Skater Cho says tampering was ‘biggest mistake’

Simon Cho

KEARNS, Utah (AP) ― A U.S. speedskater, reigning national short-track champion Simon Cho, faces a disciplinary hearing after confessing Friday that he tampered with a Canadian rival’s skate at the 2011 World Team Championship.

In a coaching scandal that is getting steadily messier, short track interim coach Jun Hyung Yeo was suspended Friday by the federation for failing to report that tampering.

And the man at the center of the scandal, head coach Jae Su Chun, remains suspended and also could be disciplined for not reporting the tampering.

But investigators commissioned by U.S. Speedskating to investigate said they didn’t find evidence that Chun engaged in “a pattern of physical and emotional abuse” as alleged by skaters, or Cho’s claim that Chun ordered the skate tampering.