Disabled sports achievements and challenges… Generational change, expansion of base, strengthening competitiveness
Confirming the effectiveness of the intensive training project… The thin player base is an unsolvable problem
Achievements and challenges were clear.
At the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Para Games, which ended on the 28th, the Korean national team fell short of the original goal of 39 gold medals, but maintained 4th place overall (30 gold, 33 silver, and 40 bronze).
In addition, the ‘results of intensive training of excellent players’ were confirmed at this competition. 먹튀검증
Starting this year, the Korea Sports Association for the Disabled has been selecting athletes with excellent athletic performance and providing intensive support.
Among the outstanding athletes selected by the Sports Council, 54 participated in the Hangzhou Asian Para Games, and 43 of them, or 80%, won medals.
There were 17 gold medalists who benefited from ‘intensive support.’
In addition to intensive training of excellent players, the performance of players who were eligible for the basic sport training project is also noteworthy.
Badminton Yoo Soo-young (1 silver, 1 bronze) and Jeong Gyeorul (1 bronze), and Taekwondo Kim Won-seon (1 bronze), discovered through this project, which started in 2018, reached the podium, raising the prospect for the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games and the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympic Games. revealed.
A generational change is also taking place in the basic sport development project sports such as track and field (38.04 years old in the 2018 Jakarta Games → 31.18 years old in the 2023 Hangzhou Games) and badminton (41.15 years old → 36.71 years old).
However, generational change and strengthening international competitiveness in ball sports remain tasks.
The average age of the wheelchair fencing team is nearly 7.4 years lower than at the 2018 Indonesian Games, and the wheelchair tennis team is also about 2.9 years younger, but the average age of the men’s sitting volleyball team is 45 years old, which is much higher compared to other countries.
The overall average age of the Korean athletes in this competition was 39.1 years old, a slight increase from 5 years ago (38.5 years old).
At the closing press conference on the 28th, Jeong Jin-wan, president of the Korea Sports Association for the Disabled, said, “We will strengthen the creation of business teams, discovery of players, and implementation of the league system,” and emphasized, “As the domestic player base is thin, we must also actively recommend parallel or switching between winter and summer sports.”
General Manager Park Jong-cheol also pointed out the importance of generational change, saying, “As of 2021, there are about 100,000 students with disabilities, but there are about 10,000 students who can play as athletes.”
He added, “We need to actively discover student athletes.”
In addition, expanding the base of recreational sports for the disabled is also considered a key task.
According to the 2020 Survey on the Status of Persons with Disabilities published by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, 8 out of 10 people with disabilities are ‘acquired disabled people’ due to acquired diseases or accidents.
Kim Jin-hyuk, the Korean athlete who became disabled in an accident, said, “We need to attract more people with acquired disabilities.
While I was in the hospital, only religious groups and insurance companies came to me.
No one recommended sports activities.
Even now, the disabled people who are just lying in their rooms are coming to visit me.”
“We need to call them to the sports field first,” he said.
The Korea Sports Association for the Disabled recognizes this importance and is carrying out various projects to promote daily sports.
The government announced a policy to revitalize sports for the disabled as a legacy of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Paralympic Games and is pursuing a project with the goal of building 150 Bandabi gymnasiums, which are sports facilities for the disabled first, and deploying 1,200 sports instructors specializing in sports for the disabled.
Chairman Jeong Jin-wan explained, “As the number of people who participate in daily sports discover their talent and become professional athletes is increasing, we plan to continue the distribution project steadily.”
