Exploring Social Media Commentary Pertaining to Physical and Sexual Abuse in South Korean Ice-Skating

The Culture of South Korean Elite Youth Sport

Elite youth athletes can be described as those who have superior athletic talent, get specialized training, undergo expert coaching, and compete beginning at an early age (Mountjoy et al., 2008). In order to formulate an exact definition of elite sport, Swann et al. (2015) conducted a comprehensive literature review of 91 empirical studies that dealt with youth sport participants. According to Swann et al. (2015), elite sport participants possess the following criteria: competing at international and national level, represent their country or national team, and competing at university level.

In South Korean sport culture, there is a tremendous emphasis on athletic performance. More specifically, anything will be tolerated if it results in a gold medal (Heo, 2011). The roots of this athletic culture can be traced to South Korea’s history. In the 1970s, the South Korean government wanted to enhance the nation’s image, and began using sport as a platform to advertise South Korea (Lee, 2005; Lim & Huh, 2009), as evidenced by the country’s decision to host the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympic Games. Beyond hosting, South Korea pushed their athletes to win gold medals in these events to further advertise the country’s development and success (Lee, 2006). Therefore, the South Korean government fostered elite athletes through national level policies, only focusing on their athletic performance and the results of competition. Simply put, many people believed they didn’t care about other aspects of athletes’ lives, such as providing proper education for student-athletes and the lives of retired athletes (Heo, 2011; Hong & Ryu, 2007). The South Korean government asked their athletes to become a patriot by winning gold medals, a trend that has continued in South Korea ever since (Lim & Huh, 2009).

The history of South Korea’s policy regarding elite athletes has created an imbalance, which can succinctly be explained as winning is everything (Heo, 2011). This culture means that South Korean athletes are required to devote all of their time to training for their sport, being unable to pursue anything else (Heo, 2010). Becoming a successful and high-profile athlete is the only opportunity given to athletes in South Korea. Consequently, this means that coaches hold immense sway over athletes’ careers and lives (Kwak, 2019). This system has many negative repercussions in South Korean sport culture, such as coaches’ disservice to athletes in the name of better athletic performance/results (Kang, 2007; Sun et al., 2010). As a result of this demand to achieve good results and win gold medals, coaches’ physical and verbal abuse are known to be rampant and accepted in South Korean sport society (Associated Press, 2019a). One example of such a case is that of Shim Suk-hee. Under the encouragement of Cho-Jae-beom, Shim started ice-skating when she was 9 years old; Cho Jae-beom, recruited her and became her coach (Yun, 2019). According to South Korean prosecution, since then, Shim Suk-hee was both physically and verbally abused by Cho Jae-beom. “She has been repeatedly subjected to these crimes since she was a teenager and the depth of her traumatic wounds is beyond description” said Shim Suk-hee’s lawyer, Lim sang-hyuk (SBS News, 2019, para. 13). As egregious as Cho’s actions were, these sorts of incidents are unfortunately prevalent in sport.

Sexual Abuse and Harassment in Sport

Sexual abuse in the context of sport has been defined in a variety of ways, including “groomed or coerced collaboration in sexual and/or genital acts where the victim has been entrapped by the perpetrator” (Brackenridge & Fasting, 2005, p. 3). Additionally, “Abuse implies that a person offends another person’s rights. By sexual abuse we mean to trick or coerce a person into a sexual act the person does not want, or is not sufficiently mature to consent to” (NOC, 2011, p. 8). Sexual harassment can be defined as “unwanted attention on the basis of sex” (Brackenridge & Fasting, 2005, p. 3). According to previous research, sexual abuse can have significant and lifelong effects on athletes. Fasting et al. (2013), indicated that sexual harassment can cause a serious degree of emotional stress, effect victims’ performance and self-esteem, and even cause them to leave their sport.

