Chairman Shin Dong-bin's Special Affection for Skiing: "Hosting Competitions and Nurturing Promising Talents"

Shin Dong-bin, Chairman of Lotte Group (fourth from the left in the second row), met with national team athletes training earlier this week to offer encouragement.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chunhan] Lotte announced on the 28th that it will strengthen support for promising athletes to discover the "second Lee Sang-ho" starting with the "Lotte Castle Cup National Snowboard Championships."

Since becoming the president company of the Korea Ski Association, Lotte has been awarding prize money not only to medal-winning athletes at international competitions such as the Olympics, World Championships, and World Cup, but also to athletes who placed 4th to 6th. This time as well, in cooperation with the Korea Ski Association, prize money will be awarded to athletes and coaches who place from 1st to 6th.

Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin has a special affection for skiing. Chairman Shin served as the president of the Korea Ski Association from November 2014 until 2018, during which he worked to boost athletes' morale, organize joint training sessions, overseas training camps, participation in international competitions, and equipment support to improve the skills of national team athletes. Chairman Shin has professional-level skills, having been a ski athlete during his school days.

Since Chairman Shin’s appointment to the Korea Ski Association, Lotte has supported Korean skiing development with over 15 billion KRW, exceeding the initial promise of 10 billion KRW. Chairman Shin has continued generous financial support for athletes, including offering the Japanese Arai Resort as a training site for the national team. Recently, Chairman Shin was reported to have encouraged national team athletes training in Gangwon Province.

To enhance the skills of South Korean ski athletes, Lotte has signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with ski associations from strong snow sports countries such as the United States, Canada, and Finland, leading technical and information exchanges. To nurture promising athletes in snow sports, incentives have been offered not only for the Olympics but also for major international competitions such as the Youth Olympics, World Championships, World Cup, and Junior World Championships.