In the past, athletes used to be called ignorant people who were used to being hit. As such, victims’ statements and revelations had revealed all the bad practices in the sports world. Many years later, various systems and policies came out to prevent such issues, and these abuses seemed to disappear. However, the recent events of triathlon athlete Choi Sook-hyun and the controversy over school violence in the baseball world have shown that bad practices in the sports world have not disappeared.

Choi Sook-hyun joined the triathlon team of Gyeongju City Hall’s workplace sports team after graduating from Gyeongbuk Physical Education High School in 2017, and signed a one-year contract with the sports association. In other words, she was a non-regular worker who had to renew her contract every year. The contract was signed in both 2017 and 2019, but not 2018 when she took a break from the sport. Later, she moved to the Busan Metropolitan Sports Council due to beatings and abuse and killed herself on June 26, 2020. Before committing suicide, she suffered beatings and verbal abuse from the coach and team doctor of the Gyeongju City Hall team, who had worked for the team until 2019. Two senior members of the same team are also known to have been involved in this. The victim first reported the abuse to Gyeongju City Hall in February 2020. In March, she sued the four assailants for assault. In addition, she asked for help from the Sports and Human Rights Center of the Korean Olympic Committee in April and the Ironman Triathlon Association on June 22. However, the investigation was slow, and it was reported that this was the reason for her tragic choice.

 Accordingly, the National Sports Promotion Act was revised. First, the period of suspension of leadership in violent crimes has been extended from one year to five years. In addition, a mandatory regulation was established to report sports irregularities, such as violence by the leader, to the Sports Ethics Center. Also, the function and authority of the Sports Ethics Center were expanded. It has been revised to allow the Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to demand disciplinary action if someone is uncooperative in the investigation of the Sports Ethics Center. It also included measures to protect victims, such as mandating physical seperation between the accused and the victim.

This abuse also appeared in other sports, such as baseball. There is something in common between the two players, Ahn Woo-jin of Kiwoom and Kim Yoo-sung, who won the first nomination for NC. They are players who have been embroiled in controversy over school violence for physically punishing their juniors when they were high school players. Ahn Woo-jin could not avoid disciplinary action due to the anger of fans. However, there has been constant controversy that this was a weak punishment. This is because he has continued playing like other players since the disciplinary action was lifted. Kim Yoo-sung even suffered the humiliation of being withdrawn from NC's draft nomination.

In addition to the elite sports community, irregularities continued not only in sports but also in sports colleges, where the victims are ordinary college students. There were also irregularities at Kyonggi University’s College of Physical Education until recently. Fortunately, however, many other universities, including ours, have been correcting their physical education issues. The atrocities of some ignorant people should disappear as soon as possible so that those who study physical education can thrive in a safe environment.