BKA: “Kim and Lee have never taken any banned substances”

“Lee Yong Dae and Kim Ki Jung have never taken any banned substances,” Kim Joong Soo, an executive director of the Badminton Korea Association (BKA), was quoted by Korea’s Yonhap News Agency as saying, “nor have they refused or failed any doping tests.”

Kim, who is also the former head coach of Korea’s national badminton team, insisted that the one-year ban from competition meted out to the two Korean men’s doubles players by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) was entirely due to violations relating to recording their whereabouts, a requirement under the regulations set down by the  World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).  Kim explained that the two players were cited for violations after WADA officials had shown up in March and November of last year at the Taeneung Athletes’ Village – which had been recorded online as their whereabouts – but the players were participating in  domestic and international competitions at those times.  The third violation came when, in September, Kim and Lee were required to register their whereabouts online but “could not”.

Kim stressed that the disciplinary action is a result of the conflict between the Korean players’ competition schedule and WADA’s unscheduled inspections.  “We will definitely be appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport [CAS] so that the two players can participate in the Incheon Asian Games,” he was quoted by Yonhap as saying.

On the WADA website, the importance of recording ‘whereabouts’ information is explained as follows:

Because out-of-competition doping controls can be conducted without notice to athletes, they are one of the most powerful means of deterrence and detection of doping and are an important step in strengthening athlete and public confidence in doping-free sport. Accurate whereabouts information is crucial to ensure efficiency of the anti-doping programs, which are designed to protect the integrity of sport and to protect clean athletes.