With everything going on in the world, a badminton scandal is currently the top news story in South Korea:
Responding to critical comments by a badminton gold medalist toward her national team, South Korean Olympic chief Lee Kee-heung said Tuesday he had ordered five coaches to submit reports on the situation.
The action by Lee, president of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC), was in reference to criticism that An Se-young, the women’s singles champion at the Paris Olympics, leveled against the national badminton team moments after she won her gold medal Monday.
An, who had suffered a torn knee ligament in October 2023 while playing in the gold medal match of the Asian Games, claimed that her national team staff didn’t take her injury as seriously as they should have. She also said she found it “difficult” to continue on with the national team, though she later clarified she wasn’t about to retire from international play, and she was only demanding some action from the Badminton Korea Association.
With An and the rest of the badminton team heading back home Tuesday evening, Lee said he didn’t have enough time to look deeper into the situation.
Speaking to reporters at South Korea’s training camp in Fontainebleau, south of Paris, Lee said, “I ordered five coaches to submit reports on how An’s injury had been handled in the months between the Asian Games and the Paris Olympics.”
On top of injury management, An accused the national team of building training programs around doubles players instead of singles players like herself, and of sticking to archaic and inefficient regimens.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but this story makes me wonder if anyone would have cared about her complaints if she didn’t win a gold medal?
