Viktor Ahn (37, Korean name Ahn Hyeon-soo), who was a naturalized Russian citizen and worked as a Russian short track team player and a Chinese short track team coach, was virtually thwarted.

Ahn Hyun-soo recently applied for the position of ice team coach at Seongnam City Hall, Gyeonggi Province, but he was not selected as a double candidate. Seongnam City said on the 29th, “Seven people, including Victor Ahn and former Chinese national short track team coach Kim Seon-tae, applied for the city hall’s skating team coach position, but two applicants, including Victor Ahn, did not make the top two candidates.”

Victor Ahn was a Korean short track speed skater who won three gold medals at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics. However, in 2011 he was naturalized as a Russian citizen. In the process, he raised issues such as factional fights in Korean short track and left Korea in an atmosphere of backsliding with Korean short track. And he won three gold medals at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

After the cancellation of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, Victor Ahn announced his retirement as an athlete and turned into a coach, and served as a coach for the Chinese national team at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Earlier this year, after it was known that former coaches Victor Ahn and Kim had applied for the position of coaching the ice team at Seongnam City Hall, controversy arose domestically. Above all, it was difficult to accept the fact that an athlete who had strongly criticized Korean short track and was naturalized as a Russian would come back to Korea to get a job. Many opinions were raised that Russia and China, as Korea’s rivals, blocked the Korean short track speed skating. In particular, although it has nothing to do with Viktor Ahn, Ahn Hyun-soo’s return to Korea was met with much opposition as it overlapped with a bad external image such as the recent Russian attack on Ukraine.

The Skating Leaders Federation also joined the criticism.

The federation explained, “Russian Viktor Ahn gave up his Korean nationality and became a naturalized Russian citizen, and when the controversy arose about betraying his country, he explained that he thought ‘dual citizenship would be possible’. However, he knew in advance that dual citizenship was not allowed, and after receiving the money as a lump sum, he pretended not to know.”

In addition, the federation said, “These two made it difficult to work as domestic leaders due to discipline and controversy, so instead of self-restraint, they chose to take charge of the Chinese national team during the Beijing Winter Olympics.” He strongly opposed his return to Korea, saying, “You can’t go beyond fairness, which is the top priority in sports.” 토토사이트

Seongnam City has announced that it will use the ability to enhance team performance and leadership in communicating with players as the main selection criteria. He also added, “Through the screening of documents and interviews, it was judged by synthesizing various factors such as technology and communication skills,” adding, “The opinions coming out through public opinion and media reports in the ice skating world were also reflected in the evaluation.”