Judo team head coach Jeong Sung-sook intends to resign amid controversy over poor player management

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kyung-yoon Kim = General manager of the national judo team, Jeong Sung-sook, announced her intention to resign, taking responsibility for the recent controversy over poor player management.

An official from the Korean Judo Association said on the 13th, "General Manager Jeong Seong-suk has expressed his intention to take responsibility for a series of events," and added, "Once he submits his official resignation letter, related procedures will be followed."

He added, "We plan to discuss the resignation of head coach Jeong Sung-sook and whether other national team leaders will be reappointed at the Performance Improvement Committee on the 16th."

The national judo team caused controversy by revealing loopholes in player management at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.

At the time, the coaching staff, including coach Jeong Sung-sook, did not recognize that Su-jin Jeong (Yongin University), who was scheduled to compete in the women's 48kg class, was subject to a random weigh-in on the day of the match, and encouraged her to eat and drink, resulting in her disqualification.

This incident became known after Sujin Jeong exposed it through her personal social media.

Recently, while traveling to Azerbaijan, where the International Judo Federation (IJF) World Championships were held, some athletes were unable to board a connecting flight in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), causing unnecessary inconveniences such as waiting at the airport for several hours, which hindered their condition management.

Meanwhile, members of the national judo team who completed the competition schedule, including Lee Hyun-ji (Yongin University), who won the women's over 78kg class at the World Championships, returned to Korea on this day.