Welcome back to Korean Culture With Eli. Today’s lesson will be all about Korean sports. Korea has had a long history of sports, but not all are for competition. Korea has sports and traditions that are thousands of years old. During the Joseon dynasty that was discussed in the last lesson, Korea opened up to the West. Koreans became immersed in Western culture including adopting their sports.
The most popular sport to come from Korea is the martial art Taekwondo. It can be traced all the way back to the first century BCE. Taekwondo started to take off after Japan left Korea after WWII. Official rules were made in 1961 and by 1988 it was already an official Olympic sport. Taekwondo has ties to a sport called Taekkyon that uses hands and feet and the rest of the body, in fights you can only use open hands and feet. In Taekkyon the moves are smoother than in Taekwondo. Both do start with Tae, but there is no relation. Taekwondo does translate to “way of the foot and fist”, but the modern sport mostly uses kicks. There are more Korean martial arts that became very popular around that time. Some include Hapkido, Kuk Sool, Hwarangdo, Han Moo Do, Yudo, Kumdo, Goog-sool, and many more. These martial arts are all technically different, but they all have the same element of tradition and greatness. Usually, Korean martial arts use Mu Sool or Mu Yea at the end to signal that this is a martial art instead of the Japanese way of using do, meaning “way”. But some of the modern meanings of martial arts such as Hwarangdo are different from their ancient meanings.
According to a poll taken in 2021 by Daily Sports Korea Correspondent Park Sung-gun 25% of South Koreans think that football or soccer is the greatest sport. It all started in the early 20th century when it became a big part of Korean nationalism. At the time there was also a big rivalry between Pyongyang and Seoul, North and South Korea’s two biggest cities. The people of Pyungyang used soccer as a way to resist the new government in Seoul. The South Korean national football team was the first team in the Asian Football Confederation to reach the FIFA World Cup semi-finals in the 2002 World Cup which was hosted by both Japan and Korea. The team is formally known as the Korea Republic national team. They have qualified for the World Cup every year since 1986 when it was held in Mexico. They have made it past the group stage 3 different times, once in 2002, once in 2010 (they lost to Uruguay in the round of 16), and they lost to Brazil in 2022 in the first round. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, the South Korean team pulled a big upset to get the Bronze Medal. In total Korea has qualified for 11 World Cups which is an Asian record, they co-hosted a World Cup where they got 4th. The Korean under-17 Women’s team won the 2010 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago, it was South Korea’s first title in a FIFA competition. Korea’s soccer league or the K-League is the oldest professional soccer league in Asia. There are also amateur games that are very popular. Korea has had stars in England such as Son Heung-min and Park Ji-Sung. Surprisingly Koreans’ most favorite soccer teams are English teams Tottenham Hotspur (Son Heung-min’s team), and Manchester United (Park Ji-Seong’s team).
The second most popular sport is Baseball. According to the same poll taken in 2021 by Daily Sports Korea Correspondent Park Sung-gun, 18.8% of Koreans say that Baseball is their favorite sport. Baseball was first introduced to the Korean population in 1905 by American missionaries, whose goal it was to teach Christianity through baseball. Korea has a professional baseball league called the KBO league. When it was created in 1982 it had 6 teams, but has grown to 10 over the years. Korea has had lots of success in international play, winning the 2008 Olympic Games for baseball. They have also been chosen to play the World Baseball Classic, a prestigious international tournament in which only the best teams compete in. They were runners-up in 2009, and 3rd in 2006. They are considered to be one of the best countries in baseball year after year, currently, they have a ranking of 5th in the world. There are several notable Korean players in the MLB including Hyun-jin Ryu, Kim Ha-seong, and Ji-man Choi. The KBO League has a total of 8 million spectators a year and 11,500 spectators per game! Both of those are the highest in all of Asia for any sport. Another cool thing about the KBO is that each team has their own way of cheering and supporting their team.
Koreans also like ice skating. In Korea kids can start as young as 5 and start to get coaching and competing right away. The Korean government wanted the country to focus on short high speed skating and created a skating culture. The sport was introduced in 1982 by a Japanese University team and just 4 years later Korea had their own team in time for the Asian Winter Games in 1986. The country won their first gold in the sport in 1992 in the men’s 1000 meters won by Kim Ki-hoon. They won 5 golds and one silver in the 1994 Winter Olympics. Korea has also taken in Hockey recently. Anyang city has sold out games for the Anyang Halla hockey club. They then became the first non-Japanese team to win the championship for the Asia League Ice Hockey. South Korea currently has 4 teams in the Asia League Ice Hockey championship. The South Korean national hockey team is ranked 21st in the world.
In archery South Korea is the most dominant country in the world in archery. They have the most medals in the Olympic Games out of any country in the world. They also perform very well in international competitions. Esports are big in South Korea. There are many sponsored events, teams, and leagues per year that include StarCraft professional competition, OnGameNet Starleauge, the MBCGame, StarCraft League, and Proleague. They even have entire broadcasting channels dedicated to Esports such as Ongamenet, GomTV, and MBCGame. There is even a government branch, The Korean e-sport Association dedicated to promote and regulate Esports in South Korea.
