KOC President Jung Kil Kim is in Mombassa to promote the Daegu bid for the 2011/2013 IAAF world championships. (ATR)

Jung Kil Kim Withdraws from IOC Contention

An aide to Korean Olympic Committee Jung Kil Kim confirms that Kim has withdrawn his application to become an IOC member as a move to help the PyeongChang Olympic bid.

The aide says Kim informed IOC President Jacques Rogge in a March 21 letter. The confirmation to ATR was followed by a press release from the KOC.

"With 100 days left before the day of the vote to decide the host city in Guatemala City, I am afraid that my personal ambition could be interpreted as a stumbling block to PyeongChang''s bid," Kim says in the statement.

If Kim had been nominated for an IOC seat, a vote on his confirmation would take place at the IOC Session in Guatemala where the 2014 vote will be taken.

Jae Heung Bang, secretary general of Pyeongchang 2014 says the bid welcomes Kim’s decision.

"It was regrettable for Kim to reach such a conclusion, but we thank Kim for that decision, and it will help boost Pyeongchang''s efforts," he is quoted by Yonhap.

Sources tell ATR is told that Kim was under pressure by the bid committee for some time to abandon his bid for the IOC seat.

With two IOC members from South Korea already on the IOC, plus one from North Korea, the odds of Kim becoming nominated would have been long. And with upwards of 150 other applications for consideration to join the IOC, Kim also faced plenty of competition worldwide.

Kim’s name was put into nomination two years ago at the request of Olympic Council of Asia President and IOC member in Kuwait Sheikh Ahmad Al Sabah and seconded by a half-dozen other IOC members.

Ethics Case of Y. S. Park

The IOC Ethics Commission met for the first time under its new chair Youssoupha Ndiaye last week to consider the case of Yong Sung Park, who has been under suspension. The suspension ordered by the IOC Executive Board in February 2006 was the result of a jail sentence (suspended) and large fine for corporate corruption involving his family company in Seoul.

But with an amnesty from the President of Korea in January that essentially wipes away his criminal conviction, Park is hoping the Ethics Commission will recommend his return to the IOC. He is counting on the same sort of treatment given to France’s Guy Drut last June. Drut was re-instated after a suspension resulting from his conviction in Paris for charges he received payments from a private company while an elected official in the 1990s.

“We did not have any lawyer at the hearing but Mr. Park’s final written observation was handed over and we are waiting the final decision from the IOC EB,” an aide to Park tells Around the Rings by email.

The findings of the Ethics Commission will be delivered to the IOC Executive Board meeting in Beijing next month. The

Suspended IOC member Y.S. Park, on the right, with Gangwon Province Governor Jin Sun Kim, during the February visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission. (ATR)

Park holds his IOC seat by virtue of his presidency of the International Judo Federation, which has been unaffected by the scandal.

Park says he hopes he can help the PyeongChang Olympic bid with his IOC membership restored. Sources in Korea are expressing doubts whether he will be of much help.

Boxing World Championships Unlikely for Jeju?

The Korean government will decide this week whether it can match the terms of the deal AIBA, the international boxing federation, presented to and then withdrew from Moscow for the 2007 World Championships.

Tops on the list are a $1.5 million guarantee for the event, plus favorable prices for accommodations.

Under the terms of the agreement signed by the Russian Boxing Federation in February, the South Korean resort of Jeju has right of first refusal if the Russian deal fell through.

A unified team for the Beijing Olympics is still an unsettled issue for Korea and the 2014 Olympics bid. (ATR)

AIBA terminated the agreement with Moscow when the guarantee could not be delivered earlier this month. Russian sports leaders dispute the way the process has been carried out and may challenge the AIBA decision in the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

An appeal and international ill-will over the Moscow snub could make a big mess for South Korea if it accepts the championships. For that reason, the government could decide to dodge the opportunity in the hopes of avoiding complications that could spoil the PyeongChang Olympic bid.

If Jeju drops out, AIBA will be in a difficult position. It will be forced to possibly consider all comers to host the 2007 championships, which had been scheduled for September 15 to 30. The event is critical to AIBA as selection for the 2008 Olympics is at stake for the athletes.

And There’s More…

As if the tapestry of Korean Olympic sport wasn’t a complicated picture already, the diary for the next few months ahead of the IOC vote for 2014 includes other events that might have repercussions for the PyeongChang Olympic bid:

*Korea has a bid in the four-city fray for the 2011 and 2013 IAAF World Championships, to be decided on Tuesday.

*On April 16, the Olympic Council of Asia votes on the host for the 2014 Asian Games, a nasty battle between Inchon and Delhi.

*The talks between North and South on a unified team for Beijing sputter along without word of any progress on the major issue - selection of the squads for team sports. Without a solution before the July 4 IOC vote on 2014, promises that the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang would foster North-South unity may ring a little hollow.

Your best source of news about the Olympics is http://www.aroundtherings.com/.