Saving Taereung National Training Center

Elisa Lee, a member of the National Assembly, is a former table tennis star who spent much of her athletic career at the Taereung National Training Center. In 2005, she became the first woman to be appointed head of the center.

Lawmaker speaks out against destruction of historic sports facilities

By Nam Hyun-woo

To the chagrin of the sports community and fans, a number of aged sports facilities across the country have disappeared over the last few years.

Dongdaemun Stadium, which used to be one of the Asia’s oldest and historically significant baseball stadiums, was demolished in 2007 to make space for the multipurpose Dongdaemun Design Plaza in eastern Seoul. Sunin Gymnasium, which was the biggest sporting venue in Asia at the time it was built in 1973, was imploded in just five seconds in June last year for the redevelopment of adjacent area.

The Taereung National Training Center, which has been the country’s cradle of national athletes for almost five decades in the outskirt of Seoul, is scheduled to be demolished in 2017, with its functions to be transferred to Jincheon Training Center in North Chungcheong Province.

Lawmaker Elisa Lee of the ruling Saenuri Party, a former table tennis star, is speaking up against the a reckless abandonment of key facilities in the nation’s sporting history.

“The Taereung Center is one of the most precious assets of Korea’s sports history,” the 60-year-old said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. Lee, dubbed as the pioneer of Korean women’s table tennis, led her teammates to a top-place finish at the 1973 World Championships team event in Sarajevo at her age of 19 and has been the national hero of the sport.

Built in 1966, Taereung National Training Center has been serving as the country’s biggest training center for athletes. Countless athletes, including Lee, trained there. Some rose to international fame, like the 2019 Olympic champion Kim Yu-na in ladies figure skating.

When Lee returned as the first female head of the center in 2005, she found that the center would be demolished except for several winter sports training facilities because of the restoration work for the nearby collection of Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) tombs.

The tombs, 40 in 18 locations, are listed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage Site and the Cultural heritage Administration of Korea (CHA) plans to restore the tombs back to its initial shape of Joseon era, following a UNESCO advise. In the process, the Taereung Center has to be destroyed.

“The Taereung Center is the heart which has driven Korea’s sports to current status. However, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (of which CHA is a heritage specialized arm)unconditionally sides with the tomb restoration project, citing UNESCO, while the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) turns a blind eye to this issue,” Lee said, adding that she has been staging a lonely fight to prevent the transfer since 2005.

“Preserving the Taereung Center’s function is in President Park Geun-hye’s election pledges. It was the only pledge regarding sports,” Lee said. “The center’s function is giving athletes a platform for training. Despite countless efforts, however, summer sports facilities will move to Jincheon in 2017 and winter sports facilities will follow after the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.”

She argued that maintaining the Taereung Center is more economic than transferring its function to the Jincheon Center. The government has allocated some 510 billion won in the construction of the Jincheon Center and Taereung Center’s transfer.

Falling on deaf ears

In December 2013, she hosted a symposium at the National Assembly with the CHA and the KOC. CHA’s Heritage Promotion Bureau Director Kim Won-gi reiterated the need for the transfer, saying “the tombs’ restoration is an international promise with the UNESCO” and “it was too late to stop the transfer.” The KOC remained silent.

Lee said KOC is “negligent in protecting” the Taereung Center. The KOC itself had declared the transfer. In 2004, the KOC requested a feasibility study over the center’s transfer and construction of the second national training center to the Korea Development Institute, saying the center is too small to accommodate all national athletes and facilities are aged.

During an interview with a local newspaper in January, the current head of the center, Choi Jong-sam, said that “Taereung Center has to be preserved in any form. However, Lee, claimed that “he unwillingly made such a comment,” given these backdrop.

Since 1966, the Taereung National Training Center has served as the country’s biggest training center for athletes. / Courtesy of Elisa Lee

The ministry seems to give little importance to sports these days, while doing its utmost on promoting tourism or preserving heritages. In a recent plan for restructuring, the ministry downsized departments in charge of sports.

Instead, the ministry is paying a lot of energy in inscribing Korea’s historic sites on the UNESCO list. Following the listing of Namhansanseong (an emergency capital of the Joseon Kingdom) in June this year, the CHA is now conducting a basic study over arrays of Joseon era beacons to review whether they can be also listed on the UNESCO.

Lee said she is considering hosting another symposium over the Taereung Center’s demolition, but added that she is frustrated over the cries fell on deaf ears.

Lee also expressed her frustration over the fallen sports venues, such as the Dongdaemun Stadium and Jangchung Gymnasium, which is under a massive remodeling work.“I’m so worried over our athletes who will be isolated in the remote area (Jincheon). Athletes are also young people. They want to enjoy downtown outings in weekends. The idea of pushing our kids to the remote area and forcing them into harsh training is so archaic,” she said.

“At Jangchung, I beat all my competitors who were older than me and became the domestic champion of table tennis,” Lee recalled. “Not only I but also other sports stars, including former ssireum (Korean folk wrestling) champion Lee Man-ki, rose to glory with thrilling games which enthralled all Koreans. But with the remodeling, those glories will only exist in people’s memory,” she said.

Built in 1963, the gymnasium is Korea’s first indoor multi-sports venue. Since May, 2012, it has been under a 29.8-billion-won remodeling work and is scheduled to be completed in December. The building was the venue for not only sports competitions but also for many major events of Korea’s modern history, such as late President Park Chung-hee’s inauguration ceremonies in 1972 and 1978. Former President Chun Doo-hwan also became president through an indirect election at the gymnasium in 1980.