A quartet of South Korean Olympians will enter the race to become the country’s candidate for International Olympic Committee (IOC) membership, the national Olympic body said Thursday.
The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) recently sent memos to national sports federations on opening the application process for the candidate for IOC Athletes’ Commission membership.
Volleyball player Kim Yeon-koung, golfer Park In-bee, taekwondo practitioner Lee Dae-hoon and pistol shooter Jin Jong-oh have submitted their applications or will do so by the 6 p.m. Friday deadline, according to the athletes’ representatives Thursday.
The KSOC will endorse one candidate for the election for the Athletes’ Commission, which will take place during the Paris Summer Olympics next year. The KSOC must inform the IOC of its candidate by Sept. 1.
The candidate must have competed at the previous edition of the Olympics or must have qualified for the Olympics in the same year as the election.
Kim, Park, Jin and Lee all participated in the previous Summer Olympics in Tokyo two years ago.
Of the four, Jin, 43, publicly declared his interest in IOC membership on Feb. 21 this year, when he was introduced as co-head of the organizing committee for the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics taking place in South Korea.
Lee, 31, has also said in multiple media interviews in recent months that he wanted to run for a seat on the Athletes’ Commission.
Kim and Park, both 35, had not made their intentions public until Thursday, though there had been rumors that they were both interested in the position.
Kim, who also represented South Korea at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics, is widely considered the greatest volleyball player ever to hail from South Korea, but she is the only one of the four candidates without an Olympic medal. She took South Korea to the semifinals in both 2012 and 2021, and the country lost in the bronze medal match at both competitions. Kim announced her retirement from international play after the Tokyo Games.
Jin is the most successful individual shooter in Olympic history with four gold medals and two silver medals. Three of those gold medals came in the men’s 50-meter pistol event, making him the first shooter to win three consecutive gold medals in a single event.
Lee competed at three consecutive Olympic Games from 2012 to 2021, winning silver in 2012 and bronze in 2016 in different weight classes.
Park, an LPGA Hall of Famer, won the gold medal in the women’s golf tournament at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, where the women’s competition made its return to the Summer Games after 116 years away. She finished tied for 23rd place in Tokyo in her title defense. She has been on a hiatus from the LPGA Tour this year, as she gave birth to her first child in April.
Elected by fellow Olympians, Athletes’ Commission members serve an eight-year term and have the same functions and responsibilities as other members.
Currently, Ryu Seung-min, the 2004 Olympic men’s singles table tennis champion for South Korea, is the first vice chair of the commission. Ryu was elected to the commission in 2016 and his term ends next year.
Prior to Ryu, the 2004 Olympic men’s taekwondo gold medalist Moon Dae-sung served on the Athletes’ Commission from 2008 to 2016.
Source: Yonhap News Agency