Seongnam city leaves controversial skating team coaching post vacant

▲ In this file photo from Jan. 12, 2023, Victor An, former Russian short track speed skater born Ahn Hyun-soo in South Korea, prepares for an interview for the coaching position of Seongnam City Hall's short track team at Seongnam City Hall in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. (Yonhap)

▲ This file photo from Feb. 6, 2022, shows Victor An, former Russian short track speed skater born Ahn Hyun-soo in South Korea, working as a coach for China during the Beijing Winter Olympics at Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing. (Yonhap)

skating team-coach

Seongnam city leaves controversial skating team coaching post vacant

SEONGNAM, South Korea, Jan. 31 (Yonhap) -- The city government of Seongnam, just south of Seoul, announced Tuesday it decided not to fill a vacant coaching spot on its semi-pro short track speed skating team, in light of a controversial application submitted by a Korean-born former Russian skater.

A Seongnam official said the municipal government was not able to find the right coach, after looking into candidates' experience, skating resume, leadership skills and credibility.

The city began accepting applications for the open position on Dec. 19 last year, but the otherwise low-profile job posting generated some buzz after Seongnam confirmed Victor An, an ex-Olympic short track star born Ahn Hyun-soo in Seoul, and former South Korean national team coach Kim Sun-tae as applicants.

Seongnam announced Sunday that An and Kim both failed to make the cut after interviews in December.

An won three gold medals for South Korea at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. Before the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, he became a Russian citizen and won three gold medals for his adopted country under his new name.

He served on the Chinese team's coaching staff at last year's Beijing Winter Games, where Kim was China's head coach four years after leading South Korea.

An faced particularly severe backlash for attempting to find work in South Korea after renouncing his citizenship a few years ago. That An had only recently coached China, one of South Korea's biggest rivals in short track, hasn't sat well with the public here.

Earlier Tuesday, six skaters on the Seongnam City team, including three-time Olympic champion Choi Min-jeong, uploaded a joint statement on their social media pages calling for "a fair and transparent" process for hiring their new coach.

"We believe the process must not be swayed by any outside influence," the skaters said. "We must bring in the most competent candidate who can communicate with us."

Within hours, Choi again took to social media to clarify the statement had not been written in support of An. Choi said the statement had been sent to Seongnam's municipal government on Jan. 9, well before An was dropped from the race.

"We worked up the courage to speak up because we felt the most important aspects for the position were getting drowned out by outside noise," Choi added.

In explaining the city's decision to keep An out of consideration, a Seongnam official said Sunday, "When we reviewed candidates' resumes and went over their interviews, we also considered the prevailing sentiment in the speed skating community and media coverage of the situation."

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