SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's sports ministry said on Thursday that a former national women's curling coach and her family abused former national curlers and took their prize money.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced the findings of a five-week investigation into allegations raised by the Olympic silver medal-winning female athletes.
The curlers, nicknamed "Team Kim" because all have the same surname of Kim, claimed in November last year that they had been treated unfairly by their head coach, Kim Min-jung, and her family.
The claim surprised the country as it came after the team unexpectedly won a silver medal at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The head coach's family included her father Kim Kyung-doo, former vice president of the Korean Curling Federation, and her husband Jang Ban-seok, former coach of the mixed doubles curling team.
According to the probe findings, the coaches abused the female curlers by hurling curses and insults at them, while controlling their private lives. They forced the curlers to express gratitude to them when being interviewed by local media.
The coaches failed to pay about 94 million won (83,600 U.S. dollars) in prize money and grants to the athletes. They also focused on administrative affairs, rather than training the curlers.
The former head coach and her family was also found to have misappropriated grants from the government.
The sports ministry also concluded that the former coach's family privatized the curling team as their family business by hiring their relatives unfairly.
The ministry planned to ask the investigative authorities to look into further illegalities.
