Short track skating has long been a golden goose ― literally ― for Korean winter sports, as the nation used to sweep almost all of the global competitions.
Perhaps such overwhelming dominance in this particular sport ― in which people say joining the national squad is even harder than winning medals in world championships ― might be behind the latest scandal that exposed the ugly ``divvy-up" of medals among rivaling factions through framing results.
According to recently-ended investigations into the Korean Skating Union, Vancouver Olympic two-time gold medalist Lee Jung-su and Kim Seoung-il were not allowed to compete in the World Championships on the order of a national team coach, who fielded another skater from among his own disciples instead.
More surprisingly, a majority of the five winners in the domestic tryouts last April for the national squad for the 2010 Winter Games, had already been determined even before the event actually took pace.
All this was but the confirmation of the time-old rumors, or open secrets among the short track skating circles, that the choosing of national teams and even performances at international competitions were done in large part according to premeditated scenarios.
This is not just a glaring deception for fans and innocent athletes but a shameful defamation of sportsmanship itself, although it might have done little harm to competing foreigners. And it turned a collision between two Korean athletes and their subsequent elimination from the second and third spots in men's 1,500-m race in Vancouver from a genuine contest between individuals transcending nationality to excessive adherence to victory out of factional rivalry.
This fabrication of results and undue internal strife is a long-standing chronic disease. The firing of a problematic coach or two by the KSU will be like a lizard saving its life by losing its tail. Nothing less than an overhaul of the athletic organization is needed to set things right and ensure fair competition for both athletes and fans.
Some experts cite structural problems in the nation's amateur athletic circles as a whole, marked by elite sports and state supports concentrating on a handful of excellent performers, which result in factions led by famous coaches and other influential figures, athletically or politically.
The only silver lining in this scandal cloud is that the Korea Olympic Council has set about to correct these practices. The KOC plans to resume probes into the skating scandal after another elimination round to form a new national squad. We do not find much meaning in the scheduled event under these circumstances. Far more urgent is thorough probes and a shakeup of the entire KSU.