Curlers aim to set it straight

SEOUL • South Korea's "Garlic Girls" curling group have been exploited by their particular coaches who stole tens of thousands of money regarding prize money by the Olympic medal champions, the country's sports ministry said last week, before credit reporting the police will now search into the case.

The particular curlers, who come from Uiseong, the village well known for garlic gardening, had been rank outsiders on very last year's Pyeongchang Wintertime Games.

But they grew to be some sort of media sensation as they will taken their way to help an Olympic silver, this first Asian staff to help do so, despite limited funding.

Last November, that they widely accused their mentors, Kim Min-jung and Jang Ban-seok, of verbal neglect plus intrusive control, plus claimed they experienced not really acquired their prize money through previous competitive events. This encouraged public outrage plus a probe by way of the ministry.

The team claimed often the coaches have been running Korean curling like a family fiefdom. The husband of their brain coach Kim is definitely a new former national men's group coach, while the woman papa, Kim Kyung-doo, can be a good former vice-president in the Korean language Curling Federation (KCF).

Right after 컬링 -week investigation, typically the Ministry of Culture, Sports activities and Tourism disclosed the fact that allegations made by often the curlers ended up "mostly true".

Some sort of affirmation read: "It was initially confirmed that right now there was excessive control above privacy by typically the motor coachs, who strongly berated often the athletes if they chatted with their previous motor coachs or maybe sportsmen from other teams. inches

It included that the mentors also censored gifts together with lover letters.

The ministry said that the team were not paid out properly while the coaches got "mismanaged" around 94 thousand was the winner (S$112, 900) with their income, whilst embezzling all-around 25 million won.

Typically the übung also found how the coaches had evaded taxation and hired unqualified household members to work on this national team.


The ministry is going to inform the Country wide Taxes Service of their results regarding Kyung-doo's taxes evasion, according to Yonhap.

But the media organization quoted Kang Jung-won, scalp of the sports cooperation bureau at the ministry, because saying the charged functions "did not agree" together with the outcome and were being thinking about an appeal.

The particular giant-killing feats of the quintet, also referred to as "Team Kim" for their shared label, led to a improve within the popularity of curling in Southwest Korea.

Many people appeared to have the ability to the right ingredients for further more accomplishment, with their food-based nicknames regarding ease involving identification making them mass media darlings.

The captain, Ellie Eun-jung, is Annie rapid a brand of fat free yogurt : while Kim Yeong-mi will be Pancake, Kim Kyeong-ae is usually Steak, Kim Seon-yeong is Sunny - while in a new warm side-up egg rapid and Betty Cho-hee is usually Chocho, a type of sandwich.

However , they have since dropped down the world rankings after fails to win this countrywide tests in July.