Aiming to become global sports Mecca

Kim Seong-jo, left, president of Korea National Sport University, poses with fencer Park Sang-young after the athlete won Korea’s first-ever gold medal in the men’s individual epee at the Rio Olympics in Brazil, Aug. 10. Park is a junior majoring in fencing at the university. / Courtesy of Korea National Sport University

Korea National Sport University cultivates elite athletes, coaches and managers

By Chung Hyun-chae

Kim Seong-jo, president of Korea National Sport University, has vowed to make the university a global sports mecca that can promote Korea to the world.

“I hope our university will play a key role in promoting the nation by nurturing elite athletes as well as competent sports managers and coaches working overseas,” Kim told The Korea Times in a recent interview at his office on the university’s campus in Songpa-gu, southeastern Seoul.

Nine students and 35 graduates of the sport university participated in 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Three of them won gold medals and another three clinched bronze medals.

Students from the university and its graduates have so far snatched 100 medals in different Olympic Games, one third of the total 300 medals that Korean athletes have obtained since 1948 London Olympics.

Among six medalists in the Rio Olympics, Park Sang-young, 20, a fencer who won the country’s first-ever gold medal in the men’s individual epee, is the only enrolled student and the youngest competitor in the event.

Kim Seong-jo, right, president of Korea National Sport University, holds an appreciation plaque with Tadamori Oshima, a member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, in October 2015 when Oshima visited the university to see how it trains its students. / Courtesy of Korea National Sport University

President Kim is proud of Park who defeated Geza Imre of Hungary in the epee final. Park is a junior who majors in fencing at the university.

When losing against the Hungarian fencer by 10-14 in the middle of the game, Park mumbled, “I can do it,” which moved many Koreans.

“Park sent a strong message to Korea that ‘We can do it,’” Kim said. “Faculties and students of our university have also gained confidence.”

Kim also said some alumni of the university have worked hard to raise Korea’s status as a sports power in the international community.

“For example, Korean-born Russian short-track speed skater Ahn Hyun-soo, now named Viktor Ahn, has contributed to boosting Korea’s image in Russia by winning medals in short-track speed skating,” Kim said.

Ahn graduated from the university in 2008.

Ahn, who gleaned three gold medals and a bronze in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, received Russian citizenship in 2011 after he failed to join the Korean short-track team in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Then in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, he revived his Olympic glory by winning three gold and one bronze as a Russian athlete.

In the Rio Olympics, 35 alumni of the sport university played an active role as managers or coaches, 11 of whom led teams of other countries.

Among them are Park Joo-bong, a manager of the Japanese badminton team; Park Chung-gun, a manager of the Vietnamese shooting team; Kim Yong-jin, a manager of the Chinese taekwondo team; Park Young-sook, a manager of the Malawian archery team; Sim Moo-yeob, a coach of the Vietnamese fencing team; and Kim Byung-hoon, a coach of the Chinese hockey team.

The Japanese badminton team, the Vietnamese shooting team and the Chinese taekwondo team won gold medals at this year’s Olympics.

Japanese badminton team manager Park claimed a gold medal in the men’s badminton doubles at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics and won gold in the mixed doubles at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics.

“In an effort to cultivate global leaders and coaches, we have focused on foreign language education as well as personality education,” Kim said. “Even a moment in which athletes extend their hands to judges for handshaking after the event shows their character.”

President Kim, a former three-term lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, served as head of the Korea House for Korean athletes in Rio de Janeiro during the Olympics.

He met International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach at the PyeongChang Olympics promotion hall near Copacabana, a popular beach in Brazil. He proposed that his university confer an honorary doctorate on Bach next March.

“We plan to invite Bach on the occasion of the anniversary of the founding of our university on March 19,” Kim said. “I believe that his visit would provide a boost to our university and the nation’s international status.”

He also tried to help Ryu Seung-min, a table tennis gold medalist at the 2004 Athens Olympics, clinch a seat in the IOC Athletes’ Commission. As a result, Ryu became the second Korean to become a member of the commission following Moon Dae-sung, a taekwondo gold medalist at the same Olympics who got his seat during the 2008 Beijing Games.

Kim also plans to establish an IOC academy in Korea. He said that if the plan is approved by the IOC, the academy will be the first of its kind in Asia.

“I suggested to the IOC that Korea should host the IOC academy which will serve as an education and research center on Olympic sports in Asia,” Kim said.

Currently the International Academy of Sport Science and Technology is located in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“If we succeed, I believe it will enhance Korea’s status as a sports powerhouse in the world,” Kim added.

Preparations for 2018 PyeongChang Olympics

Kim expects his students to fare better in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

The university already signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games on bilateral cooperation in successfully hosting the international sports event.

“Under the MOU, we will send as many student volunteers for the Winter Games as possible,” Kim said.

In October 2015, Tadamori Oshima, a politician of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, visited the Korea National Sport University to see how the university trains students. He is a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet.

His visit was part of efforts to strengthen the Japanese elite sports system ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.

“At that time I realized that Japan is working hard to prepare for the Tokyo Games,” Kim said.

“Learning from them, we also have to invest more on both elite sports and sports-for-all to promote balanced development,” he added.

He expressed hope that his university will play a leading role in promoting what he calls sports hallyu, or the Korean wave for sports, around the world.