CORRUPT

WORLD OF
OF
SPORTS
Layout by Eunie Jang
ATCH FIXING DEFEATS PURPOSE OF OLYMPICS
OREAN ATHLETES SUPPORTED BASED ON UNIVERSITY
On the surface, university factions do not seem to be more than
insignifcant rivalries that lead to small skirmishes. However, during the
most recent Olympics when viewers discovered that short-track speed
skater Viktor Ahn, formerly known as Hyun-soo Ahn, was a victim of
university factions, corruption within Korean sports associations came
to light. After Ahn resorted to joining the Russian national team, people
discovered the serious problems resulting from university factions in
Korean sports.
n Korea, there are three distinguished athletic universities,
Yongin University, Kyeonghee University and Korean Athletic Univer-
sity, known for producing a great number of talented athletes. As these
three universities gained prominence, they used their power and con-
nection in sports associations to place certain athletes as representa-
tives of Korea while disregarding the accomplishments of other uni-
versities' athletes. As a result, athletes from other athletic universities
faced discrimination.
As a result of this university rivalry, sports associations often
mistreat athletes. n the 2006 US World Championship, according to
lyo newspaper, Ahn's fellow Korean representatives were against his
school, Korean Athletic University, and therefore attempted to prevent
him from obtaining the gold medal. Moreover, when Ahn declined an
offer from Myung-kyu Jun, current vice-chairman of the Korea Skating
Union (KSU), to attend the postgraduate school in the Korean Athletic
University, Jun secretly disbanded Ahn's Seongnam skating team. After
the KSU neglected Ahn instead of providing him with support after he
broke his knee, Ahn joined Russia's national team and became a Rus-
sian citizen.
"The factions are using the athletes as their tools for fulflling their
greed and selfsh ambitions instead of considering them as respected
and honorable, said Leo Lee (10), nephew of the prosecutor investi-
gating Ahn's case. "n the case of Ahn, it was disappointing to hear that
the Korean speed skating representatives were of the same national-
ity, yet, instead of supporting each other to increase the chances of
obtaining gold medal for their country, they fought with each other. This
defnitely shows the extent to which the Korean speed skaters from
different universities competed with each other rather than with foreign
representatives.
n addition to the detrimental rivalry, these schools also used their
power to prevent other schools' students from winning competitions
or becoming national representatives. For example, Seung-hoon Chu
and Dongshik Yoon were also revealed to be victims of factions. Yongin
University judo representatives frequently won despite the score dif-
ferences during national competitions. According to the Hankyoreah
newspaper, in many Korean sports such as judo, taekwondo and ice
related sports, athletes from the three infuential athletic universities
had higher chances of becoming national representatives than other
universities.
"Athletes changing their nationality is common in other countries,
said van Atanaskovici, Athletics and Activities Coordinator. "f one
country is too good in a certain sport, athletes have a lower chance
of participating in the Olympics, so they change their nationalities to
increase their chances of becoming members of the Olympic team. For
example, there are lots of runners from Kenya running for Sweden and
Denmark. Also, athletes look for economic improvement by changing
their nationality and it's different from why athletes in Korea change
their nationality.
As more news related to university factions was revealed, the
public expressed outrage and requested a change in the Korean sports
system. The sports committee will investigate the Korean elite sports
system, in which biased judgment and manipulation of results begin in
early stages of athletes' training.
"The nature of highly competitive sports is that when there is
money on the line, athletes look for shortcuts and become less ethi-
cal about achieving their goal, said Alex Barton-Lopez, Asian Studies
teacher. "Since winning equals money, whether through sponsors or
endorsement, it eliminates the purpose of competition in sports. To
make sports pure, money should be eliminated and make it more of a
recreational league.
During the 2014 Sochi Olympics, when Yuna Kim, defending
champion, was trumped by 17-year-old Russian fgure skater Adelina
Sotnikova, who took the gold despite a two-foot landing on one of her
jumps, many fgure skating fans questioned whether corruption and
home advantage infuenced the judges' decision in scoring the two
skaters. The controversy developed when the Russian women's fgure
skating judge was caught hugging Sotnikova backstage, suggesting a
fxed match between some of the judges and Russia. However, many
Koreans expressed that they expected this outcome, as match fxing
has often occurred during international sporting events.
" think the judges should have reevaluated some of the routines,
Sydney Ko (12) said. "For example, 'd personally like an explanation
as to why Asada Mao's triple axel was downgraded when it's apparent
from GFs across the nternet that she did complete the rotations and
only had a landing fault. believe this sort of downgrading strategy also
affected other athletes as well, but the most obvious example for me
would be Asada Mao's triple axel in her short program.
However, this was not the frst time that match fxing has played
a role in tilting decisions and scores in a particular team's favor. Along
with many other teams and countries, South Korea was also blamed
for fxing a 1988 Seoul Olympics boxing championship match between
American light middleweights Roy Jones Jr. and Korean Si-Hun Park.
Even though Jones had landed 86 punches to Park's 32, Park won the
gold medal with a score of 3-2. Later on in 1997, it was revealed by the
offcial nternational Olympic Committee (OC) investigation that the
three judges who voted for Park were bribed by South Korean offcials.
This fact left a huge impact on how other countries view Korea.
Money is the main reason that match fxing occurs in the sports
world. Athletes, coaches and referees participate in illegal sports bet-
ting and manipulate the games in order to win money. Recently, howev-
er, athletes themselves have been found to purposely lose matches to
gain better positions to win medals in competitive sporting events. For
example, the most controversial news of the 2012 London Olympics
was the badminton match fxing between players from China, South
Korea and ndonesia, as they intentionally tried to lose in order to face
easier opponents in future matches. All eight players involved were
disqualifed, disgracing their own countries.
" think match fxing eliminates the purpose of having a competi-
tion all together, because it's not about skills and fun anymore but just
about who wins and who loses, Eun Jin Cha (10) said. "Players who
fxed the game are mocking the audience who really want to see the
actual sport and that's why people want to ban match fxingbecause
there is absolutely no point in watching a fake game. f were a fan of a
particular sport and found out that the player who was truly rooting for
had been involved in match fxing, would feel betrayed.
Jacques Rogge, former president of the OC, deemed match
fxing a bigger problem than doping, as doping affects one individual
athlete, but the impact of match-fxing affects the whole competition. Al-
though the OC has been taking preventative measures, broken down
into the three categories of safeguarding the integrity of the Olympic
Games, raising awareness among the Olympic Movement and collabo-
rating with public authorities, they have not been quite effective. Last
year, the OC provided $20 million to fght doping and match fxing.
"f you want to eliminate bias in the judging, people who are not
relevant to the match, should be the judges, said Brent Chesterman,
PE teacher. "For example, for the Sochi Olympics, Russian judges
should not have been judging Russian athletes. seriously do think at
the moment, two independent bodies, the host country and the OC,
are depending on each other, but they should be independent to pre-
vent unfairness.
K
M
by Hareem Kim
by Kelly Kim