Basketball is another very popular sport in South Korea. There is a professional league called the Korean Basketball League, and the South Korea national basketball team won a record 25 gold medals at the Asian Basketball Championship. There has only been one Korean NBA player by the name of Ha Seung-Jin. In the 1990s it was the most popular sport along with baseball, but its popularity has declined since then. Lee Hyun-jung is a Korean basketball player who played division 1 at Davidson. One writer said if baseball and soccer are like BTS then basketball is 90s hair metal. They are ranked 38th in the world. Volleyball is another popular sport in South Korea, they have their own professional league called the V-League with men’s and women’s leagues. In fencing Korea is a powerhouse. They have 5 gold medals, three silver medals, and 8 bronze medals. South Korea’s lacrosse team has qualified for the World Lacrosse Championship five times from 2002 to 2018. They have also sent national teams to the Under-19 World Lacrosse Championships.
Golf is very popular in South Korea as well. Golf is more as a status symbol and memberships are significantly more than in the US and Japan. The first Asian man to ever win a PGA Championship was Yang Yong-eun in 2009. K.J. Choi won eight PGA Tour events, one of them was the 2011 Players Championship, and he also was top five twice at the Masters Tournaments. Yang and Choi were both at the Presidents Cup multiple times. South Korea’s women are amazing at golfing. 47 Koreans play on the LPGA Tour. Some notable women’s players are Pak Se-ri (she has won 5 major tournaments from 1998 to 2006 and competed in 25 LPGA events), Inbee Park (she has won seven major tournaments since 2008 and has competed in 21 LPGA events, Jiyai Shin, Ryu So-yeon, Chun In-gee, Park Sung-hyun, and Ko Jin-young have all won two tournaments. The two professional tours are the Korean Tour for men and the LPGA of Korea Tour for women.
The South Korea women’s national handball team is just one of two countries that are not European to win the World Championship, they are the only one to have an Olympic Gold Medal. The men’s team is ranked 21st in the world. Another sport that South Korea won a gold in is rugby. They are ranked 31st, but have won the Asia Rugby Championship 5 times. In the two most recent championships they have been runners-up. Most Korean rugby players have to play in Japan because Korea does not have a professional league. Korea was able to finish third in the qualifier for the 2016 Summer Olympics, but couldn’t make it out of the group stage of the next qualifier. One sport that Korea really shows its prowess in is kabaddi. The South Korean national kabaddi team was ranked 3rd in the world. Nine Korean players play in the Pro Kabaddi league in India. The Korean captain Jang Kun Lee is the most famous international player in the Pro Kabaddi league and he plays for the Bengal Warriors. In the 2016 Kabaddi World Cup Korea lost to Iran in the semi-finals but was able to finish third place. Korea was the only team that beat the eventual winners of the tournament, India. Korea was asked to play in the 2018 Dubai Kabaddi Masters because they were in the top four nations in the world for years.
Cricket isn’t that common in Korea, but they still have a national team. Korea’s national team beat China in the 2014 Asian Games. Most cricket players are people that aren’t from Korea, and there is only one small league in Seoul. Most players on the national team are baseball players that couldn’t make it to the big leagues. Table tennis is very popular in Korea. There are minor leagues at many colleges. The highest ranked Korean player, Lim Jonghoon is 11th, although he is followed closely by Jang Woojin in 12th.
South Korea was the host of the yearly Formula One Korean Grand Prix in Yeongam from 2010 to 2013. However, they didn’t and still don’t have a driver participating. In 2018 Formula E CEO, Alejandro Agag made an agreement with Moon Jae-sik, the chairman of financial services company JSM Holdings. The agreement stated that South Korea was given the right to host the Seoul ePrix from 2020 to 2025. This is South Korea’s first ePrix and the third Asian country hosting after Hong Kong and China. An ePrix is a race with all electric cars. There are obviously already races and cars, and plans for the future.
Badminton is one of the most popular past-times in Korea. You can find courts in outdoor parks and at special facilities. Korean players often reach the finals of regional and world championships. The highest ranked Korean player in Lin Chun-Yi at 17, he is followed closely by Chou Tien Chen at 20th. Bowling is another very popular sport in South Korea. There are many local leagues and allies just like in America. Korean people also like to be active. Hiking is very popular with older people. Hiking on long mountain trails, or to get to beautiful temples is truly amazing. There is a huge industry for hiking, there are specialized clothing and tourism brands specialized for it. Scuba diving is popular on Jeju island. Fishing is popular to do in rivers, lakes, and oceans, Korea’s culture is similar to America’s. Alpine skiing is popular. Korea has some beautiful mountains as showcased in the 2018 Winter Olympics. Snowboarding was not allowed until recently.
Korea has hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. They were the second Summer Olympic Games in Asia, the first being in Tokyo in 1964. 160 nations were represented by 8,391 athletes, 6,197 being men, 2,194 being women. 237 events were held. 27,221 volunteers, and 11,331 media members (4,978 writers, 6,353 broadcasters). South Korea held the Winter Olympics in 2018. The games were at Pyeongchang and showcased Korea’s beautiful mountain landscape. Korea is set to host the 2024 Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon. As earlier mentioned, Korea co-hosted the world cup in 2002 and got 4th.
I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson in Korea’s many sports. I think for being such a small country Korea is great at many sports. Their prowess in baseball and soccer is amazing, and Taekwondo is a marvel. I hope you like your comments and come back next time because I appreciate the support.
Korean Culture With Eli 
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