Mick Hartley

Everyone knows about Jesse Owens, but another controversy from the 1936 Berlin Olympics is still, as it were, running. It concerns Korea's marathon gold medal winner:

Sohn Kee-Chung (August 29, 1914 – November 15, 2002) became the first medal-winning Korean Olympian, when he won the gold medal in the marathon at the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a member of the Japanese delegation. He competed under the Japanese name Son Kitei, because Korea was then a colony of the Japanese Empire. The name is based on the Japanese Kanji pronunciation of his Korean hanja name….

[A]s a nationalist, Sohn refused to sign his name in Japanese Kanji, and instead wrote it in Korean; he even sketched the shape of Korean flag beside some of his signatures. When interviewed about his country, he would clarify that it was Korea and not Japan.

Now, after years of pressure from the Korean Athlete’s Association, the International Olympics Committee website have finally included the story of Sohn's Korean background in his entry:

On 3 November 1935, Sohn Kee-chung of Korea (South Korea) set a world marathon record of 2:26:42.0. Because Korea was, at the time, occupied by Japanese forces, Sohn's hopes for competing in the 1936 Olympics depended on his ability to qualify for the Japanese team. This he accomplished, as did fellow Korean Nam Seung-yong. Both young men were forced to adopt Japanese names (his participation is recorded under the Japanese name Son Kitei).

Sohn, a fervent nationalist, always signed his Korean name in Berlin, and whenever he was asked where he was from, he made it a point to explain that Korea was a separate nation. Defending marathon champion Juan Carlos Zabala of Argentina took the early lead, followed by Sohn and Ernie Harper of Great Britain, who ran together. After 28km, Sohn and Harper passed Zabala. Sohn soon pulled away and won by more than two minutes. Nam finished third behind Harper.

At the medal ceremony Sohn had to watch as his victory was celebrated by the raising of the Japanese flag and by the playing of the Japanese national anthem. Both Sohn and Nam registered a silent protest by bowing their heads. As for the race itself, Sohn explained, "The human body can do so much. Then the heart and spirit must take over."

Back in Korea, Sohn became a national hero. One newspaper, Dong-a-Ilbo, published a wire-service photograph of Sohn on the victory platform – but with one alteration: they painted over the Japanese flag on his sweatshirt. The Japanese colonial government responded by jailing eight people connected with the paper and suspending its publication for nine months.

Which is all well and good, but he's still listed under his Japanese name of Son Kitei, and the medal is still credited to Japan. The IOC reportedly said that they couldn't bend the rules for changing the name and nationality of an athlete given at the time of registration just for this one case. 

Will South Korea let this rest?