Military World Games to feature unique sports

Parachuting

By Jun Ji-hye

Some 8,700 soldiers from about 100 countries will gather in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province, in early October for a quadrennial international sports event dubbed the Olympics for soldiers.

The 6th Military World Games, organized by International Military Sports Council (CISM) and supervised by the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of National Defense, will be held on Oct. 2-11 and will feature 24 sports.

The games’ vision is to promote friendship and solidarity among the world’s military personnel through sports.

Although the international sports event for soldiers is relatively unknown to the public, it is the third-largest international multi-sport event after the Olympics and the Universiade.

Obstacle races are some of the unique sports events featured at Military World Games. / Courtesy of the organizing committee

With just about two months before the opening of the event, the eight municipalities of North Gyeongsang Province are still working hard to ensure that the event proceeds successfully and safely. They have beautified the environment around the arenas and trained volunteer workers about international customs and etiquette.

“We will make thorough preparations for the Military World Games so that it can take place without any accidents,” Yeongcheon City Mayor Kim Young-suk told reporters.

The games have drawn the attention of audiences around the world with its unique sports, such as military pentathlon and parachuting, as well as the possible participation of Japan.

North Korea, which has participated in all the previous events, has given notification that it will not attend the upcoming games.

Unique sports

Other than popular sports such as golf, basketball and boxing, the Military World Games features unique ones, including military pentathlon, which consists of shooting, obstacle running, obstacle swimming, throwing and cross-country running.

In the shooting portion of the pentathlon, competitors are required to fire 10 shots within 10 minutes in precision shooting and 10 shots within one minute in rapid fire shooting at a distance of 200 meters.

In the obstacle running portion, players must navigate a 500-meter course with 20 obstacles, including huddles, high walls and ladders.

In the obstacle swimming portion, competitors must swim a 50-meter course while crossing four obstacles, including a balance beam suspended in midair.

In the throwing portion, players are tested in both precision and distance throwing. In precision throwing, soldiers must throw 16 inactive grenades at the rounded targets on the ground at varying distances.

Finally, players complete the pentathlon with an eight-kilometer cross-country run.

“I always feel like I’m reaching my physical limits, but I always do my best to overcome them,” said Sgt. 1st Class Kim Jin-hwa of the Army’s Special Warfare Command, who has been under training to compete in the military pentathlon.

Parachuting is another unique sport in the Military World Games. In this sport, players exit an aircraft and freefall to the ground with the aid of gravity, slowing down during the last part of the descent by using a parachute.

In the games, competitors are tested separately for accuracy, style and formation skydiving. The accuracy test demands a high degree of skill, as players must land on the designated 16-centimeter circle on the ground.

Another unique sport at the international event is aeronautical pentathlon, which consists of shooting, swimming, fencing, ball contest, obstacle run and orienteering. The idea of the sport is to prepare athletes to evade enemy soldiers.

Naval pentathlon requires competitors to first undertake an obstacle race with balance beams, barrels, Irish tables, climbing nets, tunnels and five other obstacles. Then, players move on to the lifesaving swimming race, which includes underwater swimming during the 15-meter course, moving toward a drowned person, taking off one’s suit and reaching the drowned person, saving the drowned person back at the site, and finally, rescue swimming.

Utility swimming race, seamanship race and amphibious cross-country race round out the naval pentathlon.

Japan may join

Japan has not been not able to join the CISM and compete in the Military World Games because the status of its Self-Defense Forces (SDF) was not considered equivalent to those of the militaries of other countries.

But this year, expectations have been rising that SDF would be able to attend the upcoming games as an observer, after Japan has expressed its desire to attend the international sports event, to which the CISM gave a positive response.

The move is seen as an apparent effort by the Shinzo Abe administration to become a “normal” state with a full-fledged military, and its participation in the games will be a useful step toward that end.

Olivier Verhelle, a CISM official who helps manage the games, even expressed optimism that Japan would officially join the CISM in the near future.

He said the CISM’s previous internal regulations had a very strict definition of what constitutes armed forces, but they were revised last year to add more “comprehensive flexibility,” as there are many nations that do not have armed forces, but rather defense forces, security forces and national guards.

“So, we judged it was not fair to block these nations from joining our organization,” he said.

An official from the organizing committee for this year’s games said that Japan has yet to submit its official application for entry, but the committee is preparing for the games on the assumption that Tokyo will participate.

“Because they would come as an observer, not athletes, they could attend the games if the application for the entry is made before the event, although the final deadline for the entry application was over,” he said.

Article 9 of Japan’s postwar Constitution prohibits the use of force to settle international disputes, which is why the country’s SDF has not been recognized as equivalent to a military. However, the ruling coalition led by Abe has reinterpreted the country’s pacifist Constitution and pushed for controversial security bills in order to expand the role of its defense forces overseas.

North Korea, which joined the CISM in 1993, has attended all the previous editions of the games in an apparent effort to show off its military strength to the world.

However, on Friday, a day ahead of the final deadline, the repressive state gave notice of its decision not to attend the 6th games.

The decision was disappointing for South Korean organizers as Pyongyang’s participation was expected to increase public interest in the games, which could eventually make them a success.

Defense Minister Han Min-koo earlier told reporters, “The international sports event for soldiers, which will take place on the divided peninsula, will be a landmark opportunity to overcome the pain of the tragic division and lay the groundwork for the unification of the two Koreas.”

The North’s decision comes amid escalating military tension on the Korean Peninsula.

It has been ratcheting up its verbal attack on the South, claiming that it will take “merciless” measures against the June 23 opening of a Seoul United Nations office that would monitor human rights in the communist state.

When the organizing committee sent the first invitation, Pyongyang replied that it intends on participating. It never responded to the second invitation, which had a March deadline.

Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye