Wrestling survives as Olympic sport, but Korean wrestling staggers

“Parterre” position symbolizing Korean wrestling has yet to revive. Wrestling on the verge of exit from the official Olympic sports has barely managed to survive. At the International Olympic Council’s executive committee and 125th general assembly in Buenos Ares, Argentina on Sept. 9, it was adopted as the last official sport for the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. Nevertheless, Korean wrestling is still facing a crisis.

All three Korean wrestlers failed to advance to the second round in men’s freestyle competition on Monday, the first day of the Senior World Championship 2013 held in Budapest, Hungary. Kim Hyeon-woo (Samsung Life Insurance), the 66 kg-class gold medalist in Greco-Roman style wrestling at the 2012 London Olympics, will play in the 74 kg-class by elevating his weight class, but it is uncertain whether Korea will secure a gold medal at the world championship for the first time in 14 years. This graphically illustrates deep slump that Korean wrestling is facing. Kim Hak-yeol, general secretary of the Korea Wrestling Federation, said, “Due to lack of budget, two coaches joined the wrestling team right before the championship. As Samsung ended assistance to us from this year, the national team is struggling amid difficult situation.”

Samsung was the lifeline for Korean wrestling. Since 1982, the conglomerate has provided a combined total of more than 27.4 billion won (25.3 million U.S. dollars) to the Korea Wrestling Federation for 30 years. The financial assistance amounted to over 900 million won (830,000 dollars) per annum. Considering that the federation manages 3.5 billion won (3.23 million dollars) in combined annual budget, Samsung’s assistance accounted for more than 30 percent of the budget. The impact of the sponsorship cessation on wrestling is massive. According to the federation, training camps for the national team and boarding training sessions for elite wrestlers have come to a complete halt. The federation also had to stop more areas: project to nurture promising young wrestlers; assistance and subsidies to the metropolitan and provincial branches of the federation; assistance for establishment of teams at middle and high schools.

The federation sent a letter of appeal to Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee on three occasions on April 8, May 6 and 10, to no avail. “Samsung is not the company holding the chairmanship of the Korea Wrestling Federation, and problems also linger over bribery paid to judges and corruptions involving former federation chairman Cheon Shin-il (1997-2000, 2002-2011). Due to serious internal conflict and factional strife within the federation, enhancing transparency of the organization is out of the question,” said a source at Samsung’s sports division. “Decision to halt assistance had been made in 2011, but we informed the federation that we would only continue assistance through last year due to the London Olympics.”

The federation has posted advertisements seeking new sponsor companies. Samsung says it has no plan to resume assistance to wrestling. In order for Korean wrestling to revive, assistance is instrumental. However, just as International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles was able to persuade and move the heart of IOC executive committee members through internal reform and comprehensive revisions of the rules, the Korean wrestling community should arm itself with sincerity and capacity for internal reform.