스포츠외교현장이야기실록71편(Sydney2000올림픽 최초의 남북단일팀 Uniform 어떻게 조달했을까?)

[스포츠외교현장이야기실록71편(Sydney2000올림픽 최초의 남북단일팀 Uniform 어떻게 조달했을까?)]

 

최근 Facebook에 Post했던 여러가지 스포츠외교현장이야기 중 최초로 시도하여 성공한 Sydney2000 올림픽 개회식에서의 남북한 단일팀 유니폼 조달 방법에 대하여 5대륙 올림픽가족이 모두 궁금해 한다면서 필자에게 영어로 알려달라고 다음과 같이 요청이 왔다.  

“Next time, please tell us how did you manage to supply same marching uniforms for North Korea for Unified Team ? I heard something about it from Sung Il Baek It is very interesting for others ! ”

그래서 영어로 답변하기로 약속하였다.

[About how to manage the supply of marching uniforms at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Opening Ceremonies]

 

It was a very complicated logistical task to be done for Korea to provide the North Korean delegation with the same marching uniforms from the local market without knowing the clothes size of the North Korean athletes and officials.

 

 

(Hae-Kyung LEE, 2^nd from right<Director of North Korean Sport Guidance Committee>, myself 1^st from right, Ki-Moon SHIN<1st from left/Chief Physiotherapist of South Korean Delegation> and his colleague Physiotherapist<2^nd from left>)

 

What was even worse was the fact that the timing of procuring the uniforms fell on the biggest National Full-Moon Festival (Korean version of Thanks-Giving Day). All possible Korean local manufacturers were completely out of work and beyond reach for at least 4-5 consecutive days. Therefore, it was neither feasible nor applicable for anyone to find the suitable uniforms-providers during that period of time. Time pressing, the only solution was to try to collect all remaining suits and dress shirts of all sizes from every possible local department store. Fortunate part was that the mutually agreed color of marching jackets was navy-blue with white dress shirts. The orange-color uniform ties and plastic Korea Peninsula badges were manufactured and secured well in advance with enough quantity. It was also agreed to wear white or grey color pants of each individual for both delegations.

 

(from left to right: Kyung-Ja CHO<Chief of South Korean Delegation in charge of women athletes>, Myself, Seong-Beom YOON/North Korea Delegation Chef-de-Mission, the late Sang-Cheol LEE/South Korean Delegation Chef-de-Mission. Sydney 2000 Olympics)

(From Left to right: Seong-Il RYU, Sec. Gen. of North Korean NOC and Myself)

 

When distributing jackets and dress shirts, we finally decided to provide all sizes of jackets and dress shirts in stock instead of calculating the number of North Korean marching delegation members, as it was not realistic to try to measure the size in order to hand them over the exact number of clothes. That was how the necessary uniform-distribution process went smoothly.