After two of South Korea's short-track speedskaters were excluded from the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games due to refereeing decisions made Monday night, the country plans to submit an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Yoon Hong-Geun, president of the Korea Skating Union and the leader of South Korea's athletic delegation, announced on Tuesday that the Korean Sport Olympic Committee (KSOC) will file an appeal with the world's highest international sports tribunal to "publicize the unfairness" that led to the disqualification of Korean skaters Hwang Dae-Heon and Lee June-seo from the men's 1,000-meter semifinals on Monday.
When asked about the disqualification cases, Yoon stated that "we will take every possible measure" to bring them before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in order to prevent a repeat of what happened to the international skating and sporting communities in the past. The emergency press conference was held at the Beijing Olympics Main Media Center.
"The delegation strongly protested at the stadium last night, and letters of protest have also been sent to the chief referee at the race, the International Skating Union, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)," the delegation said, adding that the "referees" are the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who tuned in to watch Monday's sporting event.
It was "planned," according to Choi Yong-Koo, an International Sports Federation (ISU) referee and the head of the country's short track team support staff, to make more than one "wrongful" officiating judgment. He stated that the officiating judgments made last night were "obviously terrible calls," and that the International Sports Federation's rejection of the South Korean appeal was to be expected.
Korea will submit an appeal with the CAS for the first time in 18 years, marking the first time the country has done so. At the 2004 Olympics, Yang Tae-gold young's medal in the all-around competition was denied to her due to a tenth of a point judgment mistake. Yang's appeal, on the other hand, was denied by the CAS, which ruled that the refereeing error was not open to reversal.
"We'll do everything we can to guarantee that our athletes are not treated unfairly," the KSOC stated in a statement posted before Tuesday's news conference. It is our hope that our most recent judgment would serve as a catalyst in preventing the repeat of similarly discriminatory rulings against South Korean competitors competing in international speedskating competitions."
The International Skating Union stated in a statement published on Tuesday that the verdicts were final and could not be appealed.
The South Korean sports delegation has sought a meeting with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach to discuss the matter further.
Even before the Olympics began in Beijing, Korean short-track skaters expressed their dissatisfaction with the referees. After being disqualified from the men's 1,000-meter semifinals of the short-track speedskating event held at Capital Indoor Stadium, short trackers Hwang and Lee had reason to be concerned.
Although Hwang finished first in his semifinal, he was disqualified for an "illegal late passing" and creating the contact. Hwang had previously held the world record in the event. However, Lee was disqualified from the finals for interfering with the skating of a Hungarian skater during a lane change during another semifinal. As a result of the eliminations, Chinese competitors have moved to the final round.
South Korea was not the only country to express concern over the referee's rulings, which included the United States and Canada. After Liu Shaolin Sandor, the race's first-place finisher earned a yellow card for two penalties in the 1,000-meter final, Hungary also lodged an appeal with the International Olympic Committee. In addition, the protest was turned down. Ren Ziwei of China won the gold medal in the final event, followed by Li Wenlong of China, who took the silver medal.
On Monday, controversy arose over a series of disqualifications during the mixed team ski jumping final event, which drew widespread condemnation. Five female jumpers from Japan, Austria, Norway, and Germany were disqualified for failing to wear the proper clothing while competing.
Meanwhile, a handful of international journalists were present for KSOC's news conference in Beijing, which was conducted entirely in Korean and without the use of interpretation services. One foreign reporter left the site after expressing dissatisfaction with the lack of explanation.
