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S. Korea to audit skate federation after Korean-turned-Russian Ahn's gold medal

(Xinhua)    19:25, February 17, 2014
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SEOUL, Feb. 17 -- South Korea will audit the country' s skate governing body after the ongoing Winter Olympics end as part of efforts to investigate whether factional feuds in the skating circle drove Viktor Ahn, the Korean-turned-Russian short track gold medalist, to switch his nationality, multiple local media reported Monday.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in charge of sports affairs will review the overall system of the skating circle, including corruption, factional feuds and selecting process of national team skaters and coaches, after the Sochi Winter Olympic Games end.

The reports came after Russia's Viktor Ahn, born in South Korea as Ahn Hyun-soo, won the men's 1,000m short track title in Sochi last Saturday. Ahn reportedly switched his nationality to Russia in 2011 amid conflicts with the Korea Skating Union (KSU) over unfair selection process of national team skaters.

Ahn won short track gold in 1,000m and bronze in 1,500m in a stark contrast to South Korea's male short track skaters winning no medal, stoking fury among South Korean netizens who rushed to log into and collapsed the KSU's homepage to criticize its corruption and its ouster of Ahn.

On Feb. 13, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said in the sports ministry's annual report to her that it needs to review whether the Ahn issue might have been linked to structural problems and corruption in the sports circle, including factionalism.

(Editor:KongDefang、Huang Jin)

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