Fri, June 13, 2025
Former Korean Olympic president banned for four years
Lee Kee-heung, former president of South Korea’s Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC), has reportedly been banned for four years by the organisation’s Sports Fairness Commission. As reported last year, the Office for Government Policy Coordination (OPC) allegedly discovered improper hiring practices, solicitation of sponsorship items, personal use of sponsored goods, wasting budgets and bribery.
The government’s month-long investigation into Kee-heung’s misconduct coincided with the KSOC’s plans to establish a bid to host the 2036 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Yoo In-choon, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Korea, opposed Kee-heung’s run for a third term as president. Kee-heung led the committee from 2016 to January 2025. During his presidency, Korea won 73 medals in Rio, Tokyo and Paris, the lowest number of medals since Los Angeles 1984, according to Inside the Games.
Last year, investigators claimed that Kee-heung distributed sponsored goods, including mobile phones, shoes and sunglasses, to his friends and acquaintances without keeping proper records. He also allegedly lowered the job requirements at Jincheon National Training Centre to hire a family friend. He also allegedly evaded an internal suggestion to decrease the applicant’s salary and removed an official who opposed hiring his alleged friend.
Furthermore, the KSOC also allegedly permitted the chairman of a sports association to pay around 80 million won (around £44,391.04) for nutritional supplements and sports uniforms for athletes. This person was then appointed to a key position during the 2024 Olympics.
Investigators also claimed that Kee-heung suggested five acquaintances for positions in South Korea’s Paris Olympic delegation and offered them travel incentives which were not agreed to beforehand.
The KSOC expressed that it could not confirm “disciplinary actions on individuals” due to internal regulations, as reported by Yonhap News Agency. However, it explained that the suspension was not related to ongoing police investigations but was based on the results of an audit conducted by the sports ministry last year.
Kee-heung voiced that “procedural flaws” have caused this verdict.
