The South Korean government on Monday said it will earmark an additional 2 billion won ($1.75 million) to fund athletes' training and help their preparations for next year's Winter Olympics at home.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said the latest financial support is a supplement for this year's budget of 33.7 billion won earmarked for supporting national team athletes for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. The ministry added the supplement will help seven local winter sports organizations to expand their overseas training programs and recruit experts.
(Yonhap)
The sport ministry previously launched a cross-functional team to ensure South Korea's solid performance as the first-time Winter Olympics host next year. It involves officials from seven different groups that include the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee, the organizing committee for the PyeongChang Olympics and the Korea Institute of Sports Science.
The ministry said the new unit, which is named "Performance Improvement Support Team," will have its second meeting on Wednesday to analyze national team athletes' performances at the PyeongChang Olympic test events this year and discuss plans for South Korea to achieve its goals at the quadrennial event.
South Korea is hoping to finish among the top four in the medal race at the PyeongChang Games with at least 20 medals. The country's best Winter Games performance so far came at Vancouver in 2010, when it won six gold medals and hauled in a record 14 medals total to finish fifth.
South Korea will be hosting its first Winter Olympics in February next year in PyeongChang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul in Gangwon Province and adjacent sub-host cities. (Yonhap)
