Competitive sports can exist only if they are contested amid fair conditions. The latest case of a joint team being abruptly formed is hard to understand.
In the women's team competition for the World Team Table Tennis Championships, South and North Korea formed a joint team ahead of their quarterfinal match. An announcement was made about the joint team's formation immediately after the two nations' players entered the venue for the match. With smiles on their faces, these players placed an arm over each other's shoulders.
The sudden decision enabled South and North Korea to advance to the semifinals without playing a quarterfinal match. With no third-place playoff at the championships, the move guaranteed the team a medal.
Needless to say, it is desirable for the two countries to promote bilateral friendship through sports. The Panmunjom Declaration, signed in a recent inter-Korea summit meeting, stated that the two Koreas will compete jointly in international events. The latest joint team formation can be described as an extension of the declaration.
If the decision on the joint team had been made prior to the championships, the move could have been understood. In the 1991 championships in Chiba, the two Koreas formed a joint team prior to the opening of the event.
However, the latest decision obviously lacked fairness in relation to other teams, as the joint team had been formed during the championships and also immediately before a match between the two nations.
When teams from overwhelmingly strong countries join up with each other, their strength could be increased. The two Koreas' avoidance of a quarterfinal match must have benefited their players in terms of fatigue.
Rules should not be bent
The International Table Tennis Federation's approval of the abrupt formation of the joint team cannot be overlooked, either. ITTF President Thomas Weikert emphasized that he had thought about peace. However, the decision by the championships' organizers to bend its rules will only undermine the authority of the event held to decide the greatest team in the world.
Experts have every reason to criticize the decision, which they say was an impermissible action taken to change previously set rules in a manner advantageous to specified participants at a later time. It must be said that the decision has neglected the essentials of sports.
"I was upset," Kasumi Ishikawa, a member of the Japanese team, said candidly after defeating the joint team in a semifinal match. The Japan Table Tennis Association should have clearly expressed its concerns to the ITTF and others.
At February's Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games, a joint inter-Korea team was formed in the women's ice hockey for the first time in the history of Olympics. Questions were raised about the International Olympic Committee's handling of permitting North Korean players to join in the Games as an exceptional measure.
As circumstances stand, it is difficult to leave politics entirely out of sports events that gather worldwide attention. This will likely pose an issue for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The IOC and other sports associations should never bend their rules, extending political consideration on their own initiative.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, May 6, 2018)
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