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National football team players of the 2002 Korea Japan World Cup, including Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung, right, rush to the ground in jubiliation after the team’s captain Hong Myung-bo scores a winning shootout in a match with Spain at the Gwangju World Cup Stadium on June 22, 2002. For the first time in history, Korea advanced to the quarter finals. The national team wants to repeat the same glory in the South African World Cup, which opened Friday. / Korea Times |
 By Yoon Kang-ro
President of International Sport Diplomacy Institute
Sport is a common international language.
Sport plays a key role in promoting and highlighting the national prestige and prowess in the global community.
Sport is a common culture transcending frontiers, races, ideologies, and religions.
Sport connects and networks different nations and cultures as an effective communications tool.
Sport is a catalyst bringing together the globalization and industrialization.
Sporting events are instrumental in upgrading national image-making through related cultural programs, human networking, tourism, arts, technology and industry.
Starting from Scratch
The first stepping stone for Korea to enhance its overall status was the successful bidding for, and organization of, the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
For the first time in its history, Korea, as Olympic host nation, achieved an unprecedented and remarkable goal.
At the end of the Games, Korea was crowned on its home soil thanks to the outstanding performance by its athletes, thereby owning the podium with the world's 4th place in overall Olympic medal standings.
Winston Churchill once said:
"Some see private enterprise as the predatory target to be shot, others as a cow to be milked, but few are those who see it as a sturdy horse pulling the wagon."
For Korea, the central government took the place of private enterprise and played a crucial role as a sturdy horse pulling the enormous Olympic wagon.
It was due to the strong Korean government policy to boost and support sports during the years leading up to the 1988 Seoul Games since its election as Olympic host city in Baden-Baden 1981.
Shortly after Seoul was awarded the right to host the Olympics, the Korean government launched administrative and financial support programs in conjunction with major policies related to their successful organization.
As a result, the Government Organization Act was amended to authorize the creation of the Ministry of Sports in early 1982, taking overall charge of comprehensive sports administration and the tasks of promoting national sports and furnishing support for the Asian Games in 1986 and the Olympics in 1988.
This was the legal base for the Games to be given direct support from the entire government structure.
With the creation of the Ministry of Sports, work at the government-level began to take shape to formulate a comprehensive plan.
In this connection, the Korean government also established the Government Support Committee comprising all members of the Cabinet, as well as the Seoul city mayor, and chaired by the prime minister.
The Korean government realized that the true success of the Games would be based not only on the excellent organization of the Olympics but also on outstanding competition results on home soil by its athletes.
It is always those two wheels of the Olympic wagon that are supposed to run smoothly, thereby measuring the true success of the Games as a host country.
It, therefore, prompted the Ministry of Sports to carry out a government-driven project to recruit and foster talented young potential athletes, named the "Dream-Tree Athletes" (DTA). This was called "The Dream-Tree Upbringing Plan" (DTUP).
The DTUP enabled and prompted all local and provincial governments including all levels of schools to competitively launch long-term plans to recruit and train local young sports talents on a competitive level.
The annual National Games served the purpose of providing those DTA with opportunities to compete and compare their skills and performances on a national or even international level.
The Taenung National Athletes' Training Center (TNTC) created in June 1966 has served as the cradle and home for athletes representing Korea ― where they are accommodated and trained in an optimal environment.
The TNTC is financed by the Korean government and managed by the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC). It has already become a world-renowned and attractive bench-mark as a successful elite-sport development role model.
Korea's consecutive successes in international multi-sporting events including the Olympic Games are mainly due to the systematic and scientific management of the KNTC, fully supported by the government.
In other words, the KNTC under the KOC is the power base and source of the competitiveness of Korean Sports overall, while the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation (KSPF) is its financial supporter for athletes who benefit from its pension system after retirement under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Moving forward with the Olympic Legacy
In order to support and enhance the status of successful Korean sports, Seoul Olympic Sports Promotion Foundation (SOSPF) was initially established in April 1989 with surplus funds from the 1988 Seoul Games.
SOSPF was later renamed as KSPF (Korean Sports Promotion Foundation).
It is initiatives by the Korean government that keeps the KSPF moving forward to promote and finance sporting activities in close collaboration and cooperation with the KOC and its affiliated respective national sports governing bodies, namely National Federations (NFs).
