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New Delhi, India
A former executive director of the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) has made some stunning revelations to expose the deep-rooted corruption culture at the Olympics and the World Championships. The ex-official revealed how Azerbaijan was once offered a gold medal at the Olympics in exchange for $10 million and how he was involved in bribing top IOC members to secure taekwondo's place in the Olympic Games.
In an exclusive interview with The Times, 66-year-old Ho Kim, a South Korean sports official, made the startling revelations. Ho Kim served as the marketing and PR at the World Taekwondo Federation before he took over as the executive director of the Amateur International Boxing Association (AIBA) and served in the top position for a decade.
Ho Kim revealed that during his time at the AIBA, there was a cash-for-medals culture at the organisation and bribes amounting to millions of dollars were paid to guarantee a medal at the Olympics. The South Korean claimed Azerbaijan were offered a guaranteed gold medal in boxing at the London Olympics in 2004 and that the country paid $10 million in the form of a loan.
While admitting to bribing top International Olympic Committee officials on his own, Ho Kim claimed he was just a 'delivery boy' working for Dr Kim Un-yong and Wu Ching-kuo â two of the most influential figures in the IOC.
Dr Kim was the founding president of the global taekwondo federation and later became the vice-president of the IOC, Wu was a former president of the AIBA, who later joined the IOC's executive board in 2012.
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Bribing officials for Taekwondo's inclusion at the Olympics
Taekwondo was included in the Olympics for the first time in the 2000 Summer Games after a vote at the IOC Congress in 1994. Dr Kim was the major force behind the inclusion of the Korean martial arts discipline at the Games as he instructed his staff to do whatever possible in ensuring it was included in the Olympics.
Working under Dr Kim at the time, Ho Kim revealed he was involved in bribing top IOC officials, some of whom flew down to the South Korean capital of Seoul to collect cash. First-class flight tickets were arranged for the officials who travelled to South Korea.
Ho Kim claimed he also arranged for two luxury Daewoo cars to be sent to Lamine Keita, an IOC member from Mali at the time in order to convince him to vote in their favour for Taekwondo's inclusion at the Olympics. âTaekwondo started as an Olympic sport from Sydney in 2000 because of that,â Ho Kim told The Times.
Dr Kim, who was the major conspirator behind Taekwondo's inclusion at the Olympics, was a South Korean businessman. He was accused of bribery and forced to resign from the IOC later and died in 2017.
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Rigged election and medals up for sale in boxing
During his time at the AIBWA, Ho Kim worked under Wu, who he revealed, offered a gold medal to Azerbaijan at the London Olympics in exchange for a loan of $10 million for some initiative in the sport. Ho Kim also claimed he was offered bribes of up to $20,000 to fix bouts at the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships in Baku.
Ho Kim alleged there was a cash-for-medals culture in boxing and the sport suffered due to the deep-rooted corruption. He also revealed how Wu bought several delegates from national federations in order to get elected as the President of the AIBA in 2006.
âWe put all the cash in the envelopes. Different amounts. Our team had been involved in this before and would tell us how much for each of the federations they believed would accept a bribe. In our campaign office in Santo Domingo, people arrive and then we have to bribe. When they arrive they are expecting to get paid. We won, 83 votes to 79," Ho Kim recalled.
When asked why he is speaking out now, Ho Kim said he doesn't want boxing to suffer amid IOC's warning to the rebranded International Boxing Federation (IBA) that the game will be removed from the Olympics. Boxing has been part of the Olympics since 1904 but is not listed in the programme for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Russia's Umar Kremlev is currently the president of the IBA and the IOC had recently expressed concerns over the governance and existing corruption in the boxing body. However, Ho Kim claims IOC has threatened IBA only to get a clean slate themselves.
Ho Kim alleged it was IOC that 'pushed' Wu to run for the president's post of AIBA in 2006. The South Korean whistleblower also revealed Wu had at the time, met with the then president of IOC Jacques Rogge, and had his backing in the AIBA election.
Ho Kim alleged IOC has many such 'dirty secrets' and is trying to punish the boxing body to clean its own image amidst the controversy. âThere are a lot of dirty stories hidden but what the IOC is doing to boxing right now, they also have to do something to clean their position also,â Ho Kim said.