Winter Olympics 2022: South Korea to appeal to CAS about ‘unfair' refereeing during short track skating event 

Team South Korea will appeal to the sport's top court over 'unfair' refereeing in the short track speed skating event at the ongoing 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The South Korean contingent were left furious after two gold medal hopefuls were disqualified during the competition.

During the men's 1,000m semifinals at the Winter Games, world-record holders Hwang Dae-heon and Lee June-seo were disqualified for illegal late passing and lane-changing, respectively. Both skaters finished first and second in their heats.

Earlier, the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC) said they will file an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) 'to formalize the injustice of this decision'.

A statement from KSOC read:

"We plan to do our best to prevent injustice from happening to our athletes in the international ice skating and sporting communities."

The President of the Korea Skating Union and the head of South Korea’s athletic delegation Yoon Hong-geun, stated that the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC) will appeal to the highest international sports tribunal.

The decision has been made in order to “publicize the unfairness” that resulted in the disqualification of top Korean skaters Hwang Dae-heon and Lee June-seo in the men’s 1,000-meter semifinals.

In a statement during the Beijing Olympics Main Media presser, Yoon said:

“We will take every possible measure to bring the disqualification cases to the CAS to prevent a recurrence that could happen to international skating and sporting communities in the future."

Although the International Skating Union said the decision could not be challenged, the South Korean athletic delegation has requested a meeting with IOC president Thomas Bach regarding the same.

South Korean delegation reaching out to CAS for the second time

This is not the first time the Asian country will be reaching out to the CAS. The first instance was during the 2004 Olympics where a judging error of one-tenth of a point cost gymnast Yang Tae-young the gold medal in the all-around competition.

However, the CAS dismissed Yang’s appeal and said the referee's error was not subject to reversal.

The KSOC released a statement that read:

“We’ll do our best to ensure our athletes won’t be treated so unfairly. We are hoping our latest decision will provide momentum in preventing any repetition of similarly unfair decisions against South Korean athletes in international speedskating events.”