There have been documented cases of sexual abuse in sport in a variety of countries, including the Netherlands, Norway, Britain, Canada, Czech Republic, Australia, the United States, France, and South Korea (Cense & Brackenridge, 2001; Fasting et al., 2004, 2010; Leahy et al., 2002; Owton & Sparkes, 2015). In the United States, one of the more recent and high-profile examples of physical and sexual abuse by an authority figure is the Larry Nassar scandal. Nassar, an osteopathic physician at Michigan State University, treated members of the United States’ Olympic Gymnastics team for more than 20 years (Connor, 2016). However, over this period of time, Nassar used his position as team doctor to sexually assault and abuse his patients, with more than 300 women and girls coming forward alleging that Nassar abused them (Kirby, 2018).

In South Korea, several incidents of sexual assault have recently become public. Many of these instances bear a strong resemblance to Nassar’s crimes. Kim Eun-hee, a former female tennis player was raped repeatedly by her coach for a year when she was 10 years old in 2002. Additionally, Shin Yu-yong, a former female judo athlete, was sexually abused by her coach more than 20 times between 2011 and 2015, beginning when she was 17. Receiving encouragement from Shim’s actions, both athletes accused their male coaches of sexual abuse (Choe, 2019). Kim and Shin’s coaches were eventually sentenced to 10 years and 6 years, for their crimes (BBC News, 2019; Song, 2019). Incidents of sexual abuse of athletes is not limited to South Korea. In France, Sarah Abitbol, a 10-time national figure skating champion, accused her former coach of raping her, dating back to when she was 15 years old. In addition, three other French figure skaters accused their coaches of sexual harassment and sexual abuse. As a result, Didier Gailhaguet, the president of the French Federation of Ice Sports resigned after these allegations sparked outrage amongst the French sport society (Méheut, 2020).

Due to most sport organizations being male-dominated and grounded in traditional male values, sexual harassment and abuse are prevalent (Fasting et al., 2004). Most often, perpetrators of sexual abuse are men with power and authority over the athletes including physiotherapists, trainers, team doctors, and coaches (Fasting et al., 2013; International Olympic Committee [IOC], 2007). However, amongst these various roles, those in coaching positions are the most common perpetrators of sexual abuse toward athletes (Fasting et al., 2013; Leahy et al., 2002). Coaches have power and authority over athletes, which can be used to control their lives (Fasting et al., 2013). Specifically, there are several aspects of organized sport that present major risk factors for sexual abuse to occur, namely the power held by coaches and the athlete’s pursuit of excellence (Brackenridge, 1997; Bringer et al., 2001; Owton & Sparkes, 2015). This pursuit of excellence has resulted in athletes at the peak of their careers having the highest risk of being sexually abused, since they believe they have the most to lose by not complying (Brackenridge, 1997; Brackenridge & Kirby, 1997). Thus, many athletes view sexual abuse at the hands of their coaches as something they have to put up with (Brackenridge, 1997; Bringer et al., 2001; Cense, 1997). Additionally, the victim’s fear or shame of being sidelined or frozen out of their sport and the fear of not being believed are contributing factors to the continuation of the abusive relationship (Fasting et al., 2013).

In addition, Cense (1997) illustrated that some male coaches who abused their players attempted to become a guardian/father figure to their athletes in order to gain their trust. Once this trust, power, and authority had been established, the grooming, or process of targeting and preparing a victim for abuse began (Fasting et al., 2013). Grooming can be viewed as a central component to sexually abusive relationships (Morrison et al., 1994). Grooming is a slow process, and it might take weeks, months, or years to break down the interpersonal barriers prior to committing sexual abuse (Doyle, 1994). In the context of sport, grooming usually takes place with the gradual building of the athlete’s trust in their coach. The coach nurtures their athlete in a parent-like manner, providing both discipline and affection that eventually makes athletes reliant on them (Brackenridge & Fasting, 2005). Eventually, coaches may leverage their power and authority in a way that makes the athlete feel completely trapped, such as threatening to sideline athletes or cut them from the team altogether (Brackenridge & Fasting, 2005).

