South Korea short track star reportedly bids to skate for China at Beijing Olympics

[soryang]

South Korea short track star reportedly bids to skate for China at Beijing Olympics
NBC Olympic talk March 6, 2021

Lim Hyo-Jun, the world’s top short track speed skater when he was banned one year for allegedly pantsing a male teammate in front of female skaters in 2019, has been in the process of changing his nationality to China to compete in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, according to media in his native South Korea.

Lim, who earned South Korea’s first gold medal of the PyeongChang Olympics in the 1500m, completed a Chinese naturalization process and left for that country to train with the Chinese program, according to South Korean media citing Lim’s agency.

The news of the 24-year-old Lim’s one-year suspension came in August 2019, but the case has reached a supreme court in South Korea. If Lim is not cleared, it’s possible his suspension could restart and rule him out of next year’s Olympics, should he remain a South Korean, according to reports.

https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2021/03/06/lim-hyo-jun-short-track-china-south-korea/

According to the NBC article it looks a the coach of the chinese short track team is six time Olympic gold medalist, Viktor Ahn, who is a South Korean expatriot who competed for the Russian team in the past.

According to Yonhap News:

Lim's head coach at PyeongChang, Kim Sun-tae, is now coaching the Chinese national team. Ahn Hyun-soo, a South Korean-born Olympic champion who acquired a Russian passport before the 2014 Sochi Olympics, is Kim's assistant.

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20210306004151315

[HUAJIAO]

1. Bad news.

I'm something of a South Korean short track fan. The women have been the ones to beat for some time...Choi, Min Jeong, Shim Suk Hee (hope she is back on the team), Kim Alang, Lee Yubin, et al are fantastic to watch..

[soryang]

2. the OP says that he could have finished his suspension...

..but for the legal maneuvering to reverse his sanctions which only had partial success at the appellate level. It could still change but doesn't seem likely he will change course if his former coach works for the Chinese team. It is too bad.

My favorite South Korean winter sports athlete was Kim Yuna who won the gold in figure skating in the 2010 winter olympics. Was fortunate enough to attend some preliminary and elimination events at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, which i will never forget, i hope. The Olympics can be so wonderful and spectacular, but the political overlay is always there.

[HUAJIAO]

3. Ah yes, "Queen Yuna." Maybe the best that ever was...

She also 'won' gold the next year but politics got in the way, no doubt...

I loved watching her skate......


My other all time favorite was Oksana Baiul..

A couple years after her olympics when she was on 'the tour.' I was eating in a Thai restaurant in Syracuse NY. She came in with a few others on the tour. (I guess they were performing in town. )I think one of them was Viktor Petrenko. It was all I could do not to stop at her table and say something....

[soryang]

4. Wow!

great anecdote, thanks.

[brush]

5. He was suspended for de-pantsing a teammate?

WTH? Was it a practical joke? Seems a little bit of an overreaction by officials to suspend him to the extent he may miss the Olympics.

[HUAJIAO]

6. I agree. ON the other hand looks like his coach will coach the Chinese team.. WTH?

The Chinese are GOOD !!!
But ..............

[brush]

7. Ahhh...so his coach is behind his move to the Chinese team.

Seems South Korea would move to keep him.

[HUAJIAO]

8. Sure looks like a possibility. The Chinese also roped in Viktor Ahn as the assistant. LOL

[brush]

9. The Chinese team isn't playing around. South Korea should move...

to keep their people and not let them get away with it.

The Olympics and politics...it's always so. Too bad we can't separate them.

[HUAJIAO]

10. Kim is a really good coach, from what I can tell.

And based on just one 'once removed' friend in Seoul (who knows the mother of one of the Olympic women skaters), the skaters really like him, quite the opposite of the last coach who abused Shim Suk-Hee for years.

[brush]

11. Oh, that's bad. Sexual abuse? What is with these coaches...

in women team sports? And it's here too, at Michigan for example.

[HUAJIAO]

12. Yes, and physical and psychological.. Really sad. She finally had the courage

to tell about it..all over the national news a several years back. That coach, I forget his name, is toast. Went to jail I believe also.

I hope she makes a successful 'comeback'. She, the 'Green Girin,' is a really powerful skater, long legs, long stride. She and Choi Min-Joeng, the little rocket, together are just about unbeatable.

Did you ever see video of one of the 2018 Olympics 3000 meter heats where, I think it was Lee Yubin, went down with 24 laps left, Min-Joeng swept around her for the tag (barely.) The woman were half a lap behind by then but not only went on to win but Suk-Hee was pulling away in the last 2 laps and they won by almost a quarter lap. PLUS set either a world or Olympic record!!! Definitely one for the ages.!!

. D

[brush]

13. Wow! What an exciting sport. I love to watch it.

I also love how the skaters can push the next skater on the team forward.

Thanks for posting.

[HUAJIAO]

14. You're welcome. I love short track It is super fast. You can't see it in the

videos unless the angle is just right.. but they are doing something like 45 k/h when the chips are down!!

I watch that race from time to time.... just to start screaming and cheering along with the crowd.