While South Korean Olympic swimmer Park Tae Hwan currently serves his FINA-imposed 18-month suspension from the sport, the doctor involved in the notorious injection of banned substance Nebido is beginning her legal ordeal. (The Korea Times)
Park’s team maintains that the doctor, who is only known by surname Kim, committed professional negligence back in September 2014 by failing to inform Park of a syringe’s contents that were injected into the athlete during a treatment for back issues. In their words, “a physician giving a world-class swimmer an injection containing a banned substance at a critical time is clearly an illegal act.” (KT)
However, Kim’s lawyer’s stance is that his client specifically asked Park to verify whether the injection would cause a problem and was told that Park would indeed verify. “Kim has no professional knowledge in sports and had never treated an athlete before,” the lawyer is quoted as saying in court. “That’s why she explicitly asked Park to be the one making the call.” As such, the doctor is officially pleading “not guilty” in court.
Park is set to testify on June 4th.
He continually informed he cannot be injected illigal substance and checked the prescription how to avoid the situation?
Park has been imposed 18month suspension from the sport which is shorter than everyboby expected before. coz the Korean prosecutor made a judgement that he didn’t mean to take illigal medical substances.
a blood test needs to be implimented for the hormone treatmenr but no blood test was done with Park. the dotor is kind of quack.
In Park’s position, Park has checked the list of prescriptions whether illigal substances are included or not… even his management company as well. the doctor didn’t write anything about the treatment. is it right?
Ferb nailed it….which is exactly why so many docs want nothing to do with elite athletes (or those who think they are!)
I hope the doctor comes out swinging and lets everyone know that this was an ongoing situation and that he is being hung out to dry. In the interest of “national honor” the doctor will probably be found guilty, or, he will be pressured into taking the blame. This is an awful situation for the doctor.
I do not feel one ounce of sympathy for Park. He was caught and now doesn’t want to do the time.
Maybe if he was swimming for Russia or China, this would have already been resolved in secret.
*she
doctor is female
I’m sure Park Tae-Hwan is an intelligent man. What elite athlete allows ANYBODY to inject a syringe filled with ANYTHING into their body without knowing what is in the syringe?! What jury would believe that story?! For that matter, what doctor would prescribe a long-acting esther of testosterone to treat BACK PAIN?! Honestly, I’ve always been a fan of this athlete; can anybody explain this to me?
Sure, I can explain it. Park cheated, and like all cheaters who are caught, he fabricated an alibi in order to get leniency. Park and the South Korean officials needed a scapegoat to strengthen the alibi, so they trumped up charges against this doctor. It will be a big dog-and-pony show, and the doctor will probably be found guilty, and receive harsh words and a suspended sentence from the judge. Park will be “vindicated,” and compete in the Rio Olympics like nothing ever happened. FINA (“we can do whatever”) will be able to claim they did their job, and there was just enough doubt to reduce Park’s ban to a duration that conveniently allows him to compete in Rio.