[Opinion] Sports Diplomatic Experts Need To Be Trained

Jacques Rogge was elected as the 8th International Olympic Committee (IOC) president who will lead the international Olympic movement, following the former president Juan Antonio Samaranch. Kim Un-Yong, chairman of the Korean Sports Council and the IOC member, competed for the presidency that has been dominated by Caucasians since 1894 when the IOC was organized. Kim was defeated in the election, but he deeply impressed the world as a first Asian who had fought well.

Especially, Chairman Kim`s status within the IOC can be counted by the fact that he advanced to the second round of vote in the unfavorable condition in which Beijing`s 2008 Olympics hosting made the Anglo Saxon IOC members to solidify.

Chairman Kim has received not only the national support, but also the full supports from the sports circles because of his drawback that he was not a sportsman. It is amazing that in spite of such an adverse circumstance, he competed for the presidency with Rogge who was backed up by the European IOC members. Even though Kim lost the election due to Samaranch`s last-moment intervention, he improved the level of Korea`s sports diplomacy.

This election end up with the loss. But the IOC president election will continue. Moreover, there are many president positions in the world of international sports such as Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the Association of National Olympic Committee (ANOC), the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) and the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA). Especially the president of the FIFA with 204 member countries, can be properly called as `the world president`. It is worthy to expect that Chung Mong-Joon, the president of the Korea Football Association (KFA) will become a candidate for the FIFA president and will compete well.

As of the end of last year, only 137 Korean officials in total were working as the president, the members of the executive committees or the members of the subcommittees in the international sports organizations or the Asian sports organizations. Very few officials are at work in the leader groups, and the officials working in the executive committees or the subcommittees are also short. Moreover, the working officials have not played the leading role because of the lack of language ability or the lack of working experiences in the international sports organization.

The Korean sports circles should produce the second and the third candidates for the IOC presidency after this election, and should try to compete in the forthcoming FIFA presidential election. It must never happen again that the election for the nation`s benefit is to be carried out only by the personal endeavors.

For the long run, we should create the atmosphere in which the athletes play sports and at the same time study hard. Most leading officials in the international sports organizations were previously athletes and also have various jobs. The newly-elected IOC president Rogge is an orthopedic surgeon. The sportsmen are usually counted as the gentlemen who possess the learning and the well-balanced physical beauty, and in many cases they demonstrate their leadership in the society. On the other hand, the Korean athletes are neither genuine sportsmen nor the gentlemen. Such athletes could not be produced because of the atmosphere of running after only the victory. The superior sports diplomats cannot be nurtured in this atmosphere. For the athletes to play a managing role in the sports circles after their retirement, education and sports should go side by side. And the physical education in schools should be normalized so that the young athletes can learn the virtues of sports.

For the short run, we should nurture the medallists of the Olympics or the Asian Games with the grounding knowledge and the quality so that they can work in the international sports organizations. Then, they may easily advance to the international sports organizations with the strong point that they are medallists, and have adjust themselves with the knowledge of the sports and the experiences. And we should establish the training system for the sports diplomatic experts, which can produce systematically the future human resources. The colleges should establish the sports diplomacy department and should teach the working knowledge needed for the international sports organizations. And the academic society for sports diplomacy should also run actively.

The sports-related organizations such as the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Korea Sports Council, and the Institute for the Sports Science should set up the direction and the tasks of the nation`s sports diplomacy on the basis of the investigation on the nation`s sports diplomats who have played the leading role in the international sports organizations such as the IOC and their activities. Especially, since the European Rogge was elected as the next IOC president, we should build up the friendly relationship with the European sports circles, and should learn the sports diplomatic ability from them. And we should construct the network in which the governmental organizations such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the sports organizations to actively exchange the information and the human resources.

Lee Yong-Shik (Senior researcher of the Institute for the Sports Science)