Im Hyo-jun, who won Korea’s first gold medal in the men’s 1,500m short track at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on February 11, 2018, is winning the gold medal at the awards ceremony held at the PyeongChang Olympic Medal Plaza in Gangwon-do. 2021.3.6 Provided by Yonhap News
Olympic short track gold medalist Lim Hyo-jun (25-2018 PyeongChang Olympic men’s short track 1500m gold, 500m dong) is expected to be naturalized to China and play as China’s representative at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. On the 6th, Lim Hyo-jun’s management company said, “Im Hyo-jun decided to naturalize in China. It was a decision that resulted from a young ice merchant’s willingness to stand on the ice.”
There is a story… Sorry about going to China
Some responded that they’understood’ Lim Hyo-jun’s naturalization process in China. Lim Hyo-jun exposed a part of his body by pulling down the pants of a colleague (male) during the national team training held at Jincheon Athlete’s Village in June 2019. The player sued Lim Hyo-jun on charges of forced harassment.
Im Hyo-jun was fined in the first trial, but was acquitted in the second trial in November 2019. According to the judgment of the second trial, the accused athlete played a joke that caused another female athlete to fall off the climbing equipment first during training. It is explained that Lim Hyo-jun’s actions are judged as an extension of the joke. In addition, the short-track national team players had a long training camp to face each other in comfortable clothes, so they did not appear to be sexual harassment with malicious intent.
Im Hyo-jun goes out of court after being acquitted at the second trial court hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu on November 27, 2020. 2021.3.6 Provided by Yonhap News
However, the case is now appealed by the plaintiff and is finally pending to the Supreme Court. In this process, Hyo-jun Lim was suspended for one year from the Korea Ice Skating Federation, and it is difficult to exercise normally until the Supreme Court ruling. There is only one year left until the Beijing Olympics.
In the midst of this, coach Kim Sun-tae (PyeongChang Olympics Korean short track coach) and coach Ahn Hyun-soo (Russian naturalization) sent a love call to Im Hyo-jun. Hyojun Lim finally decided to naturalize China.
The opportunity to compete in the Olympics as an athlete does not come a few times in a lifetime. Im Hyo-jun chose to naturalize in China for his dream of being an Olympic Games. However, on the short track, China is a team that competes fiercely with Korea, so it is worth taking the blame for choosing to naturalize China.
Im Hyo-jun said about Runsway (China), who appeared on MBC entertainment program’Radio Star’ after winning the gold medal at the PyeongChang Olympics, and interviewed the scene of his fall as “the most memorable”, “It seems that the athlete will win the Beijing Olympics. I once said. But in the end, I ended up playing with him in Beijing as a teammate. It’s ironic.
Why is talent outflow from short track?
It is now common for highly skilled players to naturalize for better conditions. Korea also recruited special naturalized players in ice hockey, track and field, and basketball. On the contrary, in archery and women’s golf, Koreans are also active as representatives of other countries.
However, short track is different. This is already the second case of naturalization to another country after winning the Olympic gold medal on behalf of Korea. In 2011, Ahn Hyun-soo, who was called the’Short Track Emperor’, shocked her by declaring her naturalization in Russia. He represented Russia under the name Victor An and won three crowns at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Short track’s’personnel outflow’ is the biggest reason. This is because the host country of the recent Winter Olympics is unfortunately a country that’actively attracts top-class athletes from other countries’.
Viktor An, the best short track player of all time, retires. The photo shows Viktor An (Ahn Hyun-soo) wearing a Russian flag after entering first place in the short track 1000m final of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Central photo
During the Sochi Olympics, Russia naturalized Ahn Hyun-soo by presenting a monetary’carrot’. At the time, the US media explained, “The US Short Track also tried to recruit Ahn Hyun-soo, but it was not able to face the Russian supply offensive.” Ahn Hyun-soo won the first gold medal in Russian history on the short track. China, which hosts the 2022 Beijing Olympics, is also active in increasing the number of gold medals by actively recruiting naturalized athletes.
But that’s not all. It is worth doubting that the fact that the Korean Short Track is notorious for internal and external conflicts served as a trigger to leak the best talent.
At the time of his naturalization in Russia, Ahn Hyun-soo claimed that he was disadvantaged due to the faction fight of the Korean short track, and Korean fans rather cheered him on, saying, “Please show your time to the Korean Ice Skating Federation stained with faction fights.” Although the noisy faction controversy has passed, it seems that there are still subtle discords in the Korean ice skating world that are still unknown outside.
Even though Lim Hyo-jun’s controversy over forced harassment was found innocent at the second trial, the agreement between the parties continued to collapse. Even now, I have no choice but to wonder what is the reason for continuing the boring court battle.
Lastly, it is regrettable that the absence of a mentor also seems to play a part in the outflow of talent. Recently, in the ice skating world, there has been a case where a disagreement between players has led to lawsuits. As a national representative, there are many times when he puts down his pride and dignity and dragged the problems between players to court. In addition, it is worth pointing out that even though the Korean ice skating community knows that it is very difficult to raise a player at the level of Lim Hyo-jun, he did not have a mentor to persuade Lim Hyo-jun when he decided to naturalize.
Reporter Eunkyung Lee