Former ROK short track coach sentenced for assault

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Cho Jae-beom, former coach of South Korea's national short track team, was sentenced to 10 months in jail on Wednesday for assaulting multiple athletes, Yonhap News reported.

The Seongnam branch of the Suwon District Court has put Cho under court custody as he was charged of physically punishing skaters including Shim Suk-hee who won two-time Olympic gold medal, from 2011 to 2018.

Cho was found guilty by the court in a verdict that said he knew clearly about the non-violence rules of the Korea Skating Union (KSU) but still committed the crime multiple times, meaning he had to be punished severely.

Shim Suk-hee competes in the women's 1000 meter heats during the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships at Maurice Richard Arena on March 16, 2018 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. /VCG Photo

In January, shortly before the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Shim Suk-hee was beaten by Cho who then left the training facility. The news was first kept unknown to the outside world, but as South Korean President Moon Jae-in visited the facility, reporters coming along with him found Shim's absence before the case was revealed.

KSU soon announced that Cho had been banned permanently. After the Winter Olympics, the country's sports ministry launched independent investigation into the case and on May 23, concluded that Cho's behavior was more serious than reported. Then the police started to look into it.

Cho admitted to the police that he hit Shim and other athletes at the training camp to "help them improve", according to Tencent Sports.

(Top picture: Cho Jae-beom, former coach of South Korea's national short track team /Screenshot from Yonhap News)