U.S. Olympic short track speedskating bronze medalist Simon Cho has been suspended through Oct. 4, 2014 by the International Skating Union after admitting to tampering with a Canadian’s skate at the 2011 World Team Championships. Cho would miss the 2014 Olympics under that ban.
The two-year suspension was set retroactively to Oct. 5, 2012, the day Cho admitted to bending a skate blade belonging to Canadian Olympic champion Olivier Jean. Cho said he was directed to do so by U.S. coach Jae Su Chun.
Chun, who denied Cho’s claim, was also suspended, through Aug. 25, 2015. Chun resigned his US Speedskating post a week after Cho’s admission and has been coaching a club of skaters, including top Americans, in Salt Lake City.
Cho, 21, did not compete at last weekend’s World Cup trials at the Utah Olympic Oval. He could still be suspended further by US Speedskating and has not been training or competing on any level in the last year, according to the Deseret News.
The Seoul-born Cho was the top U.S. men’s short track speedskater in the year following the Vancouver Olympics, where he was the youngest member of the team that won 5,000-meter relay bronze. In 2010-11, he won the overall World Cup season title and the World Championship in the 500 meters, where Jean took silver.
