Badminton champion An Se-young unavailable for nat’l federation’s meeting over controversy this week

The Olympic badminton champion An Se-young will not attend a meeting organized by the sport’s national federation this week to discuss problems she had raised after winning her gold medal in Paris, officials said Tuesday.

Multiple officials for the Badminton Korea Association (BKA) said An’s camp had informed the organization that she wouldn’t be able to show up for any meeting this week, although the BKA had proposed multiple dates for An to choose from.

The BKA launched an internal probe last week after An accused the association and her national team of running inefficient and outdated operations, and of mishandling her knee injury last fall. An offered her criticism moments after winning the women’s singles gold medal at the Paris Games on Aug. 5.

After the first round of meeting last Friday, attended by national team coaches, the BKA had said it would try to hear directly from An in its next meeting.

One BKA official insisted Tuesday that An’s unavailability this week did not mean she would never speak with the association during the probe.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism opened a separate investigation into An’s charges last week. The ministry also pointed out “procedural problems” by the BKA when it formed its fact-finding committee without prior approval from its board of directors.

“We’ll have to discuss this situation with the ministry,” a BKA official said.

An reportedly met with Jang Mi-ran, second vice minister of sports and former Olympic weightlifting champion, on Monday.

The 22-year-old player has pulled out of all international events scheduled for August, including the Korea Open starting next Tuesday.