Olympic Champion Blasts Home Country After Gold Medal Win

South Korea's An Se-young fought her way to gold in the women's badminton final on Tuesday, sweeping China’s He Bingjiao to reach the top spot on the podium.

While a gold medal victory is often followed by an overflow of pride for team and country, Se-young instead took her post-match interview as an opportunity to call out the Badminton Federation of Korea.

Se-young accused the federation of "neglecting" her as she dealt with serious injury issues leading up to this year's Paris Olympics.

“I think it may be difficult to continue with the national team after this moment,” Se-young said after the win.

“I was so disappointed with [the association] during my injury. I really can’t get over those moments,” she continued.

The 22-year-old badminton star addressed this issue before the start of this year's games as well.

“After the Asian Games, I was initially told I would need 2 to 6 weeks of rehabilitation before returning, but since the pain didn’t decrease, I visited a different clinic after the December Tour Finals,” she wrote on Instagram. “The new diagnosis revealed that the partial tear in my patellar tendon would not improve quickly and that I would need to manage the pain and maintain the injury until the Olympics.”

South Korea’s sports ministry has since launched an investigation into these allegations from Se-young.

The ministry plans to “ascertain the exact facts as soon as the Olympics conclude” and “review the need for appropriate improvement measures based on the findings,” per reports from news.com.au.

The statement added that the ministry will “examine whether there are areas for improvement in athlete management across other sports as well.”

“I found my motivation in my anger as I set my goals and pursued my dreams,” Se-young continued. “I wanted to make my voice heard. In a way, my dream was [to have] a ‘voice.'”

Related: Olympic Runner Stripped of Medal, Later Reinstated After Controversial Decision