Lotte Group chairman to lead ski association
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Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin
By Nam Hyun-woo
Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin took the Korea Ski Association's (KSA) presidential post which has been vacant for a year, the association said, Tuesday.
The KSA said its 17 present members out of 18-people general assembly approved Shin who ran unopposed as the 20th president during their meeting at the Lotte Hotel World in Songpa-district, Seoul. He will serve until early 2017.
This is the first time that the 59-year-old tycoon took the chief post of a sports association. He has been serving as the Federation of Korean Industries Vice President and Korea-Japan Economic Association vice president.
“I will give my utmost support to Korean ski as it prepares for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics,” Shin said during his inauguration ceremony which took place after the general assembly meeting.
“I will spearhead efforts to make ski more popular and to maintain the popularity after the Olympics,” he added.
Shin's inauguration will be a boost for the KSA. Its 19th President Yoon Seok-min, vice chairman of the board of SBS Media Holdings, resigned in November last year, just seven months after he took the job.
Ski is one of the most important sports in the Winter Olympics. In Sochi, 49 gold medals out of a total of 98 were handed out in skiing. However, Korea has not been able to attain a single Olympic medal
“Ski is the core of the Winter Olympics. We have to put more emphasis on its progress,” Shin said.
Shin is known as an enthusiastic skier. He is said to have plans to invest more than 1 billion won a year to the KSA during his presidency.