S. Korean swimming body chief to resign amid corruption scandal

SEOUL, March 10 (Yonhap) -- The head of South Korea's top swimming governing body will submit his resignation this month following its executives' corruption scandals, a national swimming official said Thursday.

According to the Korea Swimming Federation (KSF) official, who asked not to be named, KSF President Lee Ki-heung said at a Tuesday meeting with executives from regional swimming federations that he will resign from his post.

The 61-year-old also pushed to hold a board meeting and general assembly in Jeju on March 18 to discuss the retirement of current executives at the KSF, including himself, and initiate an "innovation committee" to tackle the corruption scandal.

Although there is the possibility for the venue and date of the temporary board meeting to be changed because of schedule conflicts with other executives, the KSF official said that Lee wanted to see a new person taking his job by March 25, when the second round national team selection qualification for the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games starts.

The KSF is under fire after many of their executives have been arrested or investigated by Seoul prosecutors in recent weeks on alleged charges of bribery, embezzlement and fraud in national team member selection.

Lee, who has been the KSF president since 2010, has been one of the more active sports figures in South Korea. He was head of the South Korean athletic delegation at the 2012 London Summer Games and the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

Lee is also vice president of the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) and is leading the steering committee to manage the merger between the KOC and the Korea Council of Sport for All (KOCOSA).

The KSF official added Lee will likely cut all of his ties with the sports community once he resigns. Lee, the former chief of the Korea Canoe Federation, last month said that he will drop all sports-related work once the merger between the KOC and the KOCOSA is completed. Under domestic law, the two sports bodies need to become a single entity by March 27.

kdon@yna.co.kr
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