Archery Association of India Yet to Clear My 'Two Months of Salary', Claims Outgoing Korean Coach Baek Woong Ki

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The renowned South Korean archery coach BaekWoong Ki associated with the Indian team for the last two years was the first casualty post-Paris Olympics 2024 held in France between July 26 and August 11.

The foreign archery coach, in his early 60's, was denied Paris Olympic Games accreditation last month and has decided not to continue with the Archery Association of India (AAI).

He was based out of Sonepat in Haryana at SAI (Sports Authority of India) Complex and his contract will expire shortly, August 31 to be precise. "I'm resting at home in Seoul (Korea)," Woong Ki told myKhel via text message. "I have offers from several countries. I will decide soon."

The foreign coach went back home earlier on August 1. But his salary ($10,000 per month) for two months (July and August) is pending. He took leave and went back to Seoul. I've not received my salary for July and August yet. The Archery Association of India (AAI) usually pays salaries late," he added.

The Korean archery expert felt humiliated after he was denied accreditation by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) for the Paris Olympics.

He was given reign of the national recurve archery team last year to prepare the Indian team for the Olympic Games. Woong Ki accompanied the six-member Indian archery team for a 10-day Pre-Olympic Games preparation camp in Marseilles but had to return to India as his name didn't figure in the list of sanctioned by the Sports Ministry for the Olympic Games.

Woong Ki who guided the South Korean archery team to two gold medals at the 2012 London Olympic Games, was critical of the Indian sports system saying, "No matter how much Indian archers work hard to reach world-class level if the Archery Association of India (AAI) and the IOA don't change their mindset, the Indian team will never succeed in winning medals in the future at the Olympics games."

"It is foolish to invest a lot of money on foreign coaches and then exclude them at a critical and important time (Olympic Games)," Woong Ki asserted. There was pre-Olympic Games hype that the Paris bound-archery team was highly motivated and should break the jinx of podium finish at the Olympic Games.

"We have bright chances of winning at least two medals," Sanjeeva Kumar Singh, India's high-performance director in archery had said before the Olympic Games. Despite good preparation, including international exposure, the archery team failed to live up to expectations in Paris. The team had to return empty-handed.

The Korean expert highly rated both Dhiraj Bommadevara and seasoned archer Deepika Kumari. "They are (Dhiraj and Deepika) highly competitive. They are being watched with much interest both in Korea and around the world," the Korean archery expert added.

This portal already reported that the AAI has already started looking for a new coach for the archery team after relations with Woong Ki ended on a bitter note.