union have formed a task force (TF) to investigate the related matters," and added, "Excluding Shim Seok-hee from the beneficiaries of the performance improvement pension is an issue that requires fact verification through investigation first."

Lawmaker Jung also asked, "Will the award be given to Shim Seok-hee, who was selected as the winner in the sports category of this year’s Korea Sports Awards?" Lee replied, "Nothing has been decided yet," but explained, "It is true that the review for awarding has begun."

The Korea Sports Awards is an event hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and is coordinated in advance with the Sport & Olympic Committee.

Open Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Ui-gyeom and People Power Party lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin questioned the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism about the poor performance and irregular hiring suspicions of the Sports Ethics Center, which was launched to eradicate and monitor sports corruption.

Lee Eun-jung, director of the Sports Ethics Center, answered, "In the early stages of its launch, there was a lack of specialized staff, which made it difficult to efficiently handle tasks and achieve results," and added, "We have hired staff to strengthen expertise and requested a budget from the government to diversify projects."

Questions were also raised regarding the Greek transfer of volleyball national team twin sisters Lee Jae-young and Lee Da-young.

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Seung-won inquired about measures concerning the transfer to Greece of the parties involved in school violence (hakpok) controversies during their school days.

Lee Ki-heung said, "Too much time has passed since the school violence incident, so the Sport & Olympic Committee cannot impose a permanent expulsion penalty," but added, "We will strictly manage to prevent such incidents from happening again and revise the regulations."

Yoo Byung-chae, director of the Sports Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, explained, "In February, a comprehensive measure related to school violence was announced," and added, "A policy is being implemented that requires each team to submit past school violence pledges during the draft process for professional players."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.