Korean women’s volleyball team faces inconveniences at Olympics

Team Korea needs to overcome so many things. South Korea’s female volleyball team aiming to win its first Olympic medal is having difficulties due to poor athletic environment in Rio de Janeiro.

The Korean volleyball team barely managed to arrive at the training site only 10 minutes before the training schedule for its first training session on Sunday. For the training session at Air Force University from 2:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. on the day, the team was ready to leave its lodging facility early, but the bus driver failed to keep the schedule, forcing the athletes to wait for quite a long time. The bus driver also failed to promptly find the location of the training site, wasting time on the road. National team coach Lee Jeong-cheol, who had set the schedule to ensure that the team arrived at the training site one hour prior to training for stretching and warming up, expressed anger.

Players are facing inconvenience at the athletic village due to its poor condition. “Shower water pressure at the bathroom is not strong enough, and water is not drained properly,” said Hwang Yeon-joo. The Korean Olympic Council had to lengthen the size of the beds by 30 – 50 centimeters after learning that tall volleyball players are having hard time with short bed.

강홍구기자 windup@donga.com