Yoo Seung-min, President of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee: "Grateful to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for responding to on-site voices" — Greatly welcomes confirmation of the largest budget in history at 448.4 billion won for 2027

*This content was translated by AI.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee expressed strong approval after securing a government budget of 448.4 billion won, the largest in its history since establishment.

On the 4th, the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (President Yoo Seung-min) announced its welcome of the 2027 government budget plan totaling 448.4 billion won and conveyed deep gratitude to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Planning and Budget for actively reflecting on-site demands into policy and budget allocations.

This budget plan resulted from extensive acceptance of voices raised by athletes and coaches such as swimmer Hwang Sun-woo and track athlete Woo Sang-hyuk during visits to the Jincheon National Athletes Village and other meetings.

By sector, a total of 21.6 billion won was added to enhance judging reliability and fairness, including a significant increase in permanent judges from 137 to 586 and the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) judgment support equipment (5 billion won). Additionally, a new budget of 1.1 billion won was allocated for improving sports organization governance and establishing a fair disciplinary system.

Support for youth and community sports increased by 56.9 billion won. A total of 37 billion won (an increase of 33.2 billion won) will be invested in the "Youth Sports Infrastructure Development" project, while expanding life-cycle sports participation environments through the Sports Division League (47 billion won) and new infant-friendly sports classrooms in areas with declining populations (2 billion won).

Support for national team training and infrastructure improvement increased by 31.8 billion won. This includes an AI integrated performance analysis system (1.5 billion won), overseas training camps (5.6 billion won), and a pre-training camp for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics (900 million won). Additionally, construction of year-round air mat training facilities for winter athletes such as snowboarder Choi Ga-eon will be actively pursued with a budget of 10 billion won.

Furthermore, the budget for nurturing promising talents was increased by 6.8 billion won to extend domestic training days for national team candidates to 40 days annually and expand the number of reserve national team sports to eight. Improvements in working conditions for sports industry personnel (3 billion won) and realistic funding for participation costs in the National Sports Festival (3.7 billion won) were also included in the budget plan.

Yoo Seung-min stated, "This budget plan is a fruit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism's determination to carefully consider and fully support the difficulties faced by the sports community. We thank the government for creating opportunities for sports development and request the National Assembly's active interest and support so that we can leap forward as a trusted sports sector."

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*This content was translated by AI.