Viktor An
Viktor An (Russian: Виктор Ан; born Ahn Hyun-soo (Korean: 안현수) on November 23, 1985),[5] is a South Korean-born Russian short-track speed skating coach and retired short-track speed skater. With a total of eight Olympic medals, six gold and two bronze, he is the only short track speed skater in Olympic history to win gold in every distance, and the first to win a medal in every distance at a single Games.[6] He has the most Olympic gold medals in the sport, three of which he won in the 2006 Winter Olympics and the other three in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Considered to be the greatest short track speed skater of all time, he is a six-time overall World champion (2003–2007, 2014), two-time overall World Cup winner (2003–04, 2005–06), and the 2014 European champion. He holds the most overall titles at the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, and is the only male short track skater to win five consecutive world titles.[7] In 2008, Ahn suffered a knee injury and could not regain his health by the time the national qualifiers for Vancouver 2010 came around. His recovery being slow and his South Korean local team dissolved in 2010,[8][9] Ahn, aiming for his second Olympics, became a Russian citizen the next year and began racing for the Russian team. After winning gold in Sochi, Ahn explained his reasons for joining the Russian team saying, "I wanted to train in the best possible environment and I proved my decision was not wrong." As expected, a gold-winning athlete leaving the national team caused public uproar in South Korea. However, it was aimed not at Ahn, but at the country's skating union. Most South Korean fans in a poll said they understood his decision.[10][11] Ahn continued his skating career in his adopted nation until 2019 and declared his retirement in April 2020.[8][12] In 2023, Ahn returned to Korea as a short track leader. Ahn returned to South Korea and applied to be a coach for Seongnam's short track speed skating team, despite having renounced his South Korean citizenship when becoming Russian.[13][14] However, since his change in 2014 he had been increasingly criticized for his work in Russia amid the Russo-Ukrainian War and his coaching position in the Chinese team at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Some Korean coaches have formed The Korea Skating Coaches' Union and urged "Seongnam to appoint a coach that meets the public eye level" and criticized Ahn that he "lied during the naturalization process and betrayed his country".[15] and He was criticized by the public for betraying his country by transferring Korean sports skills to Russia and China. Ahn was eventually denied the coaching position due to significant public opposition.[16] After being denied his position as Seongnam City Hall coach due to strong public opposition, Ahn explained the controversy he knew about his loss of nationality in advance and receives a full Olympic medal pension prior to Russian naturalization. He said: "I donated every pension I had received prior to naturalization". According to his explanation and a Korean ice skating official mentioned in Chosun Ilbo shortly thereafter, the entire lump sum pension he received was spent on rehabilitating "children who needed heart surgery and Korean junior players".[17] And he make his first start as a Korean Sports leader, being named as a coach in the 2023–2024 national team trials at the request of his juniors. The Korea Skating Union officially announced this through Yonhap News Agency, and the Korean media reported it collectively.[18] Early life and educationAhn began skating in 1993 in his first year of primary school. The first time he watched the sport on television was during the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer where one of his heroes, Chae Ji-hoon, took gold in the 500 m and silver in the 1000 m for South Korea.[19] Incidentally, these were the Games where Russia achieved a national record of 11 Olympic golds, a feat that he himself would help to repeat twenty years later. His coach, Kim Ki-hoon, was a three-time Olympic gold medalist who scouted Ahn and continued to train him. He trained ten hours every day from techniques, speed, and endurance to video analysis.[19] Career2000sEarly career and the 2002 Winter OlympicsAhn made his international debut at the World Junior Short Track Speed Skating Championships in 2002. Finishing first in the 1500 m, 1000 m, and 5000 m relay events, he claimed the overall title. Ahn then participated in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He made the finals for the 1000 m event but returned home without a medal, after a controversial fall involving Apolo Ohno, Li Jiajun, and Mathieu Turcotte that allowed Australian Steve Bradbury to sweep the gold medal. Ahn finished in fourth place, behind Ohno and Turcotte.[1] After the 2002 Olympics, Ahn finished second to Kim Dong-sung at his first senior-level world championship competition the same year, almost duplicating Kim's feat of winning both the Junior and Senior World Championship titles in 1997. Ahn began dominating the sport from the 2002–2003 season. As well as claiming four overall and 1500 m World Championship titles in a row between 2003 and 2006, Ahn excelled himself at 1000 m and 3000 m during that period and also starred with the Republic of Korea's 5000 m relay team. In all, he won a total of 23 medals in that prolific spell, and took the 2004 and 2006 World Cup titles for good measure.