Olympic Gold, Then Criticism: An Se-young’s Controversial Return from Paris

Instead of celebrating her Olympic gold medal with champagne, South Korean badminton star An Se-young found herself facing a media storm at Seoul’s Incheon Airport upon returning from the Paris Olympics, fielding questions about her criticism of the Korean Badminton Association and the national team, which has prompted an official inquiry, CNN reports, citing South Korean media.

“I wanted to win in the Olympics, and one of the reasons why I persistently worked hard is because I wanted my voice to have power,” the 22-year-old gold medalist told a South Korean broadcaster in Paris.

The country was busy celebrating her triumph, until the athlete began calling out alleged mistreatment that she said she had endured for seven years, when she joined the national team.

An said the problems came to a head in May, when she wrote on Instagram that a hospital she had visited with a national team trainer initially said that two to six weeks of rehabilitation would be enough for her to return to training.

At the medalists’ press conference in Paris following her win, An claimed this was a “misdiagnosis” and said she had to “bear [the pain] and continue playing” because the Olympics were getting close.

“My injury was at a difficult situation, worse than what I had thought,” she said of her right patellar tendon that partially ruptured during the Hangzhou Asian Games last October.

The Korean Badminton Association refuted her claims in a 10-page statement on Wednesday, claiming that An had gone through five weeks of rehabilitation training with her own team, Samsung Life Sports, “at her request” and participated in the Kumamoto Masters Japan and Li-ning China Masters in November at “her own strong will.”

“Out of the 12 badminton athletes participating in the Olympics, An Se-young was provided a dedicated trainer since February this year to help manage and recover [from] her injury,” the association said, adding that it had flown an Eastern medicine doctor from Seoul to Paris after she suffered an ankle tendon injury shortly following her arrival at the Games.

It also included what it said was a text message from head coach Kim Hak-kyun to An last November advising her to “focus on rehab” and that she did not need to “push too hard” to participate in the Masters.

While underscoring that it had done its best for the athlete, the association said it will “thoroughly check” hospital records to verify where An had been misdiagnosed and make sure that “such incident doesn’t occur again.”

An Se-young’s complaints have sent shockwaves through South Korea, prompting not only an investigation into the badminton association by the Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry but also a wider review of other sports organizations in the wake of the Olympics. The Korea Sport and Olympic Committee is also examining her claims.