Mega Sports and Sport Museum Impact Update

[Mega Sports and Sport Museum Impact Update]

 

 

 

 

 

*Order:

 

1.   What is a Mega Sport Event?

2.   Power of Sports and Global Community

3.   Overview of Global Sports Museums and Status Quo of Sports Museums in Korea

4.   Creation and Vision of Private Sports Museum of  Rocky Kang-Ro YOON, and Its Donation

5.   Who is Rocky Kang-Ro YOON?

 

 

 

    I.        What is a Mega Sport Event?

 

 

1)   “The term, “mega sport event” refers to global sporting events such as the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the FIFA World Cup in Football, and the IAAF World Athletics Championships.”

2)   The event has a high profile, there is a worldwide interest linked to the event and there is a sustainable and measureable economic outcome.

3)   It also improves employment both on a short-term and permanent basis.

4)   A mega sporting event also involves political decision-making and involves the strategies of a country`s Government.

 

   II.         Power of Sports and Global Community

 

(1)  There are five common languages that humanity favors the most: money, politics, art, sex, and sports.

 

(2)  The fifth language, sports, is the healthiest and necessary contents that enrich our lives across the world.

 

(3)  The three necessities for humanity, in the traditional sense, are food, clothing, and shelter. In modern society, however, the three new necessities are clean water, clean air, and sports for all.

 

(4)  It has become difficult to imagine daily lives without sports, whether participating in one, watching a game, or hearing about it on the news.

 

(5)  Sports encompass the characteristics of the other four languages that humanity favors, and the Olympics is the necessary result of the universality of sports.

 

(6)  The Olympic Games show the face of changing global politics, and give rise to international controversies sometimes. It is also the most sophisticated work of art as a human psychology cultural heritage that displays human obsession with money, on the side of complex festivities of culture, education, art, and physical and artistic movements.

 

(7)  According to the recent international Spontaneous Awareness Survey, the Olympics has twice as much influence as the World Cup, three times that of Wimbledon Tennis Championships, four time that of Formula One Motor Racing Grand Prix, six times that of Tour de France, American Super Bowl, and World Series of Baseball, and 10 times that of America's Cup and Davis Cup.

 

(8)  In particular, the former IOC President Samaranch praised Seoul Olympics of 1988 as “the most universal and the best Games ever.

 

 

 

 

 III.        Status Quo of Sports Museums in Korea

 

(1)  In comparison to the state of sports museums in Korea, a so-called champion of sports, those in France or the UK are of global standards and subjects of envy.

(2)  As for sports museums in Korea, there are Korea Sports Museum, which is located on the second floor of international skating rink in Taereung, Nowon-gu, Seoul, with 4 exhibition halls, and Gwanggyo Museum in Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do. Some are managed as history museums by local governments.

(3)  For soccer, there is a museum that commemorates 2002 Korea-Japan FIFA World Cup within the Sangam World Cup Stadium in Mapo-gu, Seoul. There is another soccer museum on the first floor of soccer hall on Sinmun-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

(4)  However, various data on sports are spread out across the museums, and the location of these sports museums are far from easily accessible for the general public. Therefore, they are not fully attractive or playing their roles to the fullest as sports museums.

(5)  Data related to the Olympics are also scattered, with some managed in the Seoul Olympic Commemoration Hall within the Olympic Park complex, Songpa-gu, Seoul, and the Korea Sports Museum in Taereung, managed by Korean Olympic Committee.

(6)  In the Korea Sports Museum in Taereung, the bronze Greek helmet that Sohn Ki-jung won in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Korea’s first gold won by Yang Jeong-mo in 1976 Montreal Olympics, and other historically valuable artifacts are on display. However, for the museum to become Korea’s representative sports museum, better national policy is needed to take care of it.

(7)  The need to build a national sports museum worthy of a sports powerhouse like Korea has been surfacing strongly recently. The Sports Promotion Foundation is reportedly working on a plan to launch such a project.

(8)  A sports museum does not just display commemorative items and artifacts. It should be remembered that it is a communication channel between the past, the present, and the future through sports.

 

 

 

 IV.        Creation and Vision of Private Sports Museum od Rocky Kang-Ro YOON, and Its Donation

 

 

(1)  About 30,000 pieces of artifact—collected for 35 years and related to the Olympics and other sports as evidence of international sports diplomacy—were collected by an individual and a sports museum was built for them.

