South Korean badminton player wins landmark Olympic gold — then takes shot at country’s governing body

South Korea’s badminton gold medalist An Se-young envisioned a glorious return from Paris, popping open a bottle of champagne with the coveted medal around her neck.

But that wasn’t the scene at South Korea’s Incheon Airport last Wednesday, when reporters surrounded the Olympian, peppering her with questions about her criticism of the Korean Badminton Association and the national team — which have prompted the country’s governing body to open an investigation.

“I wanted to win in the Olympics, and one of the reasons why I persistently worked hard is because I wanted my voice to have power,” the 22-year-old gold medalist told a South Korean broadcaster in Paris.

An defeated China’s He Bingjiao 2-0 in the women’s singles final at the La Chapelle Arena Court on August 5, winning South Korea’s first Olympic gold in the event in 28 years.

The country was busy celebrating her triumph, until the athlete began calling out alleged mistreatment that she said she had endured for seven years, when she joined the national team.

An said the problems came to a head in May, when she wrote on Instagram that a hospital she had visited with a national team trainer initially said that two to six weeks of rehabilitation would be enough for her to return to training.

At the medalists’ press conference in Paris following her win, An claimed this was a “misdiagnosis” and said she had to “bear [the pain] and continue playing” because the Olympics were getting close.

“My injury was at a difficult situation, worse than what I had thought,” she said of her right patellar tendon that partially ruptured during the Hangzhou Asian Games last October.

“I was so disappointed,” An said of the national team, accusing it of poorly managing her injuries.

The Korean Badminton Association refuted her claims in a 10-page statement on Wednesday, claiming that An had gone through five weeks of rehabilitation training with her own team, Samsung Life Sports, “at her request” and participated in the Kumamoto Masters Japan and Li-ning China Masters in November at “her own strong will.”

“Out of the 12 badminton athletes participating in the Olympics, An Se-young was provided a dedicated trainer since February this year to help manage and recover [from] her injury,” the association said, adding that it had flown an Eastern medicine doctor from Seoul to Paris after she suffered an ankle tendon injury shortly following her arrival at the Games.

It also included what it said was a text message from head coach Kim Hak-kyun to An last November advising her to “focus on rehab” and that she did not need to “push too hard” to participate in the Masters.

While underscoring that it had done its best for the athlete, the association said it will “thoroughly check” hospital records to verify where An had been misdiagnosed and make sure that “such incident doesn’t occur again.”

Alleged double standards

An, who competes in women’s singles, also alleged that the national team had been prioritizing doubles players when it came to medical treatment and training “because doubles have always had good [match] results,” she told Yonhap News Agency last week.

South Korea’s badminton team won An’s gold medal in women’s singles and a silver in mixed doubles in Paris.

“Singles and doubles are clearly different, and I think [the athletes] should be trained under a different system. First of all, head coaches and coaches [for singles and doubles] need to be divided and training methods should be systematically divided,” An told Yonhap.

In Paris, the country had four badminton coaches in addition to head coach Kim who supervised all of Korea’s badminton matches — men’s and women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles.

In response to An’s criticism, the association said it would “thoroughly look into the training methods and exercise programs” of the national team “to verify the truth or falsehoods” of her comments.

Additionally, the coaches said they had “put in a great effort to maintain the best performances of each of the 12 players,” according to a separate statement attached to the association’s press release.

Investigations announced

An’s complaints have shocked the nation, even prompting the Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry to launch an investigation into the badminton association as well as other sports following the conclusion of the Games. The Korea Sport and Olympic Committee is also looking into her claims.

South Korea has seen numerous cases of athletes alleging mistreatment by teammates, coaching staff or athletic associations.

In 2018, short track speed skater and two-time Olympic gold medalist Shim Suk-hee spoke out about allegedly being repeatedly raped by her former coach; a 22-year-old triathlete died by suicide in 2020 after accusing her coach and teammates of abuse; and a pair of star volleyball twins were dropped from the national team and their club sides amid a bullying scandal.

Each time, the government and sport governing bodies have investigated and vowed to prevent other incidents.

Fans have expressed their full support for the young Olympian on social media. “Cheer up An Se-young,” one Instagram user wrote, drawing more than 6,000 likes.

“I think I’ve endured a lot over the past seven years, suppressing [what’s happened] for this goal. I couldn’t have reached this goal by myself, but there were a lot of disappointing things,” An told South Korean media last week.

“I think our badminton can really make a lot of progress, but I think it’s time to look back on why we have only one gold medal,” she said.

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