In 1999, the Korean Institute of Sports Science (KISS) was integrated into the KSPF with the approval of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Main tasks of the KSPF include the following:
-Research and development for national sports promotions and related projects
-Financial support to replenish sporting facilities nationwide
-Support program for athletes, coaches and international referees among others
-Financial support to retired athletes and coaches who secured enough bonus points from the Olympics and other major international sporting events
-Financial support to youth-related projects
-Holding of various events celebrating the 1988 Seoul Olympics
-Holding of Olympic-related projects in cooperation with the KOC
-Financing for promising sports equipment manufacturers and sports facilities
-Support programs for school sports promotion
-Research and promotion of sports science
-Research program for the scientific training of athletes
-Contribution to activities for national sports promotion
The source of financing for KSPF is as under:
1) Proceeds generated from KSPF operations
2) Profits from a sports-related lottery
3) Additional revenue from green-fees of membership golf courses
4) Profits from professional cycle- and boat-race investments
5) Contributions/donations from sports promotion projects
6) Other profits and revenues as defined by the Presidential Act from rental fees of various sports facilities
Korea's initial sport policy before 1980 focused more on the elite rather than on grassroots sports with the nationwide catch phrase of "Physical strength is the source of national power."
After the successful Seoul Olympics, the government also began to make strenuous efforts to strike a balance between elite sports and sports-for-all.
The 6th Republic of Korean government under president Roh Tae-woo (1988-1993) took the initiative of creating the National Sports-for-all Council on February 6, 1991 which since then has been in charge of community sports based on the overall national sports-for-all promotion plan called the "Hodori (Seoul Olympics mascot) Plan."
This plan brought together the set up of a wide range of community sporting facilities and the development of a wide variety of sports-for-all programs for the well-being and welfare of the Korean people.
Sport has played an important role in creating an atmosphere for reconciliation between the two Koreas when political and ideological crises occurred. South and North Koreas showcased a peace message to the world through joint marching, hand in hand, by two delegations in many international sporting events including the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Olympics, and the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics at the opening and closing ceremonies.
In addition to the previous successful formation of inter-Korean teams in the Table Tennis and Football Junior World Championships respectively, the two Koreas are seeking ways and means to reach a successful conclusion to form a unified single Korean team for Olympic Games in the near future.
South-North Korean sports exchange
In November 2005, South and North Koreas delegates had a working group meeting during the East Asian Games in Macau.
As a result, both parties held further talks in North Korea (Gaesung) in December 2005 and in June 2006, and reached an agreement on a few items including a single delegation flag and anthem.
In addition, Dr. Jacques Rogge, IOC President, presided over a tripartite meeting attended by Kim Jung-kil and Mun Jae-dok, the respective Presidents of the South and North Korean Olympic Committees in September 2006.
They reconfirmed the participation of an inter-Korean single team in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and shared views on detailed items related to the composition of the delegation.
Due to political disparity and disaccord, the first case of the single inter-Korean team at the 2008 Beijing Games failed to come to pass.
Ever since Korea's first-ever successful bidding and organization of the 42nd World Shooting Championships in Seoul 1978, so many world championship meetings IOC Sessions (1988 and 1999), ANOC General Assemblies (1986 and 2006) have taken place in Korea.
After the successful organization of the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the 2002 FIFA World Cup, the 2002 Busan Asian Games, the 2003 Daegu Summer Universiade and many other international sporting events, Korea recently succeeded in claiming the rights to host the 2011 Daegu World Athletics Championships, the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and the 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade as well.
Korea is also currently bidding for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The decision on the host city will be made in December 2010 for the World Cup and in July 2011 for the Winter Olympics.
Taenung Athletes' National Training Center
Teanung High-Level National Training Center (TNTC) serves as a cradle for glorious victories by athletes representing the nation.
Since its creation in 1966, the TNTC has become a real home for sportsmen and sportswomen dreaming of becoming world champions with national prestige and honor in many international and world championships including the Olympic and Asian Games.
The TNTC is well equipped with all the necessary and cutting-edge facilities, including an international standard indoor skating rink, indoor swimming pool, physical fitness center, and multi-purpose gymnasium.
On top of that, the 2nd National Athletes' Training Center was built at high altitude (1,300m above sea level) on Taebaeck Mountain in Gangwon Province in order to provide athletes with a natural cardio-respiratory enhancement environment.
In addition, the Multiplex Training Center is nearing completion in Jincheon County, one hour's drive from Seoul, for systematic fostering of elite athletes and teams.
It will be equipped with an indoor track and field stadium, a multipurpose gymnasium, indoor swimming pool, outdoor training facilities, a sports medicine and science center, and athletes' center.
Who is Yoon Kang-ro?
 Yoon is president of the International Sport Diplomacy Institute (ISDI) and a member of the Policy Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Culture and Sports. He also lectures at the Renmin University of China as a guest professor.
He graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and studied at the graduate school of business administration at Yonsei University. Yoon received an honorary doctorate degree in sports science from the Mongolian National Olympic Academy.
He currently serves as the secretary general of international relations on the 2014 PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Bid Committee. He can be reached at rockyoon@sports.or.kr
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Union Jack Mascots. (London 2012)
