Jason Lim
For me, the most fascinating issue that came out of the recently concluded Paris Summer Olympics is the dispute between An Se-young and the Badminton Korea Association.
An, the 22-year-old gold medalist in badminton women’s singles, started the firestorm at her press conference immediately after winning the gold medal, stating that she ensured months of pain and years of unfair treatment to win the gold medal just so that she can have this stage to voice her protest against the association for its poor player management. She brought up several issues having to do with the association’s lack of proper care with the potentially career-threatening knee injury last year. However, as the issue became larger, with even the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism getting into the act, it was obvious that An had an ongoing problem with how the association ran the sport and her opportunity to participate.
According to media reports, An formally lodged a request this past February with the association to address seven issues that ranged from structural to cultural, including a request to stop forcing her to do the laundry and fix the racket netting of older players. When the attempt to address the issue internally was ignored, it seems that An really took it upon herself to win the gold in........