Lee Ki-heung, the current chairman, was elected.
Yoo Seung-min, former Olympic gold medalist and former president of the Korea Table Tennis Association, stands tall as the president of Korean sports.
Candidate Seung-min Yoo was elected with 417 votes out of a total of 1,209 votes in the 42nd Korea Sports Council election held at the Olympic Hall in Olympic Park, Songpa-gu, Seoul on the 14th.
Of the 2,244 members of the electoral college comprised of executives, players, leaders, and referees from member sports organizations and city/provincial/city/county/district sports associations, 1,209 voted, recording a voter turnout of 53.9%, of which 34.5% of the votes were cast by Yoo Seung-min. The candidate took it.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min was a former athlete and played an active role as a star representing Korean table tennis.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min, who is called a prodigy and already wore the Taegeuk symbol when he was in middle school, achieved the feat of winning a gold medal in singles at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
He won the gold medal by defeating China’s Wang Hao, who was feared at the time, in the finals. This is the last gold medal won by Korean table tennis at the Olympics.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min also won a bronze medal in the team event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a silver medal in the team event at the 2012 London Olympics.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min, who left a brilliant mark, announced his retirement in June 2014 and took on the role of national team coach after retirement.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min, who worked as a leader, was elected as an athlete member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August 2016. At the time, he came in second place out of 23 candidates and was selected as an IOC athlete member, and ended his eight-year term with the 2024 Paris Olympics last year.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min used his title as Korea’s only IOC athlete member to build relationships with international figures, and served as vice president of the Korea Table Tennis Association and chairman of the 2018 Pyeongchang Memorial Foundation, solidifying his position as an administrator in the Korean sports community.
In May 2019, Yoo Seung-min, who ran in the by-election for the chairman of the Korea Table Tennis Association following the death of former Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho, who was the head of the Korea Table Tennis Association, was elected as the 24th president. He became the head of the association at the age of 37.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min, who stably completed his one year and seven month term by resolving a situation that could have been confusing due to a leadership vacuum, was re-elected in the 25th Table Tennis Association President election held in November 2020.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min served as the president of the Table Tennis Association for about 5 years, and his goals at the time of his inauguration were ‘improvement of financial independence of the association,’ ‘systematization of table tennis for daily life sports,’ ‘establishment of youth player development system,’ ‘launch of table tennis professional league,’ and ‘2024 Busan World Table Tennis Championships.’ It is evaluated that the competition has been successfully held one after another.
At the 2024 Paris Olympics held while he was president of the Table Tennis Association, Korean table tennis also achieved promising results. She won a bronze medal in the mixed doubles and a bronze medal in the women’s team event, continuing her medal streak that had been lost since the 2012 London Olympics.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min resigned from his position as president of the Korea Table Tennis Association in September last year, declaring his bid for president of the Korea Sports Council.
While there were predictions that current Chairman Lee Ki-heung, who was running for a third term, would have an advantage due to the ‘designated elector’ system, which requires that people recommended by 228 city, county, and district sports associations across the country be included in the electoral college, even the unification of the opposition parties was canceled and President-elect Yoo Seung-min was elected. The possibility didn’t seem great.
However, President-elect Yoo Seung-min broke everyone’s expectations and succeeded in becoming president of sports.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min plans to: ▲ Shared growth by securing the independence of local sports associations and sport organizations ▲ Introduction of an all-care system for athletes and leaders ▲ Project to revitalize school sports ▲ Establishment of advanced sports infrastructure through specialization in daily sports ▲ Global-centered K-sports ▲ Establishment of a profit platform for sports associations He won votes by making a pledge to improve self-sufficiency through energy.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min, born in 1982 and now 43 years old, is also the youngest sports president ever.
President-elect Yoo Seung-min will be officially inaugurated after going through the approval process of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The term runs until February 2029.
[서울=뉴시스]