1월 21일 (수) Better sponsorship for our athletes

Better sponsorship for our athletes Nowadays, many Korean athletes are performing so well that they are getting not just the spotlight from Korea but from around the world. Among all the athletes, Tae Hwan Park and Yu Na Kim are the two that have recently achieved such high success from fields that have been domestically unpopular among the public so far. Therefore, many of us weren’t aware of the two names until the media started writing and reporting about their high achievements as they’ve competed in world championships and started bringing the medals back home and turning themselves into internationally known icons that are more popular than any other Korean superstars. However, we are usually only exposed to the spotlighted moments of those individuals when they have highly performed in big sporting events. So, we never see the sorrows, the pain, and recognize the process of harsh training that they have gone through everyday under such poor facilities and background in willing to stand where they are today. So, the thesis for this essay is simple: Better sponsorship for our athletes in unpopular sports.         Back in the 80’s Korea was still suffering from poverty, so most of the players were trained in miserable circumstances and under the hungry spirit. As we all know, back then, most of them didn’t have the suitable foods for athletes. Instead, they were relying on cheap foods like ramen because of the nation’s economic condition. However, things are different now. Korea has changed since the 80’s. The gross national income per capita which stood at only $2643 before, had reached up to $18,372 in 2006. So just in more than 20 years, Korea has seen remarkable economic growth and people’s living standards have gone up substantially. But did our training environment for our athletes improve as well? The answer to this question is actually yes and no. For popular sports, the investment and sponsorship have grown and are supplied with the state of the arts facilities for scientific training. However, unpopular sports are still under poor conditions which mean that some athletes are still struggling with financial matters as they train. So, referring to financial problems for unpopular sport athletes today, I wanted to bring up Kim Yu Na’s struggle as an example. Kim Yu Na, the first Korean to win a title in an ISU contest, was going through severe back pain as she injured herself from a collapse during her practice in January. She was sent to a medical clinic to be checked on and there she was diagnosed with an early stage spinal disc herniation due to stress and rigorous training. So, she wasn’t able compete in the National Championships. But luckily, she was later eventually selected by the KSU to attend the 2007 World Figure Skating Championships to represent Korea since she had more experience in world competitions than any other Korean figure skaters. However, a recent article about Kim had shocked across the nation after the competition. It was because of the financial support she was receiving from the Korean Skating Union. After hardly recovering from her injury, Kim who was still suffering from minor aches, relying on painkillers had flown over 13hours on an economy class seat for her competition and had to book at a local inn because of her financial reasons. Does this even make sense? We all basically know in general that for athletes to perform well on their competition day, the physical and mental condition of the player needs to be in great status since the outcome ultimately depends on it. However, Kim who just had hardly recovered from such injury had flown economy from Tokyo to Canada over 13 hours and stayed at a local inn to attend for the World Championships when she should have gotten lavish support and care from KSU. This fact had upset many fans. Moreover, it had made many home fans more upset after hearing about the sponsorship her rival, Asada Mao, from Japan was receiving. Unlike Yu Na, she was receiving 2 billion won a year just from company sponsorships while our future of skating in comparison was only getting 70 million won from the Korean skating union. Then, here we could raise a question ‘Why aren’t our companies sponsoring Yu Na?’             The answer to that question is because companies in Korea are hesitating to sponsor Kim due to the unpopularity of figure skating and prohibition rules of advertising on the contestant’s uniforms. Since most companies seek for world wide attention of their products through indirect advertising. They’ve concluded that Kim’s field in sports doesn’t have that much of an investment value. So, many are still hesitating to invest in Kim Yu Na. So, finally the netizens rose to their feet to help Yu Na. They have started internet polls and opened internet cafes to seek for donations and sponsorship for the young figure so she could only focus on training and not worry about financial matters. So, is this how athletes who are devoting themselves in unpopular sports should be treated like? During the Sydney Olympics of 2000, many were surprised when Young Ho Kim won the gold medal from fencing. They were surprised because it was an unexpected gold medal. During the interview of the gold medallist, all he asked for was better attention to unpopular sports from the public and better sponsorship for those in unpopular fields so there could be a brighter future for the athletes in such sports. However, 7 years have past from then and what we hear from the media is the hope of Korea’s figure skating flying economy because of financial reasons? I would say nothing has changed much from my visions. So, Korea still needs to reshape itself on this part. We should all realize that as athletes perform well in world sporting events, they bring us back pride and hope for the younger generation. Their achievement envisions bright futures and shows potential and proves how highly competitive we are in the world. Simultaneously, their high performance advertises and attracts attention from the world of our nation. So, as a country that held two of the world’s biggest sporting events, it needs to start investing on other possible fields in sports, not just the ones that are popular but also for the ones that aren’t. So for the brighter tomorrow of our athletes, we should show continuous love, attention and cheer for them. At the same time, companies and the government should show lavish sponsorships and investments to our athletes so that they could just focus on training to bring the medals back home. [Raised Questions] 1.  What is your favorite sport? Are you a supporter of that sport?   2.  Name some sports that Koreans are highly competitive in the world? 3.  Name some sports that Koreans aren’t highly competitive in the world? 4.  Do you think companies are too commercial in sponsoring sports players? 5.  When it comes to Korea, many people around the world remember the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 2002 World Cup, so hosting such global sporting events do you think it is the most effective tool for the promotion of a national image? 6.  Would Taegu's triumphant bidding for the 2011 World Athletics Competition bring another promotion of national prestige in the international community?