The complaint, made together with the Korea Skating Union and being sent to the International Skating Union, comes one month and one day after the final at the Iceberg Skating Palace.

Defending Olympic champion Kim, who came into the competition as the favourite, won a silver medal after a surprise triumph by Russian teenager Adelina Sotnikova.

While many observers said Kim's free skate was the better of the two, and despite a mistake from Sotnikova in which she landed a double loop on both feet, judges scored the Russian 149.95, beating her personal best by more than 18 points.

Sotnikova trailed Kim in the standings going into the free programme, in which she performed one more triple than the South Korean.

In the immediate aftermath of the result, an online petition seeking an investigation into the judging was set up and quickly gained more than 1.5 million signatures.

The controversial decision to award Kim Yu-Na silver, rather than gold, is set to rumble on as an official complaint is made by her Olympic Committee ©AFP/Getty Images



One of the nine judges, Ukraine's Yuri Balkov, was suspended for a year after being recorded trying to fix an event at Nagano 1998 while another, Alla Shekhovtseva, is the wife of the former President and current general director of the Russian Figure Skating Federation Valentin Piseev.

The International Olympic Committee said last month it could only investigate if an official complaint was made.

"We had to be very careful since an appeal or a complaint could strain relationships with international judges and bring disadvantages to our players in international games," a KOC official told Reuters.

"However, we decided to file complaints to the disciplinary committee, considering what is the best for our nation [people] although some issues are expected."

It is not the first time a figure skating Olympic gold medal has been the subject of an appeal,.

At Salt Lake City 2002, Russian pair Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze were awarded gold despite making a technical error.

They ultimately shared victory with Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier