Tearful Korean skater tells court of coach abuse

SEOUL: Double Olympic gold medallist Shim Suk-hee broke down in tears as she told a South Korean court of the years of abuse she suffered at the hands of her coach.

Aged 21, the short-track skater has four Olympic medals to her name, including relay golds at both Sochi 2014 and on home ice at this year’s Pyeongchang Games.But she told a court that her coach Cho Jae-beom had been beating her since she was seven — on one occasion breaking her fingers — leaving her “deeply traumatised”.

His violence “kept escalating” as she grew older, she said at the hearing in Suwon, south of Seoul.