 

(2)  Olympic pins, key chains, stamps, medals, torches, pennants, and various Olympic watches, coins, ID cards, neckties, badges, mascot dolls, booklets, commemorative items, scrolls, paintings, posters, stickers, awards, memorial tablets, badge sets, various hats, gloves, sports diplomacy, Olympic T-shirts, postcards, sculptures, medals of honor, awards of achievement or of appreciation, Olympic spoons, bells, locks, alcohol from different countries, perfume, tobacco, and even Olympic condoms were some of the things collected, even needing a separate storage space.

 

(3)  After numerous attempts, a sports museum on Yoongang-ro, Pyeongsan was built in a villa in Guksu-ri, Yangpyeong-gun, Gyeonggi-do, in 2004, and a small celebratory ceremony was also held.

 

(4)  Major daily papers, monthly magazines (New Dong-A), and broadcasts introduced the museum, and local lawmaker Jung Byeong-guk for Yangpyeong and others at the gun level took great interest in the museum.

 

(5)  IOC members, including President Jacques Rogge, Honorary President Samaranch, Head of Culture and Education Section Ha Jin-ryang, and other global sports celebrities sent congratulatory messages as well.

 

(6)  The Pyeongsan sports museum was opened in Guksu-ri, Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi-do to display Olympics-related artifacts, and efforts were made to enliven it through ASMA. In 2004, director of IOC Olympics Museum Francis Gabet asked the author to consult him on ideas related to research into sports museum projects.

 

(7)  Various global sports celebrities visited the Pyeongsan sports museum, including gold medalist and world record setter in pole vault in 1988 Seoul Olympics, IOC member for Ukraine, and head of NOC, Magvan Mongolian IOC member, Samih Moudallal Syrian IOC member, and former IOC Secretary-General Mme. Francoise Zweifel.

 

(8)  The sports museum was introduced on various media outlets for its opening, and the visitors seemingly shared the history of the Olympics and the cultural value that sports give rise to by enjoying the artifacts related to the Olympics and sports in general.

 

(9)  In September 2014, 3 years since the author became a member of the organizing committee for Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018 and for the Paralympics that took place in July 2011, an official from Gangneung City Office visited the author’s office. Gangneung is to host ice sports in Pyeongchang 2018. The official asked for donations of artifacts for the sports museum planned to open in the Ice Arena after the Olympics.

 

(10)          After a month, a donation agreement was signed at Seoul Press Center with Gangneung’s governor Choi Myeong-hee on October 13. The entire collection of Olympics-related items, preciously preserved for the past 35 years, was donated. 

 

(11)          Until the end of the Olympics in 2018, some of the donated items, such as the Olympic pins, will be displayed for the general public in the lobby of Gangneung City Hall and the Pyeongchang 2018 Promotion Exhibition near the Gangneung Olympic Park.

 

(12)          Establishment of the Asian Sport Museum Association (ASMA) is also something to work on for the future.

 

 

(Donation Ceremony of Olympic Artifacts, Held at Seoul Press Center: from left, donor Yoon Kang-ro and Governor Choi Myeong-hee of Gangneung)

 

 

 

 

  V.        Who is Rocky Kang-Ro YOON?

 

Who is Rocky Kang-Ro YOON?     Rocky Yoon is President of the International Sport Diplomacy Institute (ISDI) and Special Advisor to President of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Organizing Committee. He also used to give lectures at the Renmin University of China as guest professor. He (English major) graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (HUFS) and studied both at the graduate school of Interpretation & Translation (English-French) of the HUFS and the graduate school of business administration at Yonsei University. Rocky Yoon received an honorary doctorate degree in sports science from the Mongolian National Olympic Academy. He is also the first Korean Diplomat-Recipient of Merit Award of Association of 206-National Olympic Committees (ANOC Olympic Order). He served as Secretary General for International Relations at the 2010 & 2014 PyeongChang Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Bid Committee and Deputy Secretary General of the Korean Olympic Committee. He was the first Korean sport official who served as member of the IOC Evaluation Commission for the 2008 Olympics. He played a role as Acting Chef de Mission of Korean Delegation in the Olympic and Asian Games all throughout his career at the KOC for about 30 years. He can be reached at rockyoon21@hanmail.net.