I haven't been on here in ages but I wanted to share something with you... although it seems that there hasn't been much activity in the Rhythmic Gymnastics section of the forum.
Anyway, Son Yeon Jae, the rhythmic gymnast who placed 4th at Rio and once hailed something close to a media celebrity close to Kim Yuna's level, is now the public enemy after it's been questioned whether she has been given preferential/special treatment for her connection with the disgraced Korean president.
Long story short, the Korean president, Park Geun Hye, is very corrupt and has been using billions of dollars of government money to fund her close friends (and their friends) in their personal endeavors, and also putting pressure on different organizations to do favours for them. The key woman in this whole ordeal is Choi Soon Shil, who has been revealed to influence the President in the way of making decisions and speeches, and even has been receiving classified information for years. She got close to the as her father was a shaman fortuneteller and the president trusted this shaman fortuneteller... anyway, that's a long story. Basically, this is the biggest political scandal that Korea has ever seen.. and Korean politics has always been riddled with scandals -- so that's saying a lot. Anyway, the Korean people have reacted to this news very emotionally, hundreds of thousands gathering around the Blue House to demand that the president step down.
Anyway, back to Son; she was linked to the president and Choi Soon Shil for two things; one, she attended an exercise event that was run by the president and her personal friends (the president was in attendance too); two, she frequents a beauty clinic that the president also frequents (close to the point where she sent them gifts after her performance at Rio).
Everyone realizes that all of this could just be coincidence (For instance, male artistic gymnast Yang Hak Sun was also there but no one is accusing him of anything) but the people are accusing her because they are finding all this 'evidence' of special/preferential treatment that she seems to have gotten.
For instance, despite not being dominant in her sport at the world level, she's been given a sports award given by the Korean Government that even Kim Yuna has never won, despite not having a single Worlds or Olympic medal. Besides Son, all of the other winners are Olympic gold medalists, often several times, or have won a Worlds gold in their sport.
Another thing is that her mother had an access card to accompany her around restricted areas at Rio as well as her Russian coach, her Korean coach, her agency CEO, and her personal physical therapist. This is in stark contrast to the marathon team, who couldn't even have their coach accompany them, and the biggest star swimmer couldn't have his physical therapist and was only given 1 access card for his coach; the entire volleyball team had just 3 access cards, and also had to have their star player also act as their translator and their coach act as a doctor.
The other thing is that she was admitted to Yonsei University, the most prestigious university in Korea, without having made the academic cut. This is despite Yonsei not having much of a rhythmic gymnastics team. Despite not being able to attend her classes because she trains in Russia (classes are mandatory in Korea), she has not been kicked out. Seeing as the whole president scandal began with Choi Soon Shil's daughter Jung Yoora (who is a dressage athlete) being admitted to another prestigious university called Ewha university and passing all her classes without attending any of them, people are quite wary at this point about Son's situation as well.
Son's also skipped out on national team selection meets for the past number of years, each time because she "is in poor condition" but she goes to public events just fine. And of course, she's was still put on the national team each time.
Son Yeon Jae's biggest achievement is winning gold at the Asian Games, but her achievement even there is being questioned, as someone pointed out that she was seen hugging one of the judges after the meet.
She's been the talk of the town for the past several days because of this. With that said, for the past number of years, she's been getting lots of media attention; she takes months at a time away from her gym in Russia to appear on Korean TV, goes to events, etc, and is compared constantly to Kim Yuna. There were always a few Korean rhythmic gymnastics fans who realized that Son is not on the same level as Kim.... like... at ALL, but no one can deny that Son has a pretty face and that 'star quality'. But because of how strongly everyone has reacted to the presidential scandal, Son appears to be caught up in that as well. Her agency had to clarify a number of things and they have denied any special treatment but no one is believing them.
This might be difficult for someone who's on the outside looking in to grasp, especially with this short post... but every Korean is talking about this and her Instagram is currently being bombarded by haters and supporters alike. I'm still personally torn, I think people are taking it too far but even before all of this, I did think that Son got a lot more attention than what she deserved -- I could never reconcile media putting her on the same level of Yuna Kim... at the same time, I really don't know anything about rhythmic gymnastics. What are your thoughts?
