Minister wants PyeongChang to be Olympics of economy, culture and environment PyeongChang, the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympics, will not co-host the games with North Korea, but will be sure to set the best Olympic legacy here, a senior South Korean sports official said Thursday. At a news conference, Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Choung Byoung-gug ruled out the possibility of co-ho...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ― Japan carries memories of the devastation the tsunami heaped on its country into every game at this Women’s World Cup. In sharp contrast, Sweden’s march through the tournament has been as carefree as the twirling, joyous team dance that accompanies every victory. But in the semifinal Wednesday at Frankfurt’s Commerzbank Arena, the difference visible on the field will b...

While facing a massive match-fixing scandal, the country’s top division football league is exploring the possibility of expelling Sangju Sangmu, the military football club. “We are now discussing a plan to stop sending players to Sangmu, and eventually to remove the club from the K-League,” said a high-level K-League official on condition of anonymity. The Sangju Sangmu, which consists of profe...

PyeongChang bid chief credits teamwork, marketing strategies They say there’s no “I” in team. PyeongChang, a South Korean alpine town, overwhelmed two European rivals to win the bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics last week due to a team effort and effective delegation of responsibilities, said the chief of the bidding committee. “At the end of the day, it wasn’t just one person, but many individu...

It has been an unusually quiet year for Korean women’s golf. In recent years, the leader board at LPGA golf events has been dominated by Korean women: they combined for 22 wins from 2009-2010. But this year has been disappointing with no title yet for the Koreans until last week. The deadlock was finally broken when Ryu So-yeon claimed the U.S. Women’s Open title on Monday by beating her fellow ...

BEIJING (AP) ― Yao Ming’s expected retirement could diminish the NBA’s once-burgeoning popularity in China, with many fans saying they would no longer watch games. “What’s the point of watching NBA now?” asked an online user called Lubingxia on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like site. An online poll on Weibo by Monday lunchtime showed that 57 percent of respondents would stop watching the NBA a...

The head coach for a local military football team has been arrested for allegedly taking cash from parents of a player involved in match fixing, the defense ministry said Monday. The bench boss for Sangju Sangmu Phoenix in the first-division K-League, named Lee, was arrested on charges of blackmail. The Sangju team is made up of professional players who have been conscripted to serve the mandato...

South Korean golfer Ryu So-yeon captured the U.S. Women's Open in a playoff for her first career LPGA Tour major on Monday (U.S. time) in Colorado. At the par-71 East Course of The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Ryu beat fellow Korean Seo Hee-kyung in a three-hole aggregate playoff. Ryu, 21, is the first South Korean winner on the LPGA Tour this year and the fifth South Korean to win the U.S. na...

Korean clings to one-shot lead as darkness halts final round COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (AP) ― Seo Hee-kyung has a chance to carve her own special place in history. Not simply as a U.S. Open winner ― but as a U.S. Open winner who won it without hitting a single shot on the final day. In a strange, storm-infested tournament that doesn’t want to end, Seo did just about everything she could to win...