[Jeong Gyu-young's Gongseon Unhak⑩·End] The Future of Korean Sports Depends on 'Gongseon Unhak'

Editor's NoteAsia Economy has been running a series of expert contributions since last September to suggest directions necessary for improving the structural problems of Korean sports and harmonizing professional sports, recreational sports, and school sports. Jung Kyu-young, president of the nonprofit organization "Gongbuhaneun Seonsu Undonghaneun Haksaeng (Gongseonunhak)," pointed out the limitations of the domestic student-athlete admission system, school sports management, sports club development, and sports federation operations, comparing them with overseas cases and suggesting ways forward. This is now the tenth and final story. President Jung, who studied at Stanford Graduate School and served as the captain of the university's fencing team, established the nonprofit in 2015 to settle the American school sports system he observed there in Korea, promoting publicity and scholarship projects.

Jung Kyu-young, President of the Studying Athletes Exercising Students Association / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Since 2013, the Korea Sports Council has been implementing "customized vocational training" to enhance the employment capabilities of retired athletes. This program supports up to 600,000 KRW per person for education aimed at improving job skills, including heavy equipment and machinery, electrical and electronic fields, beauty and hairdressing, barista, chef, baking, computer accounting, logistics management, language (foreign languages), office automation (OA), and office work.

Nevertheless, according to the "2017 Employment Status Survey of Retired Athletes" conducted by the Korea Sports Council targeting 1,733 retired athletes under 40, 35.4% of respondents remained unemployed after retirement. Among those employed, more than half (59.9%) were in non-regular positions, and 38% earned less than 2 million KRW per month.

To improve employment for athletes who retire early and face financial difficulties, the Korea Sports Council signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) last year with Korea Polytechnic University for job-linked vocational education for retired athletes and decided to cooperate closely. But will the reality improve? What message does this reality convey?

Among elite athletes in Korea, only a very small number become national representatives, and among them, only a few win Olympic medals. Even among medalists, only a tiny fraction are guaranteed relatively stable retirement. Most athletes who trained from youth aiming to become national representatives or Olympic medalists but failed to do so, and who did not participate in the Olympics, will they suddenly become competitive bakers if they learn baking skills funded by the national budget after retirement? Do you think retired athletes can become socially and economically productive members by suddenly learning English after retirement?

Sports should not be a dead-end path but one of many crossroads to choose from. As a fundamental subject of education, all youth should learn sportsmanship and proper character through sports, and in the process of choosing their talents and desired career paths, sports should be one of the options selected by some.

For example, if a student who has balanced sports and studies enters university majoring in chemical engineering while actively participating in the school swimming team, this student-athlete would not need to receive government-provided baking skills or other vocational education after quitting sports. They would not need to ask for jobs from predecessors who played sports for a living or tolerate any sports-related corruption they might witness directly or indirectly while building and maintaining sports connections.

Last year's match at the 'USA International Fencing Federation Competition' hosted by the United States Fencing Association and the corporation 'Gongbu Haneun Seonsu Undonghaneun Haksaeng' / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

Do Not Forget the Essence of 'Sports as Education'
Systematizing Recreational Sports Centered on Student-Athletes Balancing Study and Sports
A Task for Korea's Future

It is right to choose a career as an athlete when one’s outstanding athletic skills, developed while balancing study and sports, are proven enough to guarantee a career path. No more athletes should emerge who neglect studies, pour everything into sports, and cannot do anything else if they fail to survive in sports. Under the firm recognition that "sports are education," the government, the Korea Sports Council, and various sports federations should apply the American university sports education program "Studying Athletes, Exercising Students (Gongseonunhak)" to public education and universities in Korea, and naturally produce national representatives through recreational sports centered on local sports clubs.

Imagine that all universities in Korea, including the top prestigious universities, operate school sports teams with general student-athletes rather than elite athletes, just like American universities. Students can train their bodies and minds healthily by diligently balancing study and sports from a young age at school and local sports clubs without entering schools famous for elite sports teams. They can participate in competitions organized by registered organizations under the Korea Sports Council, accumulate points to become national representatives, enter universities matching their academic achievements, choose majors other than physical education, compete internationally while balancing study and sports, graduate, and then find employment, start businesses, or open professional practices.

This should be the true outcome of recreational sports. Such students would have no interest in corrupt practices such as forced monopolistic sales of expensive sports equipment, embezzlement of training and competition expenses, or bribing professors to enter elite sports university teams, and they would have many things they can do on their own.

Character education and health of young students are Korea's future. Sports are what can take responsibility for character education and health. Sports are "education" that must take responsibility for Korea's future, even more than Olympic medals. Therefore, it should be an "Education and Sports Department" rather than the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and from now on, we must think with the premise that the essence of sports is education. This is very important not only for Korean sports but also for Korea's future. Let's not delay any longer.

Jung Kyu-young, President of Gongbuhaneun Seonsu Undonghaneun Haksaeng and CEO of Lorus Enterprise

☞References

[Jung Kyu-young's Gongseonunhak①] 'The Essence of Sports is Education'... This Comes First

[Jung Kyu-young's Gongseonunhak②] Stanford, Yale, Harvard... Secrets of American Prestigious University Sports (Part 1)

[Jung Kyu-young's Gongseonunhak③] Instilling the 'Champion Mind'... Secrets of American Prestigious University Sports (Part 2)

[Jung Kyu-young's Gongseonunhak④] Thanks to Sports... A Student Who Entered an American Prestigious University, Was Invited to the White House, and Got a Job at a Financial Company

[Jung Kyu-young's Gongseonunhak⑤] To Produce Students Who Excel in Both Sports and Academics, Artists, and Musicians... "Universities Should Have Student Selection Rights"

[Jung Kyu-young's Gongseonunhak⑥] Sports Clubs Are Not the Government's Job... They Should Be Left to the Market

[Jung Kyu-young's Gongseonunhak⑦] Desirable Roles of Member Sports Federations under the Korea Sports Council (Part 1)

[Jung Kyu-young's Gongseonunhak⑧] Desirable Roles of Member Sports Federations under the Korea Sports Council (Part 2)

[Jung Kyu-young's Gongseonunhak⑨] Is the Operation of the National Athlete Village the Government's Responsibility?