Korean Rhythmic Gymnast Son Yeon Jae in hot waters
Anyway, Son Yeon Jae, the rhythmic gymnast who placed 4th at Rio and once hailed something close to a media celebrity close to Kim Yuna's level, is now the public enemy after it's been questioned whether she has been given preferential/special treatment for her connection with the disgraced Korean president.
Long story short, the Korean president, Park Geun Hye, is very corrupt and has been using billions of dollars of government money to fund her close friends (and their friends) in their personal endeavors, and also putting pressure on different organizations to do favours for them. The key woman in this whole ordeal is Choi Soon Shil, who has been revealed to influence the President in the way of making decisions and speeches, and even has been receiving classified information for years. She got close to the as her father was a shaman fortuneteller and the president trusted this shaman fortuneteller... anyway, that's a long story. Basically, this is the biggest political scandal that Korea has ever seen.. and Korean politics has always been riddled with scandals -- so that's saying a lot. Anyway, the Korean people have reacted to this news very emotionally, hundreds of thousands gathering around the Blue House to demand that the president step down.
Anyway, back to Son; she was linked to the president and Choi Soon Shil for two things; one, she attended an exercise event that was run by the president and her personal friends (the president was in attendance too); two, she frequents a beauty clinic that the president also frequents (close to the point where she sent them gifts after her performance at Rio).
Everyone realizes that all of this could just be coincidence (For instance, male artistic gymnast Yang Hak Sun was also there but no one is accusing him of anything) but the people are accusing her because they are finding all this 'evidence' of special/preferential treatment that she seems to have gotten.
For instance, despite not being dominant in her sport at the world level, she's been given a sports award given by the Korean Government that even Kim Yuna has never won, despite not having a single Worlds or Olympic medal. Besides Son, all of the other winners are Olympic gold medalists, often several times, or have won a Worlds gold in their sport.
Another thing is that her mother had an access card to accompany her around restricted areas at Rio as well as her Russian coach, her Korean coach, her agency CEO, and her personal physical therapist. This is in stark contrast to the marathon team, who couldn't even have their coach accompany them, and the biggest star swimmer couldn't have his physical therapist and was only given 1 access card for his coach; the entire volleyball team had just 3 access cards, and also had to have their star player also act as their translator and their coach act as a doctor.
The other thing is that she was admitted to Yonsei University, the most prestigious university in Korea, without having made the academic cut. This is despite Yonsei not having much of a rhythmic gymnastics team. Despite not being able to attend her classes because she trains in Russia (classes are mandatory in Korea), she has not been kicked out. Seeing as the whole president scandal began with Choi Soon Shil's daughter Jung Yoora (who is a dressage athlete) being admitted to another prestigious university called Ewha university and passing all her classes without attending any of them, people are quite wary at this point about Son's situation as well.
Son's also skipped out on national team selection meets for the past number of years, each time because she "is in poor condition" but she goes to public events just fine. And of course, she's was still put on the national team each time.
Son Yeon Jae's biggest achievement is winning gold at the Asian Games, but her achievement even there is being questioned, as someone pointed out that she was seen hugging one of the judges after the meet.
She's been the talk of the town for the past several days because of this. With that said, for the past number of years, she's been getting lots of media attention; she takes months at a time away from her gym in Russia to appear on Korean TV, goes to events, etc, and is compared constantly to Kim Yuna. There were always a few Korean rhythmic gymnastics fans who realized that Son is not on the same level as Kim.... like... at ALL, but no one can deny that Son has a pretty face and that 'star quality'. But because of how strongly everyone has reacted to the presidential scandal, Son appears to be caught up in that as well. Her agency had to clarify a number of things and they have denied any special treatment but no one is believing them.
This might be difficult for someone who's on the outside looking in to grasp, especially with this short post... but every Korean is talking about this and her Instagram is currently being bombarded by haters and supporters alike. I'm still personally torn, I think people are taking it too far but even before all of this, I did think that Son got a lot more attention than what she deserved -- I could never reconcile media putting her on the same level of Yuna Kim... at the same time, I really don't know anything about rhythmic gymnastics. What are your thoughts?
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