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IOC admits misquoting Yuna

March 11, 2014

Figure skater Kim Yu-na

By Jung Min-ho

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) admitted that a quote attributed to figure skater Kim Yuna was fabricated in a news story published on its website during the recent Sochi Olympics.

“It was originally written by one of our ‘young reporters’ (young trainee reporters from the Youth Olympic Games), but Kim Yuna’s agent contacted us to say she felt that the quote was not accurate,” IOC media relations manager Sandrine Tonge told The Korea Times on Monday.

“We felt it was better to remove it since this was not integral to the story and we wanted to be accurate.”

In the article, Kim, 25, is described as calling Adelina Sotnikova the best skater of the competition at Sochi, where the Russian teenager edged her for the gold in a controversial decision in the women’s individual competition.

Kim, the Vancouver gold-medalist, had 219.11 points after the free skate, 5.48 points behind Sotnikova, who became her country’s first female champion ever.

The article, which was later re-edited, is titled “Youth Olympic Games inspire Sochi successes” and quoted Kim as saying, “She (Sotnikova)’s a highly technical skater and was very difficult to beat tonight. I saw her in Innsbruck as part of my role as Games ambassador. … We both battled for gold tonight, but she managed to come out on top. … She put on a great show.”

All That Sports, Kim’s agency, said on Saturday the quotes were fake, noting that the Vancouver gold medalist never made such a comment to any media outlet.

The IOC took down the part from the article on Sunday without any reference to an update, adding fuel to the controversy.