U.S. skater Simon Cho tampered with skate

KEARNS, Utah - A U.S. speed skater, reigning national short-track champion Simon Cho, faces a disciplinary hearing after confessing Friday that he tampered with a Canadian rival’s skate at the 2011 World Team Championship.

In a coaching scandal that is getting steadily messier, short-track interim coach Yeo Jun-hyung was suspended Friday by the federation for failing to report that tampering.

And the man at the center of the scandal, head coach Chun Jae-su, remains suspended and also could be disciplined for not reporting the tampering.

But investigators commissioned by U.S. Speedskating to investigate said they didn’t find evidence that Chun engaged in “a pattern of physical and emotional abuse” as alleged by skaters, or Cho’s claim that Chun ordered the skate tampering.

Cho admitted Friday at a news conference that he sabotaged the skate of Canada’s Olivier Jean. But he said he did it at the direction of Chun after the coach made the command a third time in Korean.

Cho said he was embarrassed by his actions and called his decision to comply the “biggest mistake of my life” and one he regrets.

AP