Olympic curling vice-champion in 2018, the “team Kim” had aroused the enthusiasm of the Korean public. Victims of psychological abuse on the part of their coaches, their testimonies have allowed a timid beginning of freedom of speech among the country’s athletes.
It was the beautiful story of the Pyeonchang Games: five Koreans, all from the same family, therefore bearing the same name (Kim) and from Uiseong, a rural town located in a region that is a major garlic producer (d’ where their nickname, the “Garlic Girls”), managed the feat of finishing Olympic vice-champions at home. In front of curling monuments like Canada or Switzerland. Only beaten by Sweden in the final (3-8). Before them, never had an Asian selection been on an Olympic podium.
Four years later, here are the “garlic girls” again. We almost never saw them again on an Olympic track, however, and their presence in Beijing is perhaps even more significant than their glory in 2018. It is an understatement to say that the “Kim team” has experienced an eventful Olympic cycle. Nine months after the Games, the team calls a surprise press conference. The curlers then accuse their two coaches, as well as Kim Kyung-doo, father of one of them and vice-president of the Korean Curling Federation, of verbal and psychological violence against them.
They tell how the trio of supervisors insulted them on a daily basis, the reprimands received in the event of interactions with other athletes, the bans on access to social networks. How their staff deprived them of several “prize-money” from their various victories in international competitions. Rewards that the Korean press estimates at several tens of thousands of euros. They also denounce the trio’s attempt to dismiss the team’s captain, Kim Eun-jung, after learning of her intention to start a family. “The human rights of athletes are violated. It became unbearable”fulminate the players in a letter addressed to the Korean Olympic and Sports Committee (KSOC).
Worse: collateral victims of an internal war between several pundits of the federation, they are used as means of pressure and find themselves excluded from the national team. During their absence, South Korea fell from 7th to 14th place in the world hierarchy. “We can only tell ourselves that we are pawns in their personal disputes. We have been at a standstill since the Olympics and we are unhappy.the “Kim team” then despaired.
An investigation into the case carried out by the government concluded in February 2019 that the facts denounced were correct, resulting in the banishment for life of the trio of harassers. To replace them, the Korean Curling Federation has appointed three foreign coaches for the first time, now in charge of the women’s, men’s and mixed doubles curling teams at the Olympic Games. The “Garlic Girls”, they were recalled in stride.
Rare freedom of speech
Their joint exit created a real shock wave in the country. Above all, it has made it possible to free speech in a South Korean sporting microcosm governed by decades of destructive balance of power: an immutable hierarchy with men at the top, and athletes invited not to question orders.
After the team’s speech, numerous testimonies of South Korean athletes who suffered abuse, grueling training sessions and other ill-treatment inflicted by certain coaches appeared. Two-time Olympic short-track champion Shim Suk-hee says she was repeatedly raped by her former coach. Judokates, taekwondists and wrestlers also denounced the sexual abuse of their male coaches at the time.
These stories remain isolated: rare are the South Korean athletes who dare to express themselves without the fear of being ostracized. In South Korea, the coaches keep a very strong grip on their hopes. Most are taken out of school very early, with the goal of a career. In case of failure, they therefore have no plan B. And they generally do not question training methods, since they are used to them from an early age.
“To be honest, I’m not quite sure we’re done with all of this, team member Kim Kyeong-ae wrote in an email to New York Times at the beginning of February. While we can’t know and change all the corruption in the world of sport, at least in this sport we can reveal what happened in the hope that it doesn’t happen again.”