Please, Let’s Listen to What PyeongChang is Saying - written by 20118 Jung Seoyoon

Please, Let’s Listen to What PyeongChang is Saying

It has been seven years since every Korean screamed with joy as the IOC shouted: “PyeongChang is to be the host of the 2018 Winter Olympics.” Since then, the PyeongChang Winter Olympics has been the center of attention in every media form. Now it has finally passed, and most people considered it to have been a success, despite the controversies that surrounded it even before the Olympic Games actually started. However, the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics actually revealed some things that our society needs to solve.

First of all, there was the abuse of power not only by the Ministry of Culture-Sports and other sports-related facilities but by politicians as well. Only a week into the Olympic Games, Lee Giheung, head of the Korea Sports Council, displayed heavy-handed conduct of abusing his prominent position and power. He spoke harshly to a volunteer asking him to move to a seat that wasn’t reserved by the IOC.

Another example of this situation could be the politician who took pictures with Yun Sungbin after he won the gold medal for the skeleton. In the picture, she was wearing clothes that were only permitted to the representatives and the administrative workers. It later turned out that she had acquired those clothes by neglecting several policies related to the operation of the Olympic games. Additionally, the picture was taken in the waiting room of players, and it was clear that she had demanded entry even though only representative players were allowed to do so.

This was not a problem only confined to the Olympics, as seen by the countless incidents of bossiness in every walk of life. Just because one has a high position, it doesn’t justify their rude actions toward other people or make them special. The proliferation of such awareness was and still is a task that should be considered paramount in Korean society.

Secondly, the achievement-based perspective pervading Korea was another pain in the neck. Perhaps one of the best keywords of this year’s Olympic Games was curling. However, the representative team didn’t have a place to train for the Olympics due to a “deficit” in the budget. Yet according to the breakdown of the budget submitted by the Korea Curling Federation, they received 7.2 billion won from Shinsegae, but only used 3.4% of the whole fund on the training environment of the representative team.

Instead, they spent most of the money on other fields such as federation maintenance or changing the game procedures. They used all their funds in the following year and complained about having a budget-shortage, which led to poor training environments for the athletes. All this happened because curling was never a popular sport, and they didn’t expect any medals from the current female team that has never experienced the Olympics before. This is not the only example of medal-based perspectives in the field of winter sports.

Another example could be the skeleton, an event in which athletes quickly sled down a track as quickly as possible in order to win. The skeleton wasn’t a famous sport in Korea until Korean representative Yun Sungbin won the gold medal this winter. Before Yun Sungbin’s medal, no one supported or helped skeleton athletes. But right after he came in first place, a politician came up to him to take photos, as if she had known him for a long time.

The skeleton and curling had the same problems as lack of news coverage or support. No one was interested in these events because no Korean athlete had ever won a medal before in them. However, right after the first gold medal, skeleton and curling became one of the hot keywords of the PyeongChang Olympics with new articles pouring out every other day.

Before with no medal, there was no interest. Before with no medal, there was no support. Before with no medal, there were no articles written about it. After the gold medal was won in these sports, there was instant popularity. What these events suggest is the wrong minds of people, who tend to judge others based on achievements rather than diligence or personality, not only in the Olympics but also in everyday life. It would be desirable for people to evaluate each other on their personality and effort.

The most important issue, though, would probably be the diplomatic struggles that surrounded the whole scene. The spark was North Korea’s sudden decision to participate in the event, which led to both governments decided to form a unified team in women’s ice hockey. This brought about a lot of controversy at the time because including North Korean athletes in the team meant that some South Korean athletes were not able to participate in the 2018 Olympic Games.

After this joint agreement, high-ranking North Korean government officials such as Kim Yeojeong and Kim Yeongnam came to South Korea. While these actions by the North Korean government were simply attributed to sportsmanship and a will to bring peace, critics reacted differently. It was their common view that North Korea’s enthusiastic participation in the Winter Olympics was a highly calculated political move in order to minimize the sanctions that were implemented on them.

Owing to close contact as a result of the Olympics, North Korea is going to be having a conversation with the United States and South Korea, concerning the denuclearization of North Korea. Frequent communication between countries in the Olympics has sparked a good opportunity for diplomatic conferences. Also, because he was concerned about what to say to the two countries, Kim Jeongeun has had a meeting with Xi Jinping to discuss how to make strategies for the new international era. The evident thing is that it will take a long time for North Korea to completely banish their nuclear weapons, now with China helping them from behind. Thus, countries should unite together to stop North Korea from conspiring.

While the Winter Olympic Games were intended to enhance the Korean interest in winter sports, they actually gave citizens more to think about. The perpetuation of the problems discussed previously should never be tolerated in a society that wishes to flourish and develop further. There is the idiom “Out of sight, out of mind.”

However, the Olympics being over shouldn’t be a reason for society to sink into oblivion and return to the old system. Everyone should strive to help solve the problems and leave a better world to their descendants.