Players in Economy, Executives in Business... Association Atrocities Reexamined Following An Se-young's Revelation

Ahn Se-young's Shocking Revelation to Media After Winning Gold Medal
Association's Atrocities Reexamined... "Arbitrary Entry Changes"
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Begins Investigation into Related Circumstances

South Korea's national badminton player An Se-young (22, Samsung Life Insurance) won the gold medal in the women's singles badminton event at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Afterwards, in a post-match interview, she criticized the Badminton Korea Association, prompting the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) to begin investigating the matter. Amid this, the association's misconduct from six years ago is being reexamined.

On the 5th (local time), An Se-young won the women's singles badminton final at the 2024 Paris Olympics held at La Chapelle Arena in Paris, and is posing for a commemorative photo with the gold medal around her neck.
[Photo by Olympic Photo Joint Coverage Team]

On the 6th, various online communities and social networking services (SNS) shared posts compiling articles about the association's past wrongdoings, including interference in team selection and excessive spending on executives' travel expenses. The article, originally reported by SBS in November 2018, stated that ahead of the Jakarta Asian Games, the association's president and executives intervened in the national team selection. The roster was unusually revised three times due to directives from the association's executives to implement a generational change considering the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, resulting in six out of twenty players being replaced. Among them, only two had experience in major tournaments, and in doubles, except for two pairs, four partners were changed.

The forced changes led to the humiliation of earning 'No medal' for the first time at the Asian Games. However, the association shifted the blame for the poor performance onto the coaches and staff, notifying them of their dismissal via text messages.

Additionally, the budget prepared by the Badminton Korea Association for the 2018 World Championships held in China listed six players participating, but eight executives accompanied the team. While coaches and players flew economy class, all executives used business class. At the Australian tournament in May 2017, five executives all flew business class and, judging that winning was unlikely, returned early after the quarterfinals. The amount spent by these executives exceeded 16 million KRW. Contrary to expectations, the players won the gold medal, but none of the executives witnessed the victory firsthand.

After An won the gold medal by defeating China's He Bingjiao 2-0 in the women's singles final at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena in Paris on the 5th, she immediately criticized the association in an interview, which appears to stem from the association's past misconduct. At the time, An said, "My knee injury was more serious than expected. It was not something that could heal easily," adding, "I was very disappointed because the association took it too lightly. I am now thinking it might be difficult to continue with the national team," expressing her intention to retire. She continued, "The association blocks everything for the players," and said, "They neglect us under the name of freedom. I believe Korean badminton could develop further, and it is time to reflect on why only one gold medal was won this time."

Meanwhile, the MCST stated, "Since the Paris Olympics are currently underway, we plan to accurately ascertain the facts once the Olympics conclude and review the necessity of appropriate improvement measures based on the results," adding, "We also plan to comprehensively examine whether other sports need improvements in athlete management."

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