[LETTERS to the editor]Unfairness in Olympics

On the third day of the Olympics, I watched Park Tae-hwan win the first gold medal for South Korea in swimming. I was really proud of Korea and was very excited.

Then I read an article saying that Park had been tested for doping twice; it is unusual for an athlete to be tested more than once. It is understandable that the Chinese are suspicious seeing a Korean doing so well in swimming.

But why only Park? They should have done it to others also. In addition, when athletes have to take a doping test, testers should make sure that he gets minimum disadvantage in practicing due to the test.

However, Chinese testers didn’t do that. Park had to even take a blood test which took one hour in all, which disrupted Park’s practice schedule.

Also, I found out that archery has only 4 gold medals while swimming has 24 gold medals. Why such a difference? Then I heard that there used to be many more medals for archery but that was changed since South Korea gets all the medals in archery.

Why indeed does swimming have so many medals at stake? Many Americans tend to win them. The United States, which is the most powerful country in the world, must want to win as many medals as possible. So I guess they made some effort to achieve that.

These are some unfair aspects of the Olympics. The Olympics are supposed to promote world peace. However, if there’s a lot of unfairness in it, how can it achieve peace? I think the officials concerned with the Olympics should try not to make things favor their country.

Jung Eun Ah, a senior student,

Sookmyung Girls’ High School

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