The national Olympic body said Friday it will decide on the Summer Games status of banned swimmer Park Tae-hwan after the top sports tribunal hands down its ruling later in the day.
At a board of directors meeting, the Korean Olympic Committee said it will wait until the Court of Arbitration for Sport rules on Park's earlier appeal before determining the swimmer's fate for the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games.
Park, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist in the 400m freestyle, has filed an appeal at the CAS over a KOC ban for the Rio Games.
A KOC rule bars athletes from competing for the country for three years after the end of a doping suspension. And Park, whose 18-month international doping ban ended in March this year, was kept off the provisional national team roster on May 11.
The deadline to submit the final swimming roster to FINA, the international swimming governing body in Lausanne, Switzerland, is Friday, local time.
The CAS, when announcing Park's appeal on June 29, said Park had requested "an urgent ruling" by Friday. It had been expected to make its ruling by Thursday night in Seoul, but informed Park's legal representatives that its ruling would be made sometime Friday, local time. No specific reasons for the delay were known.
A Seoul court already ruled last Friday that Park is eligible for the national team and that the KOC has no grounds to keep him from representing the country. The decision led many to believe the CAS is also likely to rule in favor of Park.
Park's legal team has pressured the KOC to follow the court decision and name the swimmer to the national team immediately. The KOC has countered that it would take further steps as necessary only after the CAS announces its decision.
The KOC has been under pressure to modify its rule and allow Park, one of the most iconic athletes in the country, to compete in his fourth Olympics. It has also been criticized for unfairly punishing Park twice for the same offense.
In 2011, the CAS ruled against the International Olympic Committee's "Osaka Rule," which barred athletes with a doping suspension of at least six months from competing in the following Olympics. The CAS said the Osaka Rule, adopted in 2008, was "a violation of the IOC's own statute and is therefore invalid and unenforceable." (Yonhap)
