SEOUL– Park Joo-hee, a South Korean sports administrator and anti-doping expert, has been named to the executive body of the global swimming federation.
The Korea Swimming Federation (KSF) said Thursday that Park is only the third South Korean, and the first South Korean woman, to join the World Aquatics’ Bureau. The election took place in Melbourne on Monday.
Former President Lee Myung-bak and the current Korean Sport & Olympic Committee chief Lee Kee-heung had served on the Bureau of the World Aquatics, previously known as FINA, the acronym of its full French name, Federation Internationale de Natation.
Park, 43, is the secretary general of the Seoul-based International Sport Strategy Foundation (ISF) and a member of the Anti-Doping Commission at the Olympic Council of Asia. She has a Ph.D. in sports medicine and science from Kyung Hee University and is an adjunct professor at Ewha Womans University, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.
Park has served as the anti-doping manager for the following events held in South Korea: the 2011 World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang and the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju.
Park also worked as a doping control officer for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and a doping control venue manager during the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
Park helped develop educational materials for the World Anti-Doping Agency and participated in anti-doping research projects by the Korea Anti-Doping Agency.
In May, Park became the first South Korean to join the International Olympic Academy, the main educational body of the International Olympic Committee.
Thirteen officials were added to the bureau this week, and Park was one of nine women, joined by the likes of Sarah Keane, head of the Olympic Federation of Ireland, and Otylia Jedrzejczak, a three-time Olympic swimming medalist and president of the Polish Swimming Federation.
There are now 14 female members at the bureau, which is responsible for, among other things, organizing and controlling competitions at the Olympic Games and world championships.
Source: Yonhap News Agency