Through surveys and social media this week, South Koreans have been showing their support for beleaguered swimmer Park Tae-hwan, who is hoping to get his Olympic ban lifted.
A survey by local pollster Realmeter showed Tuesday that 70.9 percent of South Koreans would like to see Park race at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro in August.
Park, who recently served an 18-month doping suspension, remains ineligible to make the national team under a controversial rule by the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC).
The national Olympic body says athletes who have been suspended for doping cannot represent the country for three years, starting on the day their ban ends. Park's suspension began retroactively in September 2014 and ended in March this year.
Public sentiment has been in favor of Park since he returned to competition last week. He won all four of his races at the 88th Dong-A Swimming Competition, which doubled as the second round of the national team trials, and posted the world's fourth fastest-time this season in the 400m freestyle, his main event.
After the competition, Park got down on his knees in a press conference and pleaded for reinstatement, saying he would like an opportunity to serve the country again.
The 26-year-old won the 2008 Olympic gold in the 400m freestyle and added a silver in the 200m free at the same competition. He then won silver in both the 200m and 400m free at the 2012 Olympics. He's the only South Korean to have won an Olympic swimming medal.
The KOC has maintained that rules are rules and it will not make exceptions for any particular athlete. It has been criticized for unfairly punishing the athlete twice for the same offense, and the rule has drawn comparisons with the now-annulled "Osaka Rule."
Adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2008, the Osaka Rule barred athletes who had served a doping-related suspension for at least half a year from competing at the following Olympic Games.
In 2011, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the world's highest sports tribunal, determined that the Osaka Rule was "a violation of the IOC's own Statute and is therefore invalid and unenforceable."
In an earlier interview with Yonhap News Agency, Richard Pound, former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency and a long-time IOC member, also voiced his opposition to the KOC's position.
Pound said the KOC is violating the World Anti-Doping Code by sticking to its stringent national team rule, and since South Korea is the host of the next Winter Olympics in 2018, not complying with international standards would have political ramifications.
At home, Doosan Infracore Chairman Park Yong-mann has been among the vocal supporters for the swimmer. On his Facebook page Tuesday, the corporate executive called out the KOC for being unfair.
"Since when did we start applying rules that were stronger than international regulations? If we'd been doing it all along, our society would be an advanced one by now," Park Yong-mann wrote. "If he can't compete in the Olympics, his (Olympic) career would be over. Would you really want to kill off the potential of the young athlete?"
Park has shied away from discussing potential legal action against the KOC, but Pound opined that taking the issue to the CAS may be Park's only recourse. Pound noted that there is "an implied agreement to deal through the CAS all sports-related disputes." (Yonhap)
