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Not only competitions but also the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Athletes' Commission Elections is drawing keen attention in South Korea's sports community during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, which may end up with the country holding the 2018 Winter Games without an active IOC member.
At the Rio Olympics, 23 candidates representing 14 different sports are running for four seats in the commission -- Moon Dae-sung, Claudia Bokel, Alexander Popov and Yumilka Ruiz Lauces will be finishing their terms.
One of the candidates vying for the vacancies is Ryu Seung-min, 2004 Athens Olympics gold medalist in men's singles table tennis. In a domestic race last year, Ryu outpaced Beijing Games weightlifting champion Jang Mi-ran, Rio Games shooting gold medalist Jin Jong-oh and Beijing Games fencing silver winner Nam Hyun-hee to earn the Korea Olympic Committee's sole patronage.
A total of 24 candidates were approved by the IOC Executive Board last December, but Italy's sailor Alessandra Sensini has since withdrawn.
Ryu, who currently coaches a Korean team, has been staying in Rio since July 22 to appeal to his fellow Olympians as the athletes competing at the Rio Games will cast their ballots until Aug. 17. All athletes participating in the Rio Games are eligible to vote and will be asked to elect four candidates from four different sports and the results will be announced on Aug. 18 in the Olympic Village.
Since the candidates are restricted from promoting their campaign through media, Ryu did not talk much about his ongoing campaign but briefly commented: "It is not that easy."
Ryu's campaign bears extraordinary significance for the South Korean sports community, because the country has the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics coming up in less than two years, while its say in the IOC is almost stagnant.
As of Sunday, two South Koreans are listed as IOC members -- Moon and ailing Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee. Moon, whose term was set to expire this summer, was suspended from his post recently after a plagiarism scandal.
After winning a taekwondo gold medal at the 2004 Athens Games, he was granted an IOC membership in 2008, but after he was embroiled in an allegation in 2012 that he plagiarized his doctorate thesis for a doctoral degree at Kookmin University. He filed a suit but lost twice and the IOC suspended his membership before the Supreme Court to make the final verdict.
Another South Korean IOC member, Lee, has been hospitalized and has remained unconscious since May 10, 2014, when he suffered a heart attack.
With South Korean sports community pinning hope on Ryu's campaign, the 34-year-old is taking on a batch of competitive rivals.
The most renowned name is Russia's double Olympic pole vault gold medalist Yelena Isinbayeva. The high profile pole vaulter bagged two gold medals at the 2004 and the 2008 Games, and at the 2012 Games added a bronze to her collection, already filled with a huge number of gold medals from World Championships, World Athletics Final and other international competitions.
Her election bid, however, may not be as formidable as her athletic career. In the wake of Russia's state-sponsored doping scandal, a massive number of Russian athletes were banned from competing in Rio and Isinbayeva is included.
Before the voting started on July 24, Isinbayeva, bemoaned that her campaign was already suffering setbacks. "I did hope this would be the first step in my career as a sports official. … Yet I don't feel any support on the part of foreign athletes, because they're praying for the absence of Russian competitors from the Rio Games," she was quoted as writing on a social media network.
Another candidate familiar to South Koreans is fencer Britta Heidemann, whose name comes as a painful memory for fencing fans here. Four years ago in London, the German faced South Korea's Shin A-lam in the women's individual epee semifinals and Shin was knocked out after a controversial call.
The two are in Rio too -- Shin as an athlete and Heidemann as a candidate who seeks to follow in the footsteps of former Commission chair Claudia Bokel. Heidemann told the Joongang Ilbo that she knows that Shin is one of the best fencers and she wishes good luck to the South Korean fencing team. Shin also said that she hopes Heidemann will become an IOC member.
Other high-profile candidates are Luis Scola of Argentina, who plays for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association; Koji Murofushi of Japan, hammer throw gold medalist at the 2004 Games; and Saina Nehwal of India, trailblazer of Indian Olympic badminton.
The candidate that directly competes with Ryu is Jean-Michel Saive of Belgium. The 46-year-old has no Olympic medal under his belt, but participated in seven consecutive Olympic Games from 1988, when table tennis became an official Olympic sport, to 2012.
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