[Jeong Gyu-young's Gongseonunhak⑧] The Desirable Role of Member Sports Organizations under the Korea Sports Council (Part 2)

Published 11 Nov.2020 10:49(KST)

Updated 11 Nov.2020 13:17(KST)

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Editor's NoteAsia Economy is running a series of expert contributions to suggest directions necessary for improving the structural problems of sports in the Republic of Korea and achieving harmony among professional sports, recreational sports, and school sports. Jung Kyu-young, president of the nonprofit organization "Studying Athletes, Exercising Students (Gongseon Unhak)," offers his proposals. President Jung, who studied at Stanford Graduate School and served as the captain of the university's fencing team, established the nonprofit in 2015 to introduce the American school sports system he observed there into Korea, promoting publicity and scholarship projects. He plans to point out the limitations of the domestic student-athlete admission system, school sports management, sports club development, and sports organization operations, comparing overseas cases and suggesting future directions.

Jung Kyu-young, President of the Studying Athletes Exercising Students Association / Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

Sports organizations affiliated with the Korea Sports Council, that is, associations or federations for each sport, should exist not only for a small number of elite athletes but also for the nation's recreational sports.

First, many competitions held each season, such as the President's Cup, Minister's Cup, Association President's Cup, national team selection tournaments, and amateur competitions, should be operated as tournaments open to anyone, with participation qualifications distinguished only by age. Thus, whether an elite athlete, a student-athlete with athletic talent from a general school, or a foreign participant, everyone should have an equal opportunity to earn ranking points based solely on skill and become a national representative.

Even those not attending school or medical students with heavy study loads should be able to enjoy participating in the same competitions as national representatives who have competed in the Olympics by steadily building their skills. This is essential for recreational sports to take root.

Of course, to conduct tournaments smoothly, if the number of participants increases, it may be necessary to classify skill levels based on points earned from past competitions. The "elite athletes' league" or "their own tournaments," except for commercial professional sports leagues, cannot attract public interest. This further divides elite sports and recreational sports.

Every year, elite athletes in each sport receive budgets of thousands, millions, or tens of millions of won to participate in overseas training camps or international competitions. However, there are no foreign athletes participating in the numerous domestic competitions mentioned above. Currently, tournaments hosted by domestic sport-specific associations or federations allow only athletes belonging to schools or corporate teams recognized by the association or federation to participate, excluding amateur competitions. These are not our tournaments but tournaments exclusively for elite athletes.

Last year's match at the 'USA International Fencing Federation Competition' hosted by the United States Fencing Association and the corporation 'Studying Athletes Exercising Students'/Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Domestic Sport-Specific Competitions Open to Foreigners Needed
Helps Secure Association Operating Funds

We need to create domestic competitions open to everyone, including foreign athletes. In the United States, except for team ball sports, foreigners can freely participate in sport-specific competitions. They earn the same points as Americans based on their rankings, but naturally cannot qualify as national representatives. This openness attracts many foreign athletes to participate in domestic competitions in the U.S. Thanks to the large number of domestic and international participants and the high public interest, sport-specific organizations can secure operating funds directly or indirectly and are not overly dependent on association presidents or sponsorships from a few large corporations.

Organizations under sport-specific associations or federations, such as university federations and middle/high school federations, should open their hosted competitions to all schools in Korea. Students neglecting their studies should be restricted from participating according to institutional standards. Furthermore, students who perform well in these competitions will receive as much attention as those who win math contests if these achievements help with university admissions, similar to science invention contests, debate competitions, or English writing contests. If recreational sports naturally take root centered on student-athletes, it will greatly help create jobs for retired athletes and revitalize local economies.

Such desirable roles of sport-specific organizations cannot be achieved solely by the efforts of the Korea Sports Council and sport-specific organizations. Society must recognize sports as an important subject in education. For this to happen, universities?the ivory towers of education?must reflect sports in admissions like mathematics and form school sports teams composed of student-athletes who balance study and sports.

Cases such as a Yale University student winning an Olympic medal, graduating, and becoming an orthopedic surgeon, or a general student from a local area who is not an elite athlete becoming a national representative through a sports club should naturally take root in Korea. We should frequently hear news of a general student who trained at a local sports club, not a specialized sports high school, becoming a national representative, or a law student who excels in sports competing in the Olympics as a national representative and then graduating to become a human rights lawyer. Only then can local sports clubs and recreational sports be said to have been firmly established. For this, the roles of the aforementioned sport-specific organizations are very important. (To be continued in the next installment)

Jung Kyu-young, President of the nonprofit Studying Athletes, Exercising Students and CEO of Lorus Enterprise