Park Beom-gye "An Hyun-soo Entry Ban? Understand Public Sentiment but Must Review Thoroughly"

On the 5th, at the Beijing Capital Indoor Stadium, during the medal ceremony held after the mixed-gender relay final of short track speed skating at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, Viktor An (Korean name Ahn Hyun-soo), the technical coach of the Chinese team, is talking with officials. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Park Beom-gye, Minister of Justice, said regarding public opinion calling for the entry ban of Viktor An (Korean name Ahn Hyun-soo), former technical coach of the Chinese short track speed skating team, "I fully understand the public's legal sentiment," but added, "I am not sure if there is any legal violation that justifies an entry ban. We need to look into it."

Minister Park made these remarks on the 21st during a meeting with reporters. Recently, there has been a wave of negative reactions among the public demanding "Viktor An's entry should be banned." Viktor An served as the technical coach for the Chinese short track team at the recently concluded Beijing Winter Olympics on the 20th. He embraced and cheered the Chinese athletes when they won medals, which angered the public who saw this on TV broadcasts. The anger was intensified because Chinese athletes won medals by surpassing Korean representatives who were disqualified due to home advantage and biased judging.

According to local Chinese media, Viktor An's contract with the Chinese association expired after the Olympics, and he is expected to return to Korea. His family lives in Korea. Viktor An is reportedly planning to take a break with his family without deciding his next steps for the time being.

Viktor An established himself as a Korean short track star by winning three gold medals (1000m, 1500m, 5000m relay) and one bronze medal (500m) at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics while wearing the Taegeuk mark. At that time, his Korean name was Ahn Hyun-soo. However, as it became difficult to continue his athletic career domestically due to his team, Seongnam City Hall, disbanding its skating team, he naturalized as a Russian citizen in June 2011 and changed his name to Viktor An. He then demonstrated his enduring skills by winning three gold medals (500m, 1000m, 5000m relay) and one bronze medal (1500m) at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. After retiring from active competition in April 2020 due to a knee injury, he became a coach for the Chinese national team and worked until the recent Beijing Winter Olympics.

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