Jung Min-ho has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2012, mostly covering social and political issues. He currently belongs to the Politics & City Desk where he covers topics such as health, labor and human rights. Prior to joining the team, he was responsible for covering North Korea and sports. His article about a biosecurity breach of Middle East respiratory syndrome won him an award from the Korea Science Journalists Association in 2016. He is also the co-author of the book, "Medical Pioneers of Korea" (2019). He served as the head of the international relations committee at the Journalists Association of Korea from 2021 to 2023.
Na has special attachment to Special Olympics
Na Kyung-won, chairwoman of the 2013 PyeongChang Special Olympics Organizing Committee, speaks during a recent interview with The Korea Times at her office in Seoul. / Courtesy of the committee
By Jung Min-ho
By Jung Min-ho
Sport is known for producing remarkable efforts in pursuit of victory. But the 2013 PyeongChang Special Olympics World Winter Games will be about empowering people through inspirational competition, according to Na Kyung-won, chairwoman of the 2013 PyeongChang Special Olympics Organizing Committee.
Korea will host its first Special Olympics from Jan. 29 to Feb. 5. in the eastern Gangwon Province city.
“What we are trying to achieve is to initiate awareness campaigns in a society where winning is everything,” Na said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. “Under the slogan Together We Can, I hope the event can bring harmony and a new vision to Korea that truly needs at this point.
“Showing what they can do there is important to make people realize that people with intellectual disabilities can be used as valuable manpower, that they are not a social cost,” Na said. “What is going to happen in PyeongChang will also hopefully change able-bodied people who don’t use their ability or potential.”
A total of 3,300 athletes from 113 nations will compete in 55 events for seven sports with floorball included as a demonstration sport.
For Na, a former judge and lawmaker, the Special Olympics holds multiple meanings.
“When I was attending the 2009 Idaho event, I saw the Korean athletes’ South Korea badges dangling from their shirts because they were poorly stitched,” she said. “Feeling sad and embarrassed, I thought the representatives of Asia’s fourth-largest economy deserved better than that.”
Having a 19-year-old daughter with Down’s syndrome, discrimination against people with intellectual disabilities has always been a barrier for Na to overcome. And the 2009 Idaho Special Olympics World Winter Games really pushed her to take the initiative to host the event in Korea.
The Special Olympics is a biennial international sporting event, different from the Paralympics that involve athletes with both physical and intellectual disabilities at an elite sporting level. The Special Olympics, which held its inaugural World Games in the United States in July 1968, awards medals to all participants.
“Learning the values of tolerance and embracing differences through sporting competition, instead of pursuing victory, is what makes it truly special,” said the former lawmaker. “With the event being held here for the first time, it is important to leave a good legacy in PyeongChang.”
A dearth of public knowledge on people with disabilities is the biggest challenge to organize and prepare for the Special Olympics here, where deep-seated prejudices are prevalent, Na said. According to a 2006 Korean Statistical Information Service survey, its most recent study, 60.6 percent of respondents said that they think discrimination against people with disabilities is “serious” or “very serious.” When asked if people with disabilities get along with able-bodied people, only 39 percent said “very much so” or “somewhat so.”
“Even our staff knew little about the Special Olympics at the beginning of the preparations. Raising funds for the unfamiliar event was really difficult,” she went on to say. “However, last February’s pre-games were a big turning point for us. Watching the selfless athletes participating and helping one another, we again realized how valuable our work can be.”
At the test event, designed to examine the facilities and management one year ahead of the Special Olympics, more than 300 athletes and coaches from nine countries participated in four of the seven official sports – alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, short-track speed skating and figure skating. February’s competition will also feature snowboarding and snowshoeing and floor hockey.
With the event 83 days away, Korea will be the third Asian country to host the Special Olympics, following the 2005 Nagano Winter Games in Japan and the 2007 Shanghai Special Olympics World Summer Games in China. Na said it is Korea’s turn to return a kindness to the international community after having received a great deal of assistance when the nation needed it.
“Hosting the event will be a contribution not only to the athletes but also to the international community that embraced us when we suffered many privations,” Na said. “I heard that China did a great job on promoting that spirit and we want to make it successful here as well.”
Referring to Swedish artist and swimmer Lena Maria Klingsvall’s quote, “I prefer to rejoice in what I can do, not mourn what I can’t,” Na encouraged more people to participate in the international sporting festival.