Assemblyman Lee Byung-hoon: "Only One 'Management Pool' in Gwangju Meets Practical International Standards in Korea"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] It has been revealed that there is only one swimming pool nationwide in Gwangju that meets the practical international standards.

According to the national audit data submitted by National Assembly member Lee Byung-hoon (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Dong-gu Nam-gu Eul) from the Korea Sports Council on the 12th, the national representative swimmers who participated in the Tokyo Olympics did not even get to train in the only international standard swimming pool in Korea.

The International Swimming Federation stipulates that the depth of swimming pools used for the Olympics and World Swimming Championships must be at least 2 meters, but all international competitions held since 2005, including the Olympics and World Swimming Championships, have been conducted in pools with a depth of 3 meters.

Therefore, a depth of 3 meters can be considered the practical international standard, but the depth of the swimming pool at the Jincheon National Training Center, where the national representative athletes train, is only 2 meters.

As the water depth increases, buoyancy increases and water resistance decreases, which can change swimming techniques. The difference in training and competition pool depths can significantly affect records in swimming competitions where rankings are decided by differences of 0.1 seconds.

In Korea, the only 3-meter deep pool is located at Nambu University in Gwangju Metropolitan City. Around the time of the Olympics, the Swimming Federation requested the use of this facility for national team training, but since regular lessons for the general public were already in progress, cooperation was not granted, and the national team athletes participated in the Olympics without ever training in a 3-meter pool even once.

The Korea Sports Council only began reviewing the plan to change the depth of the Jincheon National Training Center swimming pool from 2 meters to 3 meters in June. Since the basic design of the Jincheon National Training Center was completed in 2007 and the facility was finished in 2011, if the global trend of holding international competitions such as the Olympics in 3-meter pools since 2005 had been considered during the design phase, additional waste of tax money could have been avoided, according to Assemblyman Lee.

Assemblyman Lee stated, “The Korea Sports Council and the Swimming Federation must deeply reflect on this shortsighted and typical desk-bound administration,” and added, “Creating training conditions similar to actual competition is essential for athletes to perform at their best during events.” He urged the Korea Sports Council to promptly establish a concrete plan for expanding and constructing swimming pools that meet practical international standards to improve the training environment for athletes.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.