ANOTHER OLYMPIC CONTROVERSY

Taekwondo at the 2004 Summer Olympics was supposed to have been more than a spectator sport for Master Dae Sung Lee. Hired to be the head coach for the U.S. taekwondo team in October 2003, Lee traveled around the world sizing up the competition to prepare his athletes. At times, Lee spent six weeks away from his wife and kids and his taekwondo school in Honolulu. But all that was for naught when he was replaced from his job just one month before the opening ceremonies in August.

Although it was not under the circumstances he originally planned, Lee did travel to the Athens Olympics.

“I don’t want to create a problem, so maybe I will stay way in the back, far behind in the stands, and just cheer for the U.S.,” said Lee, a day before getting on a plane for Greece.

Upheaval in the governing body for U.S. taekwondo led to Lee’s removal. Trouble began in 2003 when an audit of U.S. Taekwondo Union (USTU) finances revealed financial mismanagement — including $206,000 unaccounted for and owed to the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), which accredits the USTU to be the sport’s U.S. governing body. If the USTU lost its certification, the USOC could strip the USTU’s authority to select U.S. taekwondo athletes for the Olympics. So the USTU eventually complied with USOC demands, which included the forced resignation of all six USTU officers and the firing of some board members. Two-thirds of all those forced out were Korean American.

Lee was never implicated with any of the USTU’s financial problems. But in April, he received a faxed letter from the new USTU CEO, Bob Gambardella, stating that the head coach position had been vacated because the criteria for selecting coaches had changed under the new leadership. Although Lee met the requirement of having international coaching experience (Lee coached the American team at the Pan American Games in 2003 and was head coach three times for the annual World Taekwondo Championship), he failed the second: to have coached an athlete who qualified for the Olympics.

In response, Lee, who was also a nine-time U.S. champion in the ’70s and ’80s, sued the USOC and the USTU (which is now known as U.S.A. Taekwondo) for reinstatement based on discrimination and $1 million in personal damages.

According to Lee’s attorney, Ward Jones, the USOC has shown a pattern of discrimination against Korean Americans. (The ousted Korean American USTU officers also accused the USOC of racial discrimination before the management shake-up.)

Lee’s evidence includes testimony where a member of the USOC described the USTU as a “Korea Mafia-run organization,” as well as a USOC letter to the USTU dated Aug. 4, 2003, claiming that the union “had allegiance to Korea to the detriment of U.S. programs and the interests of U.S. athletes.” (The USOC, a federally chartered organization, has been the subject of a congressional investigation for ethical and financial mismanagement.)