[Op-Ed] Corporate Sponsorship Underpins Olympic Success

Archery: Hyundai Motor has provided KRW 60 billion in sponsorship over 40 years

Fencing: SK has provided KRW 30 billion in sponsorship over more than 20 years

Wrestling: Failed to win medals after Samsung ended its sponsorship

A comparison of the number of athletes participating by country at the 2024 Paris Olympics shows a tendency for wealthier countries to field larger teams. Among the 206 participating countries, the United States, which boasts the largest delegation, ranked first in the world in GDP in 2023 at $25.4627 trillion. By contrast, Tuvalu, which entered just one athlete in this Olympics, recorded a GDP of $64 million, the lowest in the world.

There is one common feature among the sports in which Korean athletes have performed well at the Olympics: all of them have enjoyed long-term corporate sponsorship.

First, archery has been supported by Hyundai Motor for 40 years since 1985, and the company is known to have spent as much as KRW 60 billion on archery sponsorship alone. Ahead of the Paris Olympics, Hyundai Motor continued to provide generous support, including building a venue identical to the Olympic competition arena to prepare athletes for real matches and independently developing a shooting robot to compete against national team members.

Thanks to the stable operation of the Korea Archery Association under Hyundai Motor’s strong backing, there is even a saying that “making the national team is harder than winning a medal at an international competition.” At the Paris Olympics, Korea not only achieved a third consecutive title in the men’s team event and a tenth consecutive title in the women’s team event, but also accomplished the remarkable feat of sweeping all the gold medals in archery.

In fencing, SK has continued its sponsorship for more than 20 years. Its cumulative support is reported to amount to KRW 30 billion, and it directly hosts one or two international Grand Prix competitions each year to help athletes gain world-class competitive experience. In addition, as in archery, it supported practical training by creating competition pistes built to the same specifications as the Olympic venue, allowing athletes to train in an environment resembling actual competition.

Moreover, SK did not spare active support, dispatching a dedicated team and athletic trainers while increasing the number of performance analysts. As a result, star athlete Sanguk Oh became the first Asian to win both individual and team Olympic gold medals, while the men’s sabre team is now on a run of three consecutive Olympic titles. The women’s sabre team also performed strongly, recording its best-ever Olympic result.

By contrast, wrestling, once a reliable medal sport for Korea at the Olympics, had long been supported by Samsung, but has failed to produce notable results since that sponsorship ended. From 1983, when Samsung’s support began, the Korean national wrestling team won a total of 11 medals, including 4 gold medals. Since Samsung’s sponsorship ended in 2019, however, it has not delivered any clear achievements in major international competitions. At the Olympics in particular, it has not even come close to medal contention, as the end of Samsung’s sponsorship and the resulting reduction in financial support have created serious difficulties.

As this shows, international competitiveness in sports is underpinned by corporate financial strength. Historically, economic prosperity has led to cultural development, and such interest has been followed by financial support and investment. Just as corporate economic growth leads to cultural advancement, voluntary corporate