Speed skater Kim Min-seok indicted for drunk driving
Prosecutors indicted Olympic speed skating medalist Kim Min-seok without detention on Tuesday for driving while drunk in July.
Kim is currently in the midst of an 18-month ban from competing in races that lasts until February, 2024. However, if he receives a criminal conviction, he will be banned from joining the national team for at least two years. That will effectively take him out of contention for the 2026 Winter Games.
Kim was behind the wheel when a car containing four national team skaters crashed in July, with police investigations estimating that his blood alcohol content at the time was high enough for his driver’s license to be revoked.
According to the Korea Skating Union (KSU), four national team speed skaters Kim, Chung Jae-woong, Chung Jae-won and Jeong Seon-kyo were drinking outside of the National Training Center in Jincheon on July 22, allegedly returning to the training center in Kim’s car with Chung Jae-woong driving so that they could attend a birthday party for short track skater Park Ji-yun at the Welcome Centre in the National Training Center.
After the party, Kim allegedly attempted to drive Jeong, Chung Jae-woong and Park back to their dorms, but crashed the car into a barrier on the drive at the National Training Center. Security cameras captured the four walking away from the scene without reporting the accident.
According to the KSU, Park later claimed that she had left to make it to a therapy appointment, while the other three said that they had gone to get the insurance policy for the car.
A table tennis player inside the National Training Center later found the abandoned car and reported the accident.
On Aug. 8, Kim received an 18-month ban from competing in matches while Chung Jae-woong was banned from competing for a year for drunk driving. Jeong is suspended for six months and two-time Olympic medalist Chung Jae-won was suspended for two months, both for abetting driving under the influence of alcohol and riding in the car. Park has not been suspended.
Kim is a big name in Korean speed skating, having first won silver in the men’s team pursuit at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics and an individual bronze in the men’s 1,500 meters, becoming the first Asian athlete to medal at that distance. At this year’s Beijing Winter Games, Kim won Korea’s first medal in Beijing with his second consecutive 1,500-meter bronze medal.
Chung Jae-won was also part of the silver-medal winning team in the men’s team pursuit at the 2018 PyeongChang Games and won the men’s mass start silver medal at the 2022 Beijing Games.
As of now, Kim will be able to compete starting from February of 2024. However, according to Korean Sport & Olympic Committee regulations, anyone who has been criminally punished under Article 148-2 of the Road Traffic Act for DUI or related behavior, will be banned from competing for the national team for two years if fined less than 5 million won, or three years if fined 5 million won or more.
If Kim’s blood alcohol level turns out to have been higher than 0.08 percent, which would cause his license to be revoked, he will face imprisonment for one to two years or a fine between 5 to 10 million won.
If the level turns out to be higher than 0.2 percent, he will face imprisonment for two to five years or a fine of 10 to 20 million won.
Any criminal punishment will take him out of the national team and is likely to see him removed from the squad for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games.
BY YUN SO-HYANG [yun.sohyang@joongang.co.kr]