IOC Crisis for South Korean Membership-Updated

(ATR) South Korea may be host of the 2018 Winter Olympics but without representation on the IOC, perhaps a first for the modern Games.

While two South Koreans currently hold seats on the IOC, athletes commission member Dae Sung Moon steps down in August with the end of his eight year term.

The senior IOC member in South Korea, Kun Hee Lee, remains in a coma after suffering a stroke more than a year ago. Now 74, Lee is chairman of worldwide Olympic sponsor Samsung, a situation that makes the question of his IOC tenure a delicate one. He was not able to attend the IOC session in Sochi and his illness prevented him from taking part in the 2015 session in Kuala Lumpur. Unless a miracle recovery takes place, Lee is expected to be absent from the next session in August in Rio de Janeiro.

Missing two sessions in a row is enough to allow the IOC to vacate a member’s seat, but the IOC has never shown any inclination to take that step involving a member incapacitated due to health issues.

The abolition in 2000 of the IOC rule granting two regular IOC seats to countries which have hosted the Games means other paths to the IOC for Koreans need to be followed as long as Lee holds his seat. Two prominent sports figures in the country could fit the bill, but the IOC has shown little inclination to act.

World Taekwando Federation president Chungwon Choue has been in the IOC file of potential nominees for a few years now. But at age 69 Choue is up against the IOC retirement limit of 70, which probably now ends his chances.

Yang Ho Cho, the second possibility, is 67 and would face similar prospects for a short term as an IOC member. Cho is chairman of Pyeongchang 2018 and led the successful bid for the Games, so he is well-known to the IOC. Like the WTF president, Cho’s name has been in the IOC nominations hopper for a few years. He could be considered for IOC membership under the quota of 15 seats set aside for NOC officials. He is a vice president of the KoreanOlympic Committee and he has the backing of the government.

Choue, as an international federation president, would be eligible under the quota of seats for IF officials.

Seung Min You, gold medalist in table tennis at the Athens Olympics, will be one of two dozen candidates on the ballot for election by the athletes at the Rio Games. But he faces mixed chances of success to win one of the four seats up for grabs on the Athletes Commission.

There has been no information released by the IOC about the new criteria and procedures it plans to follow to select IOC members as a result of Olympic Agenda 2020 reforms. Given the opaque process, it is difficult to predict what steps will be taken by the IOC commission on new members, chaired by the senior member in Great Britain, the Princess Royal.

With the IOC membership hoveringaround the 90 mark, 25 members fewer than the limit of 115, there appears to be plenty of room to add new talent to the committee. Nominations are expected for the IOC session in Rio.

Whether the IOC cares about having an active member in South Korea ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics remains to be seen.

The post would seem to come at some peril. Since 2003 every IOC member from Korea has been suspended at one time in their tenure.

In 2003, Un Yong Kim, then a kingmaker vice president on the IOC, was convicted of financial crimes involving his leadership of the Korean Olympic Committee and the international federation for taekwando, serving jail time. He was suspended as an IOC member and then resigned in 2005.

Kun Hee Lee then became senior IOC member for Korea but was temporarily suspended by the IOC after running afoul of Korean tax law.

Korea had another IOC member for a short while during Y.S. Park's tenure as International Judo Federation president from 2004 to 2009. But he served out his IOC term under suspension for conviction of tax law violations involving his company.

Dae Sung Moon ends his Athletes Commission term after spending two of those eight years under IOC Ethics Commission scrutiny for plagiarism of a university thesis.

Written by Ed Hula.

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