Suspended Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan will hold a press conference this week, his agency said Thursday, in what will be his first speech to the public following a 18-month suspension on an alleged anti-doping violation.
  
Team GMP, Park's agency, said the suspended swimmer will be speaking at a hotel in the southern Seoul district of Songpa at 3 p.m. on Friday.
  
The move comes after FINA, the international swimming governing body, on Monday handed down the ruling to Park, a four-time Olympic medalist and two-time world champion in freestyle, after he had tested positive for testosterone, a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
  
The suspension will begin retroactively on Sept. 3 and conclude on March 2, 2016, according to the FINA website, with the decision to strip Park of one silver and five bronze medals he earned at last year's Incheon Asian Games.
  
Park has 21 days to appeal the doping panel's decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
  
Upon Park's arrival here from Lausanne, Switzerland, where his doping hearing took place, his agency issued a statement and extended an apology.

(Yonhap)