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Just last month,theKorean Olympic Committee(KOC) reaffirmed their decision to forbidPark Tae Hwanfrom participating in the 2016 Summer Olympics. However, the court has ruled in favor of Park Tae Hwan. According to Yonhap, the court reasoned,"[Park] has no reason for being disqualified based on Article 5 of the Korea Swimming Federation's rule on the selection of national team swimmers."
Park Tae Hwan received a suspension back in 2014 which ended in March 2016.Because the KOC did not amend the provision stating that an athlete cannot be a member of the national team for three years following a suspension, the KOC ultimately left Park Tae Hwan off South Korea's national swimming team.
The court stated that it would be unfair to punish Park two times on the same offense. There have been previous precedents ofdouble punishment being ruled invalid and some previous examples were brought up.
Park also brought the case to theCourt of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). He has asked them to make an urgent decision before July 8 as the KOC must submit their final roster on July 18. An anonymous KOC official relayed,"It's not clear if the court ordered us to let Park compete at the Olympics right away or to wait until the CAS makes its ruling before making that decision... If the CAS rules in favor of Park, then we could say he'd be qualified to swim at the Olympics."
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