South Korea’s ex Olympic speed skating coach is sentenced to more than 10 years in prison after found guilty of sexual assault and physical abuse towards Shim Suk-Khee.

The perpetrator also known as Cho Jae Beom, 39, repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted the victim, Shim Suk-Khee, 23, for more than three years. She was only 17 when the abuse started and continued until just a few months before their country hosted the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Image via Youtube (Arirang News)

As a result, the victim suffered severe mental distress from the repeated assaults that she went through during her adolescence. The accused coach continuously denied the allegations which lead to the heavy punishment sentenced to him.

Image via The New York Times

Before the 2018 Winter Olympics, Cho was fired from his position as the national short-track speed skating team coach while Shim took home her second Olympic gold medal. She received her first Olympic gold medal back in Sochi, Russia, in 2014.

Cho was already being accused back in 2019 for sexually assaulting Shim on 30 different occasions from August 2014-December 2017. The abuse took place in multiple locations such as the Taereung National Centre in northeastern Seoul, an ice rink at Korea National Sport University in southeastern Seoul and five other places.

Image via The Korea Herald

Shim released a statement following the sentencing saying that she hopes other victims  would not be afraid to come out and report their abuse.

Image via CNA

Physical abuse and sexual assault is not an uncommon occurrence in the competitive sports world. Back in 2020, Netflix released ‘Athlete A’, a documentary depicting the sexual abuse of hundreds of young underaged athletes under the care of Larry Nassar, the USA Gymnastics national team doctor. He was sentence to 40-175 years in prison for his heinous acts.

Image via Dailymail

Credits to asiaone for the initial coverage.

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