KOC reconfirm‎s a ban on Park Tae-hwan’s joining Rio Olympics

The Korean Olympic Committee has reconfirmed on Thursday that it would not allow Park Tae-hwan to participate in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

The committee held a board of directors’ meeting and decided not to revise Article 5.6 of its rule on the selection of athletes for the Olympics, which stipulates that the athlete disciplined for taking a banned medication cannot participate in Olympics for three years from the completion of the discipline.

About the controversy that another disciplinary action on the 26-year-old Olympic medalist who was already disciplined by FINA, an international swimming federation, in Korea would be a “double punishments,” the committee said. “Doping is in conflict with the spirit of fair play, a basic value of athletes, and we found that maintaining the strict discipline is necessary for educational purposes for younger athletes.”

After hearing the decision, Park said he would apply for the resumption of the arbitrary proceedings at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) immediately. Park applied for an arbitration proceeding on a dispute related to the selection of athletes for Olympics to the CAS on April 26, but requested the suspension of the proceeding until the delivery of the final decision by the committee. “A ruling by an international arbitration court has basically the same effect as the Korean court’s definitive decision,” said Yim Seong-woo, a lawyer at Lee & Ko, a Korean law firm that represents Park. The former Olympic swimming champion expects the ruling by the CAS will be released before the deadline on the selection of the final entries for the Olympics on July 18.

The committee might not comply with the CAS ruling, should the arbitration court rule that the committee’s rule on the athlete selection process is not valid. To prepare for such case, Park said he considers an option of filing for a petition for provisional injunction with the Korean court in order to suspend the effectiveness of the committee rule.

In response, the committee said, “We will report our decision at the board of directors to the CAS immediately. Once the arbitration proceeding resumes, we will actively respond to it.” Jang Dal-young, a lawyer specialized in sports disputes, said, “In order to apply a foreign court’s ruling in Korea, the Korean court should give a ruling on execution. In this regard, I cannot assert that the ruling by an international arbitrary organization can be applied 100 percent to Korea.”

유재영기자 elegant@donga.com