Despite media portrayals of sexual abuse tending to focus exclusively on the perpetrator of the abuse (Ward et al., 2006), sport governing bodies and organizations have consistently been found to be enablers of sexual abuse within their respective sports, often denying its existence, or knowing such abuse is occurring and turning a blind eye (Fleury, 2009; Robinson, 1998; Stirling et al., 2011). Other enablers of sexual abuse include, but are not limited to, chaperones, parent helpers, bus drivers, or even other athletes (Brackenridge, 1997). These stakeholders also play a key role in helping eliminate sexual abuse in sport, with Macleish (2011) writing, “When the powerful fail to do what’s necessary to stop the predators in their midst, the abuse continues and the powerless suffer” (para. 4).

Jeon Myung-gyu

Cho is not the only person that helped make this horrific act possible. Aside from Cho, perhaps no individual is at the forefront of this controversy more than professor and former skater Jeon Myung-gyu, as the South Korean public also called for an investigation into Jeon’s role in the incident (Associated Press, 2019c).

Jeon Myung-gyu is a former South Korean national speed skater, coach, and head coach of the South Korean national short-track team between 1988 and 2002. Following his tenure as a coach, Jeon became a professor at Korean National Sport University (KNSU) in 2002, as well as vice chairman of the Korea Skating Union in 2009 (Kim, 2018). South Korea’s status as a hierarchical society meant that Jeon essentially sat atop the throne as king of the South Korean Ice-Skating industry. However, his tenure was riddled with unethical behaviors. For example, Jeon’s leadership during his time in these respective positions showed many signs of favoritism, as athletes that trained at KNSU were regularly given preferential treatment over those that trained elsewhere (Associated Press, 2019c; Kwon, 2014). In doing so, Jeon essentially created a sub-team within the Korea Skating Union of athletes that trained at KNSU, leading to strife within the team as a whole.

This internal conflict also trickled up into issues of unfairness in player appointment. For instance, Korean national team members are commonly chosen based on their coaches’ power, as opposed to their individual talent (Kwon, 2014). Further, Jeon has been accused of continually favoring coaches from the KNSU circle (led by Jeon), and even helping cover up abuse committed by coaches (Associated Press, 2019c). Specifically, when this accusation took place, Shim was an undergraduate student at KNSU and despite being Shim’s teacher and professor, Jeon continued to support Cho Jae-bum (Associated Press, 2019c; Lee, 2019). The investigation conducted by the Korean Ministry of Education in 2019 reported that despite having knowledge of Cho’s actions, Jeon tried to cover up Cho’s abuse towards multiple players, including Shim (Lee, 2019). Additionally, Jeon used his authority and South Korea’s hierarchical structure to his advantage, as he urged and blackmailed victims to make an agreement with Cho, or else risk their future as a successful ice skater (Park & Kim, 2019). In order to cover up and support these unethical behaviors, Jeon was quoted as saying, “Let’s pressure the victims until they finally go mad and need to go to a mental clinic” (Cho, 2019, para. 2). After Shim’s ordeal, national investigations revealed Jeon’s unethical and immoral behaviors to the public.

Given the nuances of this situation, such as the unique nature of South Korean elite sport culture, as well as the numerous stakeholders involved, there were with many elements within this scandal that individuals could discuss and focus upon. Thus, this study analyzed Facebook comments within the theoretical lens of framing and bottom-up framing.

Data Collection

To explore how the South Korean public framed Shim Suk-hee’s sexual abuse accusations against her former coach Cho Jae-bum, user comments from Dispatch, Insight and SBS News Facebook posts regarding the act were collected. User comments were collected between January 8th and February 16th 2019 from four different posts concerning the sexual assault accusations against Cho Jae-bum, as well as those regarding Jeon Myung-gyu’s efforts to cover up Cho’s actions. The justification for choosing this specific time period was that the first post appeared on the Dispatch Facebook page on January 8. The 5-week period was chosen for analysis because it gives significant time for users to comment on the event (see Schmidt et al., 2019). A total of 1,040 comments were collected, with each comment on the post considered a codable unit. However, comments which were short and consisted of single word abuses (e.g., Shit, F*** you, etc.) directed at Cho and Jeon were deemed inadequate for coding and excluded from the analysis. This resulted in a total of 311 comments being analyzed, all of which were posted by unique users.