[5] He also set the world records for the 1500 m in 2003 at World Cup #2 in Marquette[3] and the 3000 m at World Cup #4 in Beijing,[4] which he held for the following eight years. National team 'recommendation system'South Korea has produced many outstanding short track speed skaters and is highly competitive in selecting the national team. Their key method of selecting players is to automatically select the best players in advance according to the comprehensive podium rankings of the World Championships. However, there is a system that has disappeared after much controversy and factional fight. It was the 'recommendation system'.[20] South Korea's elite sports system was strictly a top-down relationship between leaders and athletes. and the factions were formed according to the leaders and the factions of the players were also determined by their universities and leaders.[21][22] And the players was disadvantaged if he disobeyed the instructions from the factional leader.[23][24] Viktor Ahn is one of these representative players. Ahn graduated from Korea National Sport University. His leaders were Kim Ki-hoon, a three-time Olympic champion,[25] and Jun Myung-kyu, former vice president of the Korea Skating Union who was also the head coach of the Korean short track speed skating team from 1987 to 2002.[26] Ahn as a junior, consistently excelled in Korea's domestic competitions and captured the Overall title at the Junior World Championships. Though he initially didn't participate in the national team trial, he was subsequently recommended to join the 2002 national team as a substitute for an injured player. This recommendation came from Park Seong-in, the president of the Korea Skating Union, and Yoo Tae-wook, the federation's director.[27][28] After observing Ahn's stellar performance at the Junior World Championships, head coach Jun Myung-kyu chose him for the Olympic team. In a bold move, Jun opted for the 16-year-old, who lacked international experience, to compete in the 1000 m individual event, a decision that faced opposition from the Korea Skating Union and others.[29][30] The 2002 Olympics was his Senior international debut. In addition to Ahn, many athletes and leaders were recommended by the Korea Skating Union. They were Chae Ji-hoon, Chun Lee-kyung, Kim So-hee,[31] Choi Min-kyung[32] Ko Gi-hyun, Lee Ho-suk, and Choi Eun-kyung,[33] and also included were Kim Dong-sung and Kim Sun-tae, who were injured and failed to participate in the national team trials.[34][35] This referral system was used to discover talented players and give opportunities to injured players. However, there were players who were alienated, which led to conflict. In 2006, the recommendation system for selection of representative players of the Korea Skating Union disappeared from the national team trials as the conflict of factional fighting was exposed to the public.[20] 2002–2005, KNSU and Non-KNSUFactional fight in South Korean ice skating was allegedly mentioned as a form of Korea National Sport University (KNSU) and non-Korea National Sport University. But it was far more complicated inside. The power struggle of first-generation ice skating leaders, which started in the 1990s,[36][37] changed form and influenced leaders, their direct disciples and athletes and changed their relationship.[21][22] In 2002, when Ahn became a member of the national team, it was the time when Korean society was noisy due to the corruption of the ice skating world. Athletes and parents, who were University entrance students, gave money to professors who were influential in the ice skating world, and the professor received it. And the person who reported the case and accused his senior of corruption is Jun Myung-Kyu who becomes professor at the Korea National Sport University.[38][39] In June 2003, Ahn decided to enter the Korea National Sport University in spite of exceptional conditions, including the guarantee of professor posts in other universities.[40] The recommendation system that selected Ahn for the national team in 2002 had been in place since 1995, even before Ahn's inclusion.[31] but in the process, At 16, he became the emblematic figure of the Korea National Sport University and professor Jun. And those on the other side accused 16-year-old Ahn of being responsible for factional conflicts in Korea's skating world.[28][30] In 2003–2004, when Ahn's heyday began, conflicts in the ice skating world and the tyranny of leaders were serious. In the national team Jun Myung-kyu stepped down from his post due to poor performance at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, and Olympic medalists Kim Ki-hoon took over the men's national team,[41] but in 2004, Kim was forced to resign due to the controversy over forcing his athletes to wear skates made by the family-run skating company.[42] In November 2004, Choi Eun-kyung, Byun Chun-sa etc. six women's team members left the athletes' village due to the coach's habitual beating scandal.[43][44] The coaches for the women's team have all been replaced.[45][46] Two months later, Ahn was assaulted at the Winter Universiade in January 2005. The men's team coach Yoon had to resign after the World Team Championships in March due to controversy over match-fixing and assault allegations raised at the time.