Korea's sports diplomacy: rise and fall

This compiled image shows, from left, Olympic figure skating champion Kim Yu-na, former International Olympic Committee Vice President Kim Un-yong and former FIFA Vice President Chung Mong-joon. The images were processed with application Enlight. / Yonhap, Korea Times file

By Nam Hyun-woo

Since South Korea took part in the 1948 Olympics, its sportsmen have been fulfilling their mission to successfully take the country to the center of the international sports community.

In the 2012 London Olympics, the national team finished in fifth place, after clinching 13 golds, eight silvers and seven bronze medals.

But the country’s sports diplomacy has not garnered attention as much as athletes’ sportsmanship until recent years.

From the beginning of the 1988 Seoul Olympics to former FIFA Vice President Chung Mong-joon’s recent botched presidential bid, The Korea Times takes a brief look back at the history of Korea’s sports diplomacy.

Beginning

Experts agree that South Korea achieved its first diplomatic success in sport by winning the right to host the 1970 Asian Games in Seoul during an Asian Games Federation congress at the 1966 Asiad.

However, this also became one of the biggest disgraces in Korea’s sports diplomacy history because the country then handed over the right to the previous host, Thailand, to stage the Asiad .

The country cited budget issues and security threats from neighboring North Korea as the reason, but the failure is said to be due to internal feuds between local sports organizations, including the Korea Sports Council and Korean Olympic Committee.

Also, then President Park Chung-hee reportedly ordered to give up the right because of national sentiment. At then, Korean athletes’ performance lagged far behind that of Japanese athletes. Thus, Koreans would have to watch Japan’s national anthem playing in Korea, which suffered a colonial rule from Japan.

In December 1968, the then Asian Games Federation (now the Olympic Council of Asia) headed by Chang Key-yong announced that Korea would give up the right and shoulder 20 percent of the anticipated deficit of the 1970 Asiad.

Yoon Kang-ro, president of International Sport Cooperation and Diplomacy Institute and a key figure in Korea’s sport diplomatic effort, points out that the 1970 Asiad was an opportunity to advance Korea’s sport credentials by about 20 years, but the country was “not prepared and organized enough.”

“However, the botched attempt also served as fertilizer for the country to win the right to host the 1988 Games twelve years later,” Yoon said.

‘Baden-Baden Miracle’

Twelve years later, Korea saw its biggest achievement in its sports diplomacy, by winning the right to stage the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. On Sept. 30, 1981, Seoul was selected to host the Games, finishing ahead of Nagoya in voting at the 84th International Olympic Committee (IOC) Session in Baden-Baden, West Germany.

Experts agree that the three key figures ― former IOC Vice President Kim Un-yong, Hyundai Group founder Chung Ju-yung and former KOC President Park Jong-kyu ― contributed to the “Baden-Baden Miracle.”

Park Moo-jong, former Korea Times President-Publisher and editor of “Seoul Olympians,” the official newspaper of the Seoul Games, recalled that “two major international events ― the 42nd World Shooting Championships in 1978 and the General Assembly of the Association of National Olympic Committees ― at that time served as decisive impetus for the country to consider hosting an Olympic Games.”

Boosted by the success of these events, Park reported a bidding plan, which Kim later described as “a bit hollow,” to President Park and then Seoul Mayor Chung Sang-chon announced the plan on Oct. 8, 1979.

This plan, however, was abandoned after President Park was assassinated 18 days following the announcement. It was then reinstated when Gen. Chun Doo-hwan took over the country and experts say that Park’s network in the global sports sector helped the plan to gain momentum.

“It was a time when one figure’s human network appealed a lot to the decision making process,” Yoon said. “And it still has a huge significance these days.”

After Park died of liver cancer in 1985, Kim joined the IOC a year later to lead the so-called “Renaissance” of Korea’s sports diplomacy history.

Along with several top jobs in the domestic sports community, Kim served as President of General Association of International Sports Federations (now SportAccord), IOC Executive Board member and Vice President and the World Taekwondo Federation President.

During his tenure, he contributed to Korea’s successful hosting of the Seoul Olympics and played a key role in taekwondo to be included in the 2000 Sydney Olympics as an official sport.

‘Dark ages’

However, after consolidating his status as one of the most powerful officials in the IOC, Kim failed to succeed Antonio Samaranch as president in 2001 and subsequently resigned 2005 from the committee in disgrace, a year after he was arrested on corruption charges.

Despite the fact that there are still debates over whether Kim fell victim to Korea’s botched 2003 attempt to host the 2010 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Kim’s fall subsequently caused a “dark ages” period to blight Korea’s sports diplomacy.

“It is hard to tell there has been a successor of Kim,” said Yoon. Park Yong-sung has retained his IOC membership until 2007 as president of the International Judo Federation, while current Korean IOC members are not as active as Kim. Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, whose membership expires in 2022, is ailing and former Olympic taekwondo champion Moon Dae-sung remains in disgrace following a plagiarism scandal.

During this period, Korea failed twice in 2010 and 2014 after submitting bids to host the Winter Olympics.

Former Korea Football Association President Chung Mong-joon, who played a key role in Korea’s co-hosting of the 2002 World Cup and jumped into the global football community after being elected as FIFA vice president in 1994, announced his run to replace outgoing President Sepp Blatter earlier this year, but he withdrew after facing a six-year ban from the FIFA Ethics Committee. This has left a deep sense of frustration because Chung served at the organization for 17 years.

Korea seeks Kim’s heir

Yoon points out that the field of sports diplomacy is where experience, national support and personal ability are closely linked with outcomes.

“Korean society tends to fail in nurturing a person as a specialist,” said Yoon. ”However, the field of sports diplomacy is where experience matters the most. To have a proper sports diplomat, there should be a system exposing diplomats to the field early on in their careers so that there could be knowledge transfers.”

Yoon cited short track speed skater Chun Lee-kyung. Chun and China’s Yang Yang are two stars of short track speed skating in the 1990s. Chun won four gold medals in her Olympic career, while Yang collected two.

Though the two skaters wrote a new chapter of Olympic short track skating, Yang is active in sports diplomacy after she was named to succeed the late He Zhenliang as an IOC member, while Chun puts effort into mentoring young domestic skaters. “The stark contrast shows how Korea and China were different from each other in nurturing sports diplomats,” said Yoon. “To develop sports diplomacy, sustainable efforts and exquisite process are required. And such efforts will return as national prestige.”

As Moon’s term is set to expire during the Rio Olympics next year, Korea can send another athlete representative to the 2016 IOC Athletes Commission election there. In August, the KOC nominated table tennis player Ryu Seung-min as the sole candidate.

If Ryu fails to do so, it remains to be seen whether retired figure skater Kim Yu-na will announce her bid for IOC membership during the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Kim, who won gold in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and silver in the 2014 Sochi Olympics, is not eligible for candidacy next summer because candidates who practice a summer sport can only be eligible during a Summer Games, while winter sport athletes can only run for elections during the Winter Games. She reneged on her retirement plan in 2012 to compete at the 2014 Games because the IOC only allows active or retired athletes who took part in the previous Olympics to participate.