Buddhism becomes unlikely force behind Korea's Olympic snowboard success
Ven. Hosan, founder of the Dalma Open Championship, performs a halfpipe trick at the competition's fifth edition at Vivaldi Park Ski World in Gangwon Province, Feb. 6, 2007. Yonhap
What does Buddhism have to do with Korea’s unprecedented back-to-back snowboarding medals at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics?
More than you might think, actually.
Halfpipe gold medalist Choi Gaon, alpine silver medalist Kim Sang-kyum, big air bronze medalist Yu Seung-eun and Lee Sang-ho, who nabbed the nation’s first Olympic snowboarding medal at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, share a common trait.
All four once competed in the long-running Dalma Open Championship, organized by the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the country’s largest Buddhist sect.
Behind this unlikely convergence of religion and sport stands one man: Ven. Hosan, abbot of Bongseon Temple in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province.
Big air bronze medalist Yu Seung-eun, left, and alpine silver medalist Kim Sang-kyum at the 2026 Winter Olympics / Yonhap
His relationship with the sport began by chance. In 1995, after being asked to offer prayers for safety at a nearby ski resort, the monk received a lift pass in return.
Watching snowboarders glide down the wind-scoured slope, he saw something familiar in their movement — a kind of freedom.
“In Buddhism, too, we seek ultimate liberation from the cycle of birth and death,” he said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency. “I felt I could relate to the hearts of those young people on their boards.”
Carving down the mountain alongside them, however, he also came to see another reality. In Korea, snowboarding was long treated as a fringe pursuit, attracting little institutional support and media attention. Young athletes had few, if any, opportunities to train systematically or compete at a meaningful level on their home turf. The infrastructure simply was not there.
Ven. Hosan, abbot of Bongseon Temple and founder of the Dalma Open Championship, poses with his snowboard at the temple in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, Thursday. Yonhap
Determined to change that, Ven. Hosan decided in 2003 to launch a competition using his own savings, aided by monks from other temples. The name of the event comes from the Buddhist term “dharma” which refers to the teachings of the Buddha and the true nature of reality.
What began as a modest effort to support struggling athletes gradually grew in scale and stature. At one point, it was recognized as Korea’s largest international snowboard competition, offering ranking points toward the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) World Cup.
After Pyeongchang County was confirmed as host of the 2018 Winter Games, the event’s mission expanded to cultivating young prospects with Olympic potential.
More than two decades on, the competition stands as the country’s longest-running incubator of snowboarding talent — the unlikely birthplace of the so-called “Dharma kids.”