[47] Kim Ki-hoon was reelected coach of the men's team for the Turin 2006 Olympics instead of Yoon Jae-Myung. However, in April 2005, seven other non-Korea National Sport University athletes, with the exception of Ahn Hyun-soo, declined to enter the athletes' village. They insisted, The main person is fixed. We can't trust a coach who favours a specific player. At the end of the day, Kim Ki-hoon resigns, saying, "I can't teach these players anymore."[48] Kim Ki-hoon was professor Jun's direct disciple. Kim is known to have passed on special know-how skating skills to Ahn.[28] Kim Ki-hoon mentioned in an interview in 2018: "Ahn hyun-soo was really outstanding. Teach him one thing and he really absorbs it in like a sponge. Ahn was not the only one to teach more. I coached everyone on the national team, but Ahn came to see me more often."[49] 2005, Conflict with Korea Skating UnionAhn was reported to be the victim of senior player Seo Ho-jin's assault at the 2005 Winter Universiade. Though Seo was expelled from the national team and Yoon Jae-myung, head coach for the event, was dismissed on charges of match-fixing,[47] Seo returned to the national team for the 2006 Winter Olympics the next year. Ahn refused to join the national team and take training in 2005 and also confronted with the leaders of the Korea Skating Union. In July 2005, parents and coaches, including Ahn and Choi Eun-kyung, Sung Si-bak held a press conference and exposed coach Yoon Jae-myung's Aiding and abetting assault. It also called for the resignation of all federation leaders and announced its absence from the 2006 Turin Olympics.[50] As a result, coach Yoon's appointment has been canceled. However, the conflict at that time was at its peak. At the height of the conflict, the Korea Skating Union dismissed the national team coach Chun Jae-Su, who had called for the resignation of the entire leadership, accusing him of stirring unrest among parents and athletes. He was subsequently suspended for six months. As a result, Ahn declined to train with the national team. Parents further alleged that there was political pressure exerted by a national assembly member associated with the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. This situation led Ahn to train with the women's team instead of the men's, presenting considerable challenges leading up to the 2006 Olympics.[51] Prior to his naturalization in Russia in 2011, Ahn mentioned that during this difficult time, Sung Si-bak and Lee Seung-hoon, who weren't then part of the national team, supported him.[52] The issue came back to the fore after Ahn's victory as a Russian in the 2014 Winter Olympics, as the South Korean public questioned the Korea Skating Union of losing their biggest Olympic star. Regarding the uproar against him, Seo argued that the incident was just a form of discipline from senior to junior,[53] but Ahn revealed in 2015 that he and his junior were hit with helmets on.[54] In 2014, some Korean media outlets criticized that there was a line that went down from Jun Myung-kyu - Kim Ki-hoon - Ahn Hyun-soo and it couldn't just blame the fact that the alienated players who became coaches held Ahn Hyun-soo in check to oppose Jun Myung-kyu, and Ahn Hyun-soo also wanted it or not, he also could not be free from the responsibility of factional fighting.[55] However, in May 2005, The Hankyoreh newspaper reported: The officials of the Korea Skating Union were investigated by police for receiving money from the father of a player who was disqualified for hitting a junior player at a Universiade in Austria earlier this year to return his son to the national team.[56] 2006 Winter OlympicsAt the 2006 Winter Olympics, Ahn won gold medals in the 1500 m and 1000 m events. He set a new Olympic record time of 1:26.739 in the 1000 m, finishing ahead of teammate Lee Ho-suk and rival Ohno. Ahn also won gold in men's 5000 m relay along with teammates Lee Ho-suk, Seo Ho-jin, and Song Suk-woo. With his patented outside overtaking maneuver, he overtook defending champion Canada to get his third gold medal of the Games.[57][58] Ahn became the second South Korean athlete ever to win three gold medals in one Olympics, following Jin Sun-yu who had accomplished this earlier on the same day. He also won a bronze medal in the 500 m event.[1] Ahn was the only athlete in Turin to step on to the podium four times.[6] Ahn became the first short track speed skater to win a medal in every distance at a single Games, a feat unprecedented by any athlete in his sport. He is the first South Korean man to win at least 3 medals in a single Winter Olympics.[6][59] Following the 2006 Olympics, Ahn maintained his record at the 2006 World Championships in Minneapolis. Despite being disqualified in the finals of the 500 m and 3000 m events, his victories in both the 1000 m and 1500 m events helped him defend his title with 68 points, followed by countryman Lee Ho-suk with 60 points. He became the first male short track skater to win four consecutive world titles.[60][61] After TorinoAfter the 2006 World Championships, Ahn flew back to South Korea. At Incheon International Airport, Ahn's father had a loud quarrel with the vice president of the Korea Skating Union (KSU), claiming that the coach did not associate with Ahn and conspired with other skaters to prevent Ahn from winning the title of overall champion.