South Korean Olympic swimming champion Park Tae Hwan spoke at a press conference today, as scheduled, to address the public regarding his FINA-imposed 18-month doping ban. This is the first public appearance by Park since the doping tests came back positive in October of last year.
Per Yonhap News, Park expressly took responsibility for at least putting himself in a position which allowed this situation to occur, stating “When I first learned of the test result, I felt something must have been wrong. But then I realized I should have been more careful. Regardless of reasons or processes, I think it’s my fault that things have come to this point.”
Showing emotion throughout the session, Park said he is “sorry for having disappointed his fans and the South Korean people”. Park would “like to apologize to the people for causing so much trouble with this unacceptable incident.” He also described how the last few months have been “hell….the difficult and lonely time that I felt like dying”, specifically stating that the upcoming 18 months that he is “stripped of the rights as a swimmer will probably be the most difficult.”
Park declined to comment on the 2016 Rio Olympics, responding with “It’s not time to talk about future here as I made a mistake that I myself couldn’t accept,” when asked about the prospects.
From news article…
“Team GMP said it has asked authorities to investigate why the hospital gave Park the injection, and news reports said prosecutors subsequently quizzed Park and hospital officials about the injection. Park told investigators he was given the injection without knowing what specific substances it contained, while the hospital said it didn’t know testosterone was a prohibited substance, according to Yonhap news agency.”
He hurt his hip and injected it to stop the pain and that got caught in the test. Btw don’t need to write something that he already knows… Kay? Kay…. Not interested in his future? No one cares….
Hackett wants his Gold Medal. In the words of Pete Garrett of Midnight oil fame “Give it back”.
Ohh yeahhh he wants it back .
Hackett would need another 4 people to test positive before he got the gold medal. He was 6th in the 400m Free Final in Beijing.
I just don’t realize how any athlete could have an excuse for allowing somebody to inject ANYTHING into their butt (please correct me if I’m wrong about what happened to Park, because I was a fan of his before this incident, and I’d LOVE to know I have the wrong info. here) without knowing what was in the syringe. How could he not know he was cheating? Did he think it was a B12 shot? Somebody help me out here…
Too late Park – not interested in your future . Period