South Korea Judo Team Under Fire Over String of Blunders, from Missed Flights to Weigh-in Disqualification
Key Points
- South Korea's national judo squad missed a connecting flight in Dubai after staff lost track of time while dining, stranding athletes during transit to the World Championships in Azerbaijan.
- The incident sparked intense public backlash as it closely followed an Asian Games mishap where an athlete was disqualified after coaches erroneously told her to eat before a random weigh-in.
- The Korea Judo Association pledged to review operational systems and implement structural reforms following the World Championships.
Summary South Korea’s national judo team has come under intense public scrutiny following a string of administrative blunders that disrupted athletes' competition conditions and directly caused a disqualification at a major international tournament.
According to the Korea Judo Association (KJA) and sporting officials, head coach Jeong Seong-sook and several members of the national squad recently missed their connecting flight in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, while traveling to Azerbaijan for the International Judo Federation (IJF) World Championships. Reports revealed that team staff and athletes failed to monitor transit schedules while having a meal and attending to other personal business during the layover. As a consequence, the squad was stranded at the airport for hours waiting for a subsequent flight, forcing athletes to endure unnecessary physical fatigue and disruption to their pre-competition conditioning.
This travel fiasco comes right on the heels of an even more egregious operational error at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. Judoka Jeong Su-jin (Yong In University), who was set to compete in the women’s 48 kg division, was disqualified before stepping onto the mat. Team leadership failed to recognize that she had been selected for a mandatory random weigh-in on the morning of competition and inadvertently advised her to eat. The weight gain from the meal triggered an immediate disqualification. The blunder only came to light after the devastated athlete took to personal social media to expose the mismanagement.
Following mounting public anger over bureaucratic negligence, the Korea Judo Association issued an apology and stated that it would formulate comprehensive organizational reforms once the World Championships conclude. The incident highlights ongoing debates within South Korean sports administration regarding leadership accountability and the professional care given to national athletes representing the country on the global stage.
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