[62][63] Ahn collided with Lee Ho-suk and Oh Se-jong in the World Championship 3000m Super Final. The airport incident, which was reported on news screens, caused a stir in the media and the public along with factional issues. as a result, the Korea Skating Union said it would hold a committee meeting to consider disciplinary action. On April 26, 2006, the reward and punishment committee concluded that "it was not an intentional collision after playing the videos more than 100 times," and that Ahn Hyun-soo, Lee Ho-suk, and Oh Se-jong were all unintentional.[64][65] The South Korean short track team was split into two groups, in one of which Ahn was being coached by the women's coach Park Sae-woo due to conflicts with the men's coach Song Jae-kun. even though Ahn was the main player winning the gold medal in the Turin Olympics 5000m relay, the men's team members held a ceremony to their mentor commentator Lee Joon-ho, excluding only Ahn Hyun-soo. The tensions had risen so high that the skaters refused to dine in the same room, sit next to each other on the plane, or even share the same floor with each other. Ahn and Lee Ho-suk used to attend the same high school together, and even shared a room the previous year in skating camps, but due to the conflict they had begun to rarely speak to each other.[66][29] Ahn mentioned on his personal website that the pressure was too much for him and he contemplated quitting the sport. Due to the issue, KSU stated that starting next season, the team would be united under one head coach to prevent deleterious rivalries.[63] In spite of the conflicts, Ahn continued to dominate the sport. At the 2007 World Championships held in Milan, Ahn won his fifth world championship, finishing first in the 1000 m and in the 5000 m relay with teammates Kim Byeong-jun, Sung Si-bak, Song Kyung-taek, and Kim Hyun-kon. He also won silver in the 3000 m behind Song, and won two bronze medals in the 500 m and the 1500 m. With this victory, Ahn became the first man to win five consecutive world championships.[1] Ahn is the only male short track skater to have won at least three consecutive world championships; Canadian short track legend Marc Gagnon has won four times, but his titles did not come back to back. Injury in early 2008On January 16, 2008, the Korea Skating Union (KSU) reported that Ahn had injured his knee after colliding with a fence during national team training at the Korea Training Center in Taeneung. The skate blade got stuck on the ice then the Ahn fell and bumped his knee on the fence.[67][68] The fence, placed to absorb the shock, froze hard like a rock, causing serious injury rather than absorbing the impact. After being sent to the hospital, the injury was diagnosed as a fractured knee.[69][70] Due to the injury, KSU announced that Ahn would not be competing in the ISU Samsung World Cup Series #5 and #6 in Quebec City and Salt Lake City, respectively. It was also reported that he would not be competing in the 2008 World Championships in Gangneung or the 2008 World Team Championships in Harbin, China. As a result of the unexpected injury, it was clear that Ahn would be unable to defend his sixth World title, leaving his countrymen Lee Ho-suk, Song Kyung-taek, and Lee Seung-hoon to make up the ground. After undergoing three surgeries, his rehabilitation period was predicted to be around 2–3 months.[68] After eight months off the ice, a South Korean news article reported on September 5, 2008, that Ahn was back training, undergoing approximately two hours of physical reinforcement and skating along with around five hours of rehabilitation accompanied by muscular power training. The article also reported that Ahn was eyeing the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.[71] However, his recovery from the injury was much slower than initially expected, and he had to undergo four surgeries in 15 months. [72][5] In 2009, Ahn finished seventh overall at the Korean national team trials, which was not enough for him to qualify for the Olympic team. Not having fully recovered from his injury, he again was unable to qualify for the national team in the following season. 2010s2010, Conflict with Korea Skating UnionAfter the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, the Korean short track was embroiled in scandals such as match-fixing and internal factions. Deals for rights of Olympic and World Championship participation took place among athletes and coaches of the same faction. However, this soon caused divisions between the athletes leading to subsequent exposures.[73][74] The word of these incidents spread among the athletes' parents[75] and was exposed by Ahn Hyun-soo's father.[76][77] Ahn Hyun-Soo's father has decided to reveal the match-fixing of the national team trial for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver due to the following reasons.[75][78] A family of Lee Jung-su noticed that Lee lost his opportunity to participate individual event for the World Championship. Moreover, Lee Jung-Su had to forcefully write down an oath stating that he will not participate the World Championship as demanded by his coaches and head coach.[79][80] The family of Lee has informed this event to the other parents of the athletes, and they have decided to report the Korea Skating Union to Korean Sports Council Investigation Committee for thorough investigation. They started a petition for the investigation and more than 200 people agreed to join the petition, yet more than 300 people's engagement was needed in order to file the case to the committee. In this sense, they requested the father of Ahn who is influential to the public to post this scandal on his son' s Fan Club Page and finally this scandal has been completely revealed to Korean society and the public.[75][78] This incident had a huge impact. The players involved and the Vancouver Olympic coaches have all been disciplined.[81][82] The leaders of the Korea Skating Union were all forced to resign.[83] Ahn Ki-won, Ahn Hyun-soo's father, pointed out the Korea Skating Union's leadership, including the then-resigned vice president Yoo Tae-wook and Jun Myung-kyu, for exerting undue pressure on coaches and athletes.[84][85] Ahn became a whistleblower who informed the South Korean society of the dark side of Korean shorttrack speed skating of factional fight and match-fixing regardless of his will.[84] And it took a toll on him, officially or informally. The selection of the national team was suddenly postponed, and Ahn Hyun-soo, overlapped with the four-week basic military training period,[86] disrupted his own training plan.[87][88] Suspicions have also been raised that he missed an Olympic opportunity by disobeying the factional leader's words.[23][89] Noise and controversy continued around him regarding factional issues and the way the national team was selected.[90] And his team Seongnam declared a moratorium in July 2010 and decided to dismantle the ice skating team in December 2010. But there was not a team to scouted Ahn Hyun-soo.[9][91] Naturalization to RussiaAhn last competed as a South Korean citizen at the national team trials in April 2011, where he took gold in the 500 m. Prior to the trials, his local team Seongnam City Hall dissolved due to financial reasons, and therefore Ahn had to train by himself. Shortly before this competition, he informed the South Korean media that it would be his farewell performance.[92] Ahn finished fifth overall at the national team trials.[93] After the trials, Ahn announced that he will be moving to Russia because he wanted to skate in an environment where he could concentrate in skating, apart from the issues surrounding him.[52] He moved to Russia in June 2011 and decided to naturalize on July. On December 28, 2011, he was officially granted a Russian nationality by President Dmitry Medvedev. His Korean nationality was automatically extinguished by the South Korean nationality law, which does not allow dual nationality.[61] Since then, South Korean media has reported that he received the full Olympic medal pension in July 2011, and decided to naturalized to Russia in August. Based on this, when the Korea skating coach union pointed out "pension receipt" due to "morality" issues in the process of hiring Seongnam coach in 2023, Viktor Ahn said he decided on everything in July 2011 and donated the entire pension just before Russian naturalization for the first time in 12 years.[17] In a 2015 documentary aired on South Korea's MBC, Ahn disclosed that there was pressure from Korea Skating Union an official just before his naturalization in Russia. The official warned. "This athlete is a problematic player in South Korea and should never be accepted."[94][29] 2011, Conflict with the South Korean coachesSouth Korean coaches and staff were already in Russia before Ahn decided to go to Russia. But in October 2011, the Russian Skating Union fired everyone, leaving Viktor Ahn alone. According to South Korean media reports at the time, 'internal conflicts between leaders', 'South Korean experts never notified Russian coaches how to prepare skating equipment accordingly in shorttrack speed skating', 'compulsory training ' and 'corporal punishment on athletes' were the reasons for the dismissal.[95][96] At that time, however, there were rumors in South Korea that Ahn was reluctant to undergo Korean-style training again.[97] After this incident, Ahn's wife Woo Nari and coach Hwang Ik-hwan who were coach of his team for Seongnam just before his naturalization, were invited to Russia for Viktor Ahn's rehabilitation and psychotherapy.[98][99] Along with this incident during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the 2004 women's short track team assault incident was re-examined. This is because the assault incident of women player team in 2004, and one of the coaches who had a conflict with Viktor Ahn in Russia in 2011 was on the coaching staff of the South Korea national team.[100] About this issue, coach Hwang Ik-hwan had an interview as follows. "Hyun-soo won first place in the 500m in the last national trial in Korea before going to Russia. In other words, his physical condition was not bad. However, he was in the worst slump when I met him after six months. Even after they were expelled from the Russian Skating Union, Hyun-soo could not easily get out of that wound for a while."[101] In 2018, an official from the Korean skating world also revealed the following. "Viktor Ahn had to went through hard time in the early days of settling in Russia. And he was able to train normally only after the Russian Skating Union fired the coach."[98] Heading to SochiAhn participated in the Russian national team trials for the 2011–2012 season and was selected as a relay member for the season. He made his debut as a Russian short track speed skater at World Cup #5 in Moscow.[102] In the national trials for the 2012–2013 season, Ahn won the 1000 m and 3000 m events,[103] successfully pulling off to the national team. At World Cup #1 in Calgary, he won his first individual gold in the international stage since his knee injury four year | ||||||||||||||||||||
