Roh Min-sang, the coach of disgraced former Olympic swimming champion Park Tae-hwan, said Tuesday that his pupil is still training, but the lingering uncertainty surrounding the swimmer's status for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games is exerting a negative pull.

Park, who recently served an 18-month doping suspension, remains ineligible to make the national team under a controversial rule by the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC). The national Olympic body says athletes who have been suspended for doping cannot represent the country for three years, starting on the day their ban ends. Park's suspension began retroactively in September 2014 and ended in March this year.

Roh has been an active advocate of Park, asking the general public and the KOC officials to give the swimmer a chance to compete at the Rio Games in August. He recently guided the 26-year-old swimmer to win all four of his races at the 88th Dong-A Swimming Competition, which doubled as the second round of the national team trials.

"He (Park) is still training and will train," Roh said at a discussion organized by Center for Sports Culture in Seoul on Park's status. "But since there is no motivation to spur him at this moment, it's difficult to push him hard."

Roh, 60, started coaching Park when the swimmer was eight.

Under Roh's watch, Park won the 2007 world title and the 2008 Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle race. The two separated in 2010 when Park went on to work with Australian coach Michael Bohl, but they reunited last June after the swimmer was suspended.

Roh said that he expects Park to win a medal at the Rio Game.

At the Dong-A competition in April, Park posted the world's fourth fastest-time this season in his main event, the 400m free. He also qualified for the Olympic "A" standard time set by FINA, the world swimming governing body, in all four races that he competed in.

"Park had a tough schedule at the Dong-A competition, but he posted world's fourth fastest-time this season," he said. "His fatigue from the competition is gone, but he now has to work on recapturing his top form."

At the debate on Park's eligibility, Roh again emphasized that the KOC should give Park an opportunity to compete at the Rio Games.

"I believe that sports can further develop with athletes' remorse and self-purification of their actions," he said. "At least the KOC should have summoned Park and listened to his case before making its decision."

The KOC has maintained that rules are rules and it will not make exceptions for any particular athlete. It has been criticized for unfairly punishing the athlete twice for the same offense, and the rule has drawn comparisons with the now-annulled "Osaka Rule."

Adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2008, the Osaka Rule barred athletes who had served a doping-related suspension for at least half a year from competing at the following Olympic Games.

In 2011, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the world's highest sports tribunal, determined that the Osaka Rule was "a violation of the IOC's own Statute and is therefore invalid and unenforceable."

Choi Dong-ho, a member of the KOC's fair sports committee who also participated the debate, said that if Park's case is brought to the CAS and the CAS rules in favor of Park, the KOC should probably reconsider its position, but there is no change in its position at this moment.

"If the CAS makes such a decision, it's going to be an important factor for the KOC to reconsider its decision," Choi said. "But the KOC is an organization that makes a reasonable decision and there is a reason why it has made a such decision in the first place."

Park is the only South Korean to have won an Olympic swimming medal. In addition to his gold medal race at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he added a silver in the 200m free at the same competition. Park also won silver in both the 200m and 400m free at the 2012 Olympics. (Yonhap)