Kim Gun Woo and Kim Ye Jin suspended by Korea's national team

A news coming out of Korea reports that Kim Gun Woo and Kim Ye Jin have been suspended from Korea’s short track national team and won’t take part in the last few international events of the season.

By Carl Savard

Photos by Danny Kim

Kim Gun Woo, 20 years old and Kim Ye Jin, 19 years old have been temporarily banned from the national team training center in short track for respectively three months and one month. The Korean team also announced that Park Ji Won would took Kim Gun Woo’s spot on the team while Choi Ji Yun would replace Kim Ye Jin.

It was said that Kim Gun Woo broke the code of conduct by entering the women’s dormitory using Kim Ye Jin’s access card. The 20-year-old defended himself saying he had entered the dorm to give his female teammate medicine as she was suffering from cold symptoms. An explanation that won't prevent him from being punished by the team’s leaders. It is not the first time that Kim Gun Woo was banned from the team. In 2015 he was suspended for drinking while he was still of high school age. Fans were expecting him to offer amazing performances at the upcoming World championships as he finished first overall in the 1500m ranking this season, but he won’t be able to take part in the competition. He will also miss this weekend’s Winter Universiade 2019 competition. Kim Ye Jin was part of the Korean team that was crowned Olympic and World champion last season in the women’s 3000m relay event.

While Kim Ye Jin may be able to compete in the Korean national selection competition that will take place in April to form next season’s Korean team, unless there is a modification to his suspension Kim Gun Woo won’t be able to battle to keep his spot on the team for the 2019-2020 season.

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