“Korea Sports Promotion Foundation (KSPO) is preparing to make the great legacies of the 1988 Seoul Olympics known worldwide, and convey the values of the legacy to the next generations,” KSPO Chairman Cho Hyun-jae said.
To this end, last September KSPO declared its vision to spread the Olympic legacy.
KSPO plans to expand exchanges and cooperation with Olympic host cities of the world as part of efforts to make the legacies of the Seoul Olympics known worldwide, he said. KSPO will host the 1st Olympic Legacy Forum this October.
“In order to boost the sports industry with active job creation and startups and greater spill-over effects, KSPO plans to offer 480.4 billion won in financial support this year, the most ever,” President Cho said.
“This year, KSPO will continue to expand public sports facilities and build up a life-long service foundation by increasing non-face-to-face fitness measurement and management services, as well as contents for the purpose of improving people’s fitness,” he said.
The following are excerpts of a written interview with KSPO Chairman Cho, in which he spoke of KSPO’s tasks and plans for this year.
Question: Last September, KSPO announced its vision to spread the Olympic legacies. Could you please speak about projects related to Olympic legacies this year?
Answer: Olympic legacies means the phenomena of continuously passing down tangible, intangible structures and influences, which were yielded by hosting the Olympics, into not only the venue city, but also the whole of society, including the national politics, economy, culture, environment, and sports.
KSPO is preparing for making the great legacies of the Seoul Olympics known to people, and conveying the values of the legacy to the next generations.
To this end, KSPO declared a vision of spreading the Olympic legacies, titled “Becoming Global Values beyond Olympic Legacies” last September.
KSPO plans to expand exchanges and cooperation with Olympic host cities of the world as part of efforts to make excellent legacies of the Olympics known worldwide.
KSPO will host the 1st Olympic Legacy Forum under the theme “Next G Through Olympic Legacy” this October. The forum is designed to look at the 1988 Seoul Olympics in the present perspective, and spread Olympic values through intangible legacies beyond tangible things.
The forum aims to build a cooperative system with Olympic management bodies and contribute to promoting peace of the world beyond the Korean Peninsula and cooperation by publicizing the Seoul Olympic legacies to the world.
When I was at the Beijing Winter Olympics, I met the IOC President Thomas Bach, who gave a definite answer on his participation in the forum.
KSPO is preparing to play a leading role in the spread of “global peace,” a representative movement of the Olympics, and the meaning of the legacies.
KSPO strives to reinterpret Olympic Park, a representative legacy of the Seoul Olympics, and increase the values of the park.
In 2017, IOC published the “Legacy Strategic Approach.”
In the book, IOC cited Olympic Park as an example of a new information hub in which people can experience the legacies of the Seoul Olympics, such as sports facilities and architecture parks.
The sports stadium was used for 1988 Seoul Olympics has been transformed into a facility also used as a multiplex cultural space.
The gymnastics stadium of Olympic Park has been remodeled into KSPO Dome, a space for Korean and foreign large-sized concerts and other cultural events. K-art hall has changed into a K-pop online experience performance center last December.
We’ve begun to prepare for remodeling Velodrome into Velopark. The venue is a multi-purpose facility in which people can enjoy music concerts, E-sports, drone sports, exhibitions and content related to bicycling.
The “Sports Value Center,” scheduled to be opened in June 2023, is expected to come up with experience exhibition programs.
The programs will be combined with ICT technologies so MZ generations can experience the Olympic legacies vividly.
Q: Will you elaborate on the current status of the sports industry and its 2022 outlooks as well as strategies to boost the industry?
A: The sports industry is an industrial sector with greater economic spill-over effects. A report on the sports industry’s contribution to the national economy, released by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics & Trade (KIET) in January, showed that the production inducement coefficient of the sports industry stood at 2.06, higher than the average of 1.79 for all industrial sectors and 1.09 for the manufacturing industry and 1.68 for the service industry. The value-added inducement coefficient also amounted to 0.9, higher than the average of 0.77 for all industrial sectors.
The job inducement effect of the sports industry stood at 15.25, higher than the average of 10.1 for all industrial sectors and 12.46 for the service industry, while the employment inducement effect of the industry amounted to 11.24, higher than the average of 7.4 for all industrial sector and 9.2 for the service industry.
