Korean twin sisters indefinitely suspended from V-League and National Team

#DaYeongLee #JaeYeongLee #SouthKorea #KoreanVLeague202021 #HeungkukLifePinkSpiders 

"We feel a deep sense of responsibility to all fans of volleyball that we've let down," the Pink Spiders said in a statement. "Bullying among student-athletes must never occur and can't be tolerated under any circumstances. Given the gravity of the situation, we have decided to ban the two athletes indefinitely."

It was officially announced today that Jae-Yeong Lee and Da-Yeong Lee, the volleyball twin sisters from South Korea, will be suspended from playing both for their club Heungkuk Life as well as the South Korean National Volleyball Team for an indefinite length of time. The former has been decided by Heungkuk Life and the latter by the Korean Volleyball Association. While such penalty could be lifted sometime in the future, it is confirmed that they will not be competing in the Tokyo Olympics.

This has been mainly caused due to confirmed allegations brought up the past week by teammates from elementary and junior high that claimed that the sisters had abused them both verbally and physically, causing the victim to attempt suicide multiple times and end up giving up volleyball. According to Korea Joongang Daily, the victims listed 21 allegations of bullying, including being threatened with a knife, stealing money and physical harm in the original post. In response, the twins apologized for their past acts with an handwritten letter. 

Such accusations have given courage to more victims to come forward with their own stories even in Men's Volleyball. Song Myung-geun and Sim Kyoung-sub of the OK Financial Group OKman had to confront their own bullying story the other day.

1. Yonhap News - Pro volleyball league rocked by bullying scandal involving star players
2. JoongAng Daily - Volleyball twins apologize after school bullying accusation