[PyeongChang 2018] S. Korean alpine skiing team controversy spills into court

Published : Jan 28, 2018 - 14:02 Updated : Jan 28, 2018 - 14:02

The controversy surrounding the South Korean Olympic alpine skiing team selection will spill into court, a source revealed Sunday.

The source, who is close to alpine skier Kyung Sung-hyun, said the athlete will file a court injunction against the Korea Ski Association on Monday to suspend its national team selection committee.

The KSA announced a list of four alpine skiers -- two men and two women -- for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Wednesday.

The KSA had picked nine skiers for a training camp, hoping they would all get to compete in the Olympics, but Kyung was one of five cut from the team at the last minute.

(Yonhap)

The KSA has come under fire for its selection process and for informing its skiers of their exclusion so close to the Feb. 9-25 Olympics.

"During the technical committee meeting, its director, Nam Won-gi, wasn't even present," the source said. "There were problems with how the rest of the committee picked the Olympic skiers."

The International Ski Federation finalized its quota allocations Monday and awarded South Korea four quota spots, two for each gender. Critics of the KSA have claimed the national federation didn't have a proper understanding of the qualification rules and gave false hope to its athletes when some of them couldn't have qualified for the Olympics.

On the men's side, the KSA selected Jung Dong-hyun, who specializes in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom, and Kim Dong-woo, who competes in the speed events of downhill and super-G.

The KSA explained that it wanted one representative each from technical and speed disciplines for men. But Kyung is the top-ranked South Korean in giant slalom and is a much more accomplished skier in technical events than Kim has been in speed events.

Technical races will take place at Yongpyong Alpine Centre, while all speed races will be at the newly-built Jeongseon Alpine Centre. Sources in the skiing community have said the KSA was apparently under pressure to have at least one skier in a speed event at Jeongseon because having a homegrown skier would help create a positive Olympic legacy for the new venue and justify constructing the slope on a historic mountain against protests from environmental activists.

But the KSA applied a different rule to its women's team selection, as both of the female skiers, Gim So-hui and Kang Young-seo, compete in technical events. That left the lone speed specialist among the women, Kim Seo-hyun, off the Olympic squad.

Kyung's exclusion caused a stir in particular because he was the only alpine skier present at the Team Korea launch ceremony in Seoul on Wednesday. Kyung attended the event fully decked out in the official national team gear and even posted a selfie from the ceremony on his social media pages.

Kyung found out hours later that he wasn't going to PyeongChang.

The 27-year-old took to Facebook to air out his frustration Saturday, pointing out that he is far ahead in the world rankings in his top discipline than Kim is in his main event and saying, "I've never even lost to (Kim) in my career. And I don't even think he's better than I am in speed events."

Kyung is 181st in giant slalom on the FIS Olympic points rankings, while Kim is 412nd in downhill on the same list.

Kyung said he wasn't taking shots at Kim but only letting people know how inadequate the KSA is as an organization.

"I wouldn't blame anyone else if this were all my fault," Kyung continued. Addressing the KSA, he wrote, "You have never even told me a word about the whole situation, and this is wrong on so many levels. This selection process is absolutely ludicrous. No matter what, sports should be about merit." (Yonhap)