“I am a player who is also in the Olympics race, but I cannot understand why only I was eliminated.”
Rio Olympics bronze medalist Jung Kyung Eun has filed a petition to the Blue House (the President of South Korea) against her removal from the Korea national team after her name was not listed in the team announced last week.
As quoted by Sports Seoul, Jung said, “I am saddened and hurt with the decision and I cannot understand. There have been lots of corruption and unwanted incidents in the sports world, but I didn’t know I would be a victim of it someday.
“I heard about the irregularities and denials in the selection of athletes in each sport. But thought these were someone else’s worry and not mine. I had been concentrating only on my sports.”
The Korean team has gone through some major changes in the past few months; the head coach and the national coaches were changed, the players who were on the team had to go through a selection process and only the Tokyo Olympic hopefuls were given automatic selections.
The national selection was held for six days earlier in the month and the selection process was based on two criteria: 50% win rate and 50% evaluation score from judges. Jung scored 56 points in total.
In her petition, she said the 50% evaluation score from the judges is a subjective matter and not a question of fairness.
“All the national doubles players who are still in the race for Tokyo Olympics have been re-selected, and I am a player who is also in the Olympics race, but I cannot understand why only I was eliminated.”
Jung is currently ranked world No. 10 in the women’s doubles discipline with partner Baek Ha Na and their last major title was the 2019 Denmark Open.
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