To boost the sports industry with active job creation and startups and greater spill-over effects, KSPO plans to offer 480.4 billion won, the most ever, in financial support this year. The figure represents a 36.2 percent surge over the 352.8 billion won in the 2021 budget for supporting the sports industry.
Of late, the sports industry has implemented non-face-to-face contacts, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the 4th Industrial Revolution, and sports and ICT technology convergence companies have emerged.
They are most likely to not only bring about a shift of the paradigm of the sports industry, which has so far focused on the conventional off-line one, but also make the sports industry a new blue-ocean sector.
Under the “Sports Tech Project,” being implemented from this year, KSPO will provide support to enable sports companies with excellent manufacturing technologies to develop innovative products in collaboration with companies, universities and research institutes with technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution such as AI, IT and big data, while the corporation plans to establish “sports tech ports,” a multi-purpose R&BD space in which people can experience and use technologies.
KSPO plans to expand a virtual reality sports room project, using vacant primary school rooms, in which diverse virtual reality sports content can be experienced.
The project calls for expanding the number of sports rooms to 100 this year. under the project, KSPO had offered support to 459 schools until last year since 2017 when a pilot project was implemented.
An integrated platform service made its debut last March, enabling each school to participate in competitions and enjoy 123 kinds of content. It is expected to be supplied to public sports facilities, operated by local autonomous bodies.
KSPO plans to concentrate on the implementation of the conventional loan program for sports-related firms, a project to support employment of privately-run indoor sports facilities, fostering of sports startups, and support projects related to sports technology R&D support and sports convergence.
The Seoul International Sports & Leisure Industry 2022 (SPOEX 2022), jointly hosted by KSPO and KITA, took place at COEX in Seoul from Feb. 17 to Feb. 20.
Q: KSPO has also offered broad-based support for sport initiatives. Can you explain the achievements of KSPO’s support in sporting fields, and your support plan for this year?
A: KSPO financed 800.5 billion won in boosting the sports for all last year, encouraging people to participate in the sports for all and supporting sports-related firms.
Five hundred and seven facilities for sports for all, including 317 new ones, were constructed last year so people can enjoy sports during their life, support was offered to stabilize the employment of 14,120 people at indoor sport facilities, buffeted by the impact of the pandemic, and 520,00 people benefited from a sports coupon project in which beneficiaries had 30,000 won refunded after charging more than 80,000 won at a sports facility, drawing many people’s concern and participation.
KSPO looked into sanitizing sports facilities with infection risks and offered sterilizing goods so people can work out without misgivings over the pandemic. The corporation spent 5 billion won to provide disinfection items in 5,000 exemplary indoor facilities with model disinfection activities.
KSPO operated 665 online fitness improvement rooms using the “Public Fitness 100 Project” in which people can work out safe at any place at any time, while supplying 34 content items tailored to meet each age category’s needs and conducting 6,336 cases of consultation on exercises.
KSPO had supplied a “smart virtual reality sports room” to 459 primary schools until last year. An integrated platform service was established in March 2021 while 132 kinds of virtual reality content were developed and serviced, and 10 more kinds of content were developed.
KSPO set aside 33.2 billion won for the implementation of the sports class coupon project for non-disabled persons and the disabled, designed to guarantee sports activities without discrimination.
The corporation strived to expand the scope of beneficiaries so more people can enjoy sports activities.
KSPO has secured 658.5 billion won in financial support related to the “sports for all” initiative this year. In particular, the budget for the sports class coupon project stands at 51.9 billion won, an increase of 18.7 billion over last year’s 33.2 billion won.
Beneficiaries will amount to 86,000 — 75,000 non-disabled people and 10,000 disabled persons, while support and duration will rise from 80,000 won to 85,000 won and from 8 months to 10 months, respectively.
The corporation has increased its budget for certifying people’s fitness at any place at any time according to changed life trends, caused by the pandemic from 16.7 billion won to 17.1 billion won, allowing non-face-to-face fitness management services and development of tailored content.
This year, KSPO will continue to expand public sports facilities and build up a life-long service foundation by increasing non-face-to-face fitness measurement and management services, as well as content for the purpose of improving people’s fitness.
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