Data Analysis

The data was analyzed using a thematic analysis. Braun and Clarke (2006) observed that this procedure allows researchers to identify meanings and patterns within the data set, thus allowing themes to emerge from the data rather than a-priori. This method has been commonly used by sport communication researchers examining social media content (see Cassilo & Sanderson, 2018; Sanderson et al., 2016; Sanderson & Hambrick, 2012). Each user comment on the Facebook posts served as a unit of analysis. Two of the authors, who were familiar with thematic analysis, read and examined the comments independently. Both authors conducted two rounds of qualitative coding—open and axial (see Strauss & Corbin, 1990). In the first stage (i.e., open coding), the researchers developed categories and assigned names to them. This was followed by ascribing attributes to the categories. Each comment was then placed into one of the categories according to its dominant message. The researchers continued with the process of developing, clarifying, and refining themes until new observations did not add substantively to the themes that were already identified. The second round consisted of axial coding, wherein the researchers aim to combine different categories and make connections between them. To assess similarity, each researcher individually summarized and compared categories and minimized the categories as much as possible while still retaining meaning. The two researchers developed themes and categories independently from each other. They later came together to share their analysis and discuss findings. In case of disagreements, the findings were discussed until a general consensus was reached regarding the overarching themes resulting from the analysis. A total of three themes and six sub-themes were identified.

Translation Strategies

Since all user comments were made in Korean, translation strategies were applied to minimize any errors that might arise during the translation processes (Sousa & Rojjanasrirat, 2011). First, a bilingual translator have translated the comments from Korean to English. Second, for back translation, a bilingual translator who had not been exposed to the comments were asked to translate the English version of comments back to Korean. Lastly, the final process of translation have conducted with extensive discussions by the translators regarding potential discrepancies or problems that were identified during back translation (Weeks et al., 2007).

Negative Emotions

The emotions theme (n = 144) was comprised of individuals expressing their displeasure with the entire incident and how it transpired. This theme included four sub-themes: (a) anger (n = 65); (b) disgust (n = 41); (c) empathy (n = 30); and (d) 17 years old (n = 8).

Almost all of the comments under the sub-themes of anger and disgust were people directing their emotions toward Cho’s actions as opposed to highlighting Shim’s victimhood. Some of these comments included “I am very angry with his behavior” and “How did Cho compensate Shim’s wounds? I believe Shim’s wounds will last the rest of her life…I am so angry and hope he gets a reasonable sentence for his behaviors” Individuals expressing their disgust tended to focus more on the shameful nature of Cho’s immoral behaviors, as well as how he abused his position of authority. For example, “He abused his power over a young female athlete! It’s totally disgusting!” and “The people like Cho who abuse their power and authority have to be judged.”

Another sub-theme under the emotions theme was 17 years old. Comments under this sub-theme were those that contained the keywords “17 years old,” Shim’s age when Cho allegedly began raping her. Here, individuals expressed their shock regarding Cho taking advantage of a minor, but emphasized Shim’s age rather than the action itself. For instance, “I cannot believe it. She was only 17 years old!” and “He raped his athlete when she was only 17 years old!”

In contrast to the anger and disgust sub-themes, which tended to focus on the overall heinousness of Cho’s actions, the empathy sub-theme instead focused more on showing sympathy and support for Shim Suk-hee. For example, some of the comments included “I know her and am so sad for her,” and “Shim, you have had a lot of hard work ahead of you…in the meantime, just leave all your wounds in the wind. Move forward with a fresh and lively heart. I truly support your happiness.”

In addition, some users mentioned the negative aspects of current South Korean sport culture. These comments focused on coaches’ immense power over athletes and how this affects Shim and other athletes’ achievements. For example, “The way South Korean athletes like Shim are treated makes me so sad… they are only treated as heroes if they win gold medals and get criticized if they do not win, and are often sexually abused by coaches off the field,” and “Shim practicing for the Olympics was already tough enough without being abused by Cho… I cannot even imagine her pain.”

Punishment for Authority Figures

Comments under this theme (n = 111) were those that called for the authority figures responsible for Shim’s abuse to face harsher repercussions for their actions. This theme consisted of two sub-themes: (a) Punishment for Cho (n = 60) and (b) Punishment for Jeon (n = 51).

Individuals that left comments under the first sub-theme expressed displeasure with the sentence Cho received for physically assaulting Shim, believing that he should have faced a steeper punishment for his actions. For instance, user comments included, “He must receive a more severe punishment” and “Please form a presidential petition to get a more severe punishment.”

Additionally, several users voiced their frustrations with Cho within the context of the entire South Korean legal system. At the time of the study, Cho had already been sentenced to 18 months for his physical abuse towards athletes, including Shim. Users felt that receiving only 18 months for physical abuse was not a proper punishment. Users also believed that, based on this sentence, Cho would not receive a strict enough sentence for his sexual abuse toward Shim, stating their belief that Cho’s sentencing would have been harsher elsewhere. For example, “South Korean law is too generous. He must receive a more severe punishment,” “He was sentenced to only 18 months for physical abuse. That’s too short!” These comments concerning Cho’s short sentencing possibly stemmed from other South Korean sexual abuse cases. For example, in South Korea, 67.3% of sexual related crimes received a sentence of less than 6 years (MBC News, 2020). Thus, even though this study occurred before Cho’s sentencing, the South Korean public did not feel that Cho would receive an appropriate sentence. In addition, with improvement of media and social media improvements, the South Korean public was able to learn about similar cases of in other countries involving coaches’ sexual abusing their athletes, as well as how the coaches were punished for their immoral behaviors. Specifically, many users mentioned the Larry Nassar case, in the United States. For example, “If this happened in the US, he would be sentenced to more than 100 years! South Korean law is too generous!” This comment could have possibly been influenced by the verdict of the Larry Nassar case, in which the former Michigan State doctor received 40 to 175 years in prison for his actions. Overall, users did not feel that justice would be served in Cho’s sentencing.

The second sub-theme were comments that mentioned Jeon Myung-gyu. While Jeon did not physically abuse Shim, many individuals believed his actions enabled Cho’s behavior, as reflected by this sub-theme. Individuals questioned how Jeon came into his current position given his role in the situation. These comments included “How did he become a Korean National Sport University professor and vice president of the KSU? He is totally unqualified” and “Is he a professor? I cannot believe it!” Several comments also called for Jeon to be fired from his current position. For instance, “He should be fired from both Korean National Sport University and from coaching future athletes.”

Lastly, similar to comments under the Further Investigation theme (provided below), individuals also stressed the role of corruption in the scandal. However, rather than calling for additional action to be taken in order to prevent such an event from happening again, individuals remarked on how Jeon’s actions have impacted the Korea Skating Union. Comments included “He is evil! The Korea Skating Union is corrupted because of people like Jeon.”

Further Investigations of Similar Cases

Within this theme (n = 56), comments called for the South Korean governing body of sport organizations to open up investigations into other potential acts of misconduct. After Shim’s brave decision to speak out regarding the negative aspects of South Korean sport, it not only challenged taboos in South Korea’s conservative sport society but also encouraged other South Korean female athletes to disclose incidents of sexual abuse by their coaches them when they were minors. For example, former judo, taekwondo, kick volleyball, soccer, and tennis athletes accused male coaches of sexual assault (Kwak, 2019). Here, individuals’ opinions on the issue went further than just being upset at Cho and his sentencing. Rather, comments reflected the belief that this case may be representative of a systemic problem in South Korean elite sport culture, and called for the governing body to act accordingly. Some of the key comments included “The governing body must conduct further investigations for athletes like her,” “A wide range of investigations will be needed for the South Korean national team,” “There’s more victims like Shim in other sports,” and “I am ashamed of the South Korean national ice-skating team’s culture and system.”

In addition, users also criticized the role of the KSU, the governmental organization which oversees South Korean national team coaches. The public not only criticized the KSU, but also questioned their current system which allows unqualified coaches to continue coaching athletes. For example, “How did Cho became a coach on the South Korean national team? He ruined the life of one of the best female ice-skaters in South Korea,” and “I do not know what KSU is doing as a governmental organization…”