Minister Yoon In-chon: "National Team Training Should Give Players More Autonomy"

"Our country is now truly entering the world's top 10 level, and I think it is time to significantly change the (training methods for representative athletes)."

On the 31st, Yoo In-chon, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, made this remark at the Winter Sports Cooperation Meeting held at the Seoul Olympic Parktel in Songpa-gu, Seoul, in preparation for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. He expressed this opinion during the response to demands from winter sports organizations' representatives and national team coaches for an increase in training days. While agreeing on the necessity of expanding training days to achieve good results at next year's Winter Olympics, he also stated that having more training days does not necessarily guarantee better performance.

Minister Yoo said, "I heard that the athletes' village starts training from January 1st this year, but I did not view that positively," adding, "I understand they are working hard, but I thought they should rest on the first day of the new year rather than train." He also said, "I was surprised to hear that some athletes spent more than 300 days at the athletes' village last year."

Yoo In-chon, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, is discussing support measures in preparation for the '2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics' with heads and coaches of winter sports organizations at the Winter Sports Cooperation Meeting held on the 31st at the Seoul Olympic Parktel in Songpa-gu, Seoul.
Photo by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

Minister Yoo emphasized, "I wonder if this kind of training method is still necessary," and expressed hope that an environment where athletes can train more freely and enjoyably would be established. He said, "Now, I hope athletes are given more autonomy. They can train more leisurely and have some personal time. Those who want to win medals will train on their own even if told not to."

Yoo In-chon also asked for understanding, explaining that expanding training days is related to government budget issues and cannot be increased indiscriminately.

"During the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, the training days were about 170 days, and even then, there were requests at meetings to increase training days. So at that time, the training days were extended by one month, but increasing training days by one day cost an additional 100 million won in budget. Extending by 30 days meant an extra 3 billion won. Currently, winter sports training days are about 240 to 250 days due to overseas stays, which is a significant increase compared to 2008, and the budget has increased accordingly."

Kang Soo-sang, Director of the Sports Bureau at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, announced that the increased budget for this year's Olympics would be used to support overseas training and other activities.

Director Kang said, "Currently, the annual training budget for winter sports is about 12.9 billion won, and we have prepared to increase it by about 2 billion won related to the Olympics," adding, "Discussions are ongoing on how to utilize the increased 2 billion won, and about 700 million to 1 billion won of that will be allocated for overseas training camps and similar purposes."

The cooperation meeting was organized to listen to on-site voices and explore necessary support measures to continue the success of achieving second place overall at the Harbin Winter Asian Games in February and to achieve excellent results at the 2026 Winter Olympics. The meeting was attended by Minister Yoo In-chon, Second Vice Minister Jang Mi-ran, and about 20 people including heads and coaches of seven winter sports organizations such as skating, skiing & snowboarding, biathlon, bobsleigh & skeleton, luge, curling, and alpine skiing.

Minister Yoo In-chon emphasized, "We felt the reward for our hard work through the good results at this year's Harbin Winter Asian Games," and added, "With less than a year left until the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, we will actively support to ensure there are no deficiencies or shortcomings."

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