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| Yoon Hong-geun, head of the South Korean athletic delegation to Beijing 2022, speaks during a press conference held at the Main Media Centre in Beijing, Feb. 8. Yonhap |
The head of the South Korean athletic delegation to Beijing 2022 said Tuesday he has requested a meeting with the world's Olympic chief over "unfair" decisions in short track speed skating races involving South Korean athletes.
At a press conference in Beijing, Yoon Hong-geun said he hopes to sit down with International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach to stress the importance of the spirit of fair play and to help prevent the repetition of unjust officiating.
Yoon was speaking less than 24 hours after two South Korean short trackers, Hwang Dae-heon and Lee June-seo, were disqualified from the men's 1,000m semifinals due to what many aggrieved fans back home believe was biased refereeing.
"In sports, fair play must be guaranteed," Yoon said. "After the end of last night's races, we lodged a strong protest through international short track officials. We also sent letters of complaints to the International Skating Union and the International Olympic Committee."
Hwang and Lee were called for making an illegal pass and lane change in their races, respectively. In addition to stating its case with the ISU and the IOC, South Korea plans to appeal the short track refereeing in Beijing with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the top international sports tribunal.
"We will take appropriate steps to make our appeal in due course," said Yoon, who is also the president of the Korea Skating Union (KSU). "The final decisions may not be overturned, but we believe that our appeal will help address unfair refereeing in future competitions. We will take whatever measures necessary to make sure such injustices will never occur again in international sports."
The ISU promptly rejected South Korea's protest on Hwang's penalty because disqualification following a rule violation cannot be challenged. Yoon said he plans to meet with ISU's leaders later Tuesday to once again protest Monday's refereeing and to demand steps to prevent any recurrence of similar cases.
Yoon sidestepped a question on whether he felt judges were making decisions specifically in favor of Chinese skaters because they are competing on home ice. Hwang was called for making contact with a Chinese skater, while Lee's disqualification allowed a Chinese skater to move on to the final.
"I think it's inappropriate for me to comment specifically on China," Yoon said.
Yoon said he had been asked by sports fans and politicians to pull the entire South Korean team from the Olympics in protest, but he said it wouldn't be the best course of action at this juncture.
"We have a lot of Olympics still left here," Yoon said. "The best we can do now is to do everything we can to help our athletes compete. I'd like to ask for continued support from our fans." (Yonhap)
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