Park Tae-hwan postpones meeting with KOC twice

Park Tae-hwan postpones meeting with KOC twice. May. 26, 2016 07:18. by 임보미기자 bom@donga.com. Chances are now higher that swimmer Park Tae-hwan’s bid to participate in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics will end in failure.

Park Tae-hwan postponed on Wednesday a meeting with Cho Young-ho, secretary-general of the Korea Olympic Committee, which he had requested to make an appeal to participate in the Olympics. “Park Tae-hwan’s side requested to put off a meeting originally scheduled at 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, but requested postponement anew in the afternoon,” the committee said. “His aides only informed that they will suggest a specific date later, and we accepted.”

“We discovered a decision to make ahead of the meeting. We requested postponement because we needed time. We don’t have anything to say about the decision to make at this point in time (when the meeting has yet to take place). We will announce it after the meeting," said Park In-mi, chief of marketing at Park’s management agency Team GMP and his elder sister. “It will not take long. The athlete (Park) and his family are discussing. We will seek to reschedule a meeting at the earliest date.”

Since the efforts to reach an agreement with the KOC through dialogue have collapsed for now, attention is focusing on whether Park Tae-hwan will resume process to apply for arbitration with the Court of Arbitration for Sports.

After applying for arbitration with CAS on April 26, Team GMP requested suspension of the process three days later. “The way we prefer the most is to resolve the issue within Korea through a meeting,” Park In-mi said. “For this reason, we have continued waiting despite lack of time (until the Olympics).”

However, the KOC’s decision that Park cannot be included in the national team in line with the rules on the selection of national team members is reportedly solid.

“As of now, there is no change to KOC’s stance (to deprive an athlete of eligibility to become a national team member for three years after the completion of disciplinary action for doping violation),” a KOC source said while only reiterating its stance based on principle. . “Since there was no meeting, we have no policy to add. We plan to consider if it is deemed worthwhile considering, after hearing the athlete’s argument.”

“If we revise the rules on the selection of national team members to benefit Park Tae-hwan, we will have to revise the rules again in the future to benefit the athlete in question when a similar situation happens,” another KOC source said. “Given fairness with other athletes who were disciplined already and other factors, it is impossible to revise the rules to benefit Park Tae-hwan.”

Since the 18-month suspension from the FINA (International Swimming Federation) followed by doping violation last year, Park participated in the 88th Dong-A Swimming Championship, after recovering his eligibility on March 3. Despite the records satisfying the eligibility for the national Olympic team in four different competitions, the Korea Swimming Association’s steering committee excluded Park from the 22 candidates for the national team roster in line with the KOC rules suggesting that an athlete is ineligible for a national team member for three years after the completion of disciplinary period.