Park Tae-hwan remains hopeful of competing at Rio Olympics

SEOUL (Yonhap) — Even as he remains under an Olympic ban because of his doping history, South Korean swimmer Park Tae-hwan said Tuesday he is hopeful the situation will change for the better.

“I believe things will work out fine, and I am trying to concentrate only on training,” Park told Yonhap News TV in Incheon, west of Seoul, after finishing his morning practice. “I hope something good will happen so that I can compete at the Olympics.”

The Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) is blocking Park, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist in the 400m freestyle, from racing at the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games in August. Under a rule instituted in July 2014, the KOC imposes a three-year national team ban on athletes who’ve served doping suspensions. The KOC’s sanction takes effect on the day the athletes’ doping bans end.

Park’s ban over a positive drug test began retroactively in September 2014 and ended in March this year.

Park won four freestyle races at the final Olympic trials last month and came inside the Olympic “A” standards set by FINA, the international swimming governing body, in all four.

Still, the KOC hasn’t budged under mounting pressure and has insisted that it won’t create exceptions for any particular athlete.

Park himself has publicly pleaded for a second chance. He is also seeking to take the issue to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the top sports tribunal.

On April 26, Park filed an appeal for arbitration at the CAS against the controversial KOC rule. Two days later, he asked that the procedure be put on hold, so that he could speak to the KOC one last time before taking further steps. Park is scheduled to meet with KOC representatives on May 25.

“I think the best case scenario will be for the KOC to change its position in the meeting, so I can go to the Olympics,” Park said.

In the meantime, Park has been working out at an Incheon pool named after himself, the Munhak Park Tae-hwan Aquatics Center, since Monday. The Olympic-size venue hosted the swimming races at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and has 50m lanes.

“This is a great environment, but it’s disappointing that I have to swim alone without coaches or training partners,” Park said. “I think the difficult part is to keep motivating myself even as my Olympic status is still in limbo. I can withstand physical challenges, but it’s been more difficult mentally. But it’s something I have to overcome.”

Park declined to elaborate on his CAS appeal, saying it’s up to his agency to handle. The CAS has previously ruled against the principle of double punishment, which critics of the KOC are saying it is imposing on Park.

In 2011, the CAS handed down a decision against the “Osaka Rule,” which barred athletes who had served a doping suspension for at least half a year from competing in the following Olympic Games.

“I do know that it’s my last recourse,” the swimmer said of his decision to appeal. “And I also understand that it’s not necessarily a good thing for me to take that route and put myself at odds with the KOC. But the KOC hasn’t changed a bit, and it’s been disappointing and frustrating.”

There may be a glimmer of hope for Park. At a luncheon with former chief South Korean delegates to the Olympics in Seoul, Kim Jung-haeng, the KOC president, said, “I think it’d be great if Park Tae-hwan could go to the Olympics.”

Kim qualified the remark by saying he was only giving his personal opinion as a former athlete and that several administrative hurdles must be cleared within the KOC before the controversial rule can change.

Park said he sees the Rio Olympics as a chance to atone for his doping offense.

“The Olympics will be taking place at a time when I hope to have personal redemption,” he said. “The important thing is I am a swimmer, and swimming is the thing I do best. It makes me that much more desperate to compete in Rio.”

Park remains the only South Korean with an Olympic swimming medal. In addition to his 400m gold, he won silver in the 200m freestyle in 2008. Four years later, he grabbed silver in both the 200m and 400m freestyle.