By Kim Rahn
The Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) has told London Olympic medalists to delay their homecoming and participate in an event to commemorate Korean War veterans scheduled for Thursday.
Netizens are up in arms over the KOC’s move, arguing that its action is tantamount to sacrificing the athlete’s personal time for its convenience.
The committee recently sent an official document to affiliated associations and federations of each sport event to delay the homecoming of players who won medals up to and after Aug. 10. Swimmer Park Tae-hwan booked an airplane ticket home Tuesday but decided to delay his trip home under pressure from the KOC.
A KOC staffer said that the medal winners need to stay in London to participate in a ceremony for Korean War veterans.
“The committee members and the medallists will attend the ceremony to be held at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London where a monument for the veterans will be unveiled. After that, the medallists will be allowed to go home,” she said.
But some athletes don’t want to participate in the ceremony because they feel exhausted after months of practice and want to rejoin their families. Several injured players need to return home in order to undergo surgeries.
Some local media earlier reported that the KOC ordered the delay because it wanted as many medallists as possible to attend a large-scale welcoming party to be broadcast live on Aug. 14 when Team Korea officially comes back after the entire game ends.
The KOC official denied this, but failed to confirm whether the worship ceremony on Aug. 9 was originally planned before the team went to London. It doesn’t seem so, because the committee initially told the affiliated associations to make their own decision on when to come back according to their game schedules.
Following the committee’s sudden request, athletes who finished their events had to remain and delay their flight schedules.
In the case of swimming silver medallist Park Tae-hwan, he booked a flight on Tuesday. He said that he is exhausted following months of practices and the games themselves, but the committee insists that he remain.
Regarding whether Park will return home as scheduled, the KOC staffer said, “I don’t think so because as far as I know, all medallists are attending the worship ceremony without exception.”
It was also rumored that some athletes who didn’t win medals wanted to remain until the closing ceremony but the committee refused and sent them home, citing a lack of budget. “I don’t know about this,” the staffer said.
Bloggers are pouring criticism onto the KOC’s website.
An Internet user, surnamed Lee, said, “Do you think those who didn’t win a medal are not entitled to worship war veterans? Is it proper to keep injured athletes from going home and receiving treatment?”
Another blogger criticized committee president, Park Yong-sung, for making the request.
“The players toiled and moiled for four to 12 years for this one time Olympic event. Don’t insult them and judge them according to your own criteria. Whether obtaining a medal or not, they are all Korea’s representatives,” he said.
“Preventing medallists from homecoming and forcing non-medallists to go home, it is not your money, it’s the taxpayer’s. It is you KOC executives who should come home as soon as possible to save taxpayer’s money,” he added.
It is not the first time the KOC has been criticized since the Olympic started.
In judo quarterfinal between Cho Jun-ho and Japanese world champion Masashi Ebinuma, judges decided on a victory for Cho initially but reversed the decision minutes later after the International Judo Federation’s Refereeing Committee intervened. President Park, however, defended the reversal, saying it was according to a rule he made while he chaired the international body.
In fencing, after Shin A-lam lost the epee semifinal to Germany’s Britta Heidemann during a controversial period of extra time, the KOC said the Federation Internationale D’Escrime (FIE) will give her a “special award” without even talking over this issue to Shin. It also asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to grant her a “joint” silver medal ― a proposal the IOC refused.
Shin said that what she needs is neither a special award nor the silver medal, but a formal admission of the error and an apology from the FIE.