Do we like Yoo Seung-min?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A decent public record and no harmful words found, but he apologised for mistakes at the table tennis body and the paperwork questions linger.
Yoo (also romanised Ryu) is the bloke who won men's singles gold at Athens 2004, Korea's first Olympic table tennis gold since 1988. He added bronze in Beijing and team silver in London, then retired in 2014 and moved into coaching and sports politics.
The admin career took off from there: he joined the IOC in 2016 as its second Korean member, led the Korea Table Tennis Association from 2019 to 2024, then beat the incumbent in January 2025 to become head of the national Olympic committee. At his inauguration he said he couldn't lead the organisation alone.
The stoush that has followed him is the table tennis years. In April 2025 the sports ministry's ethics centre sought discipline over cash incentives paid to officials who landed sponsorship deals and a changed Olympic team pick. He apologised for what he called unintentional mistakes, said the aim was transparency and not personal gain, and denied pocketing sponsorship money.
A separate complaint from a citizens' group alleged he took bonuses through another person's name, among other claims. In July 2026 Seoul police decided not to refer the case, finding insufficient evidence, and the complainants were reportedly weighing a reinvestigation. Cleared by police isn't the same as spotless, and the questions about rules not being followed were never really disputed.
On the harm test, we found nothing: no digs at LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, and no dodgy co-stars or platforms. We also found no statement from him on LGBTQ+ issues either way, so that's honestly a gap, not a gold star. In October he said athletes' remarks about military exemption didn't fit public sentiment and promised more education on social media conduct.
The good stuff is real, if modest. In 2017 he raised money among Korea's national players and personally handed over a donation to a Filipino rival being treated for leukaemia. As Games boss he also publicly slammed the Asian Games organisers' running of the event as deserving an F, which is the kind of advocacy athletes want from a chief.