Kim gets gold back…”IOC to consider request for re-investigation”
[Anchor].
The Korean Sports Ministry is considering whether to ask the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, to reinvestigate the doping allegations against Sotnikova, the women’s figure skating gold medalist at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Will the South Korean athlete, who won a silver medal at the time, be able to clear her name?
Reporter Seung Kook Lee reports.
[Reporter]
The controversy arose from comments made by Russia’s Sotnikova, the women’s singles gold medalist in figure skating at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
In a YouTube broadcast, she said, “I tested positive for doping at the time, but I was able to avoid discipline because a second sample did not reveal any problems.”
Sotnikova had already faced doping allegations in 2016, when her urine sample was allegedly tampered with during the IOC’s investigation into Russian drug use.
Amid the growing controversy surrounding her comments, the Korean Sports Ministry is considering asking the IOC to reopen the investigation into Sotnikova’s doping allegations.
“The Korea Anti-Doping Agency is compiling relevant data,” said an official from the KAA, “and once the data collection, including past cases, is finalized, we are considering requesting the IOC to reopen the investigation through a letter.”
If the IOC accepts the request, the samples taken from Sotnikova in 2014 will be re-examined.
If it does, and if it confirms the problem, Sotnikova could be stripped of her gold medal.
In that case, the gold would be awarded to Kim Yeon-ah, who won the silver medal at the time.
In the past, Vice Culture Minister Jang Jang-ran also finished fourth at the 2012 London Olympics, but was later awarded a bronze medal after a banned substance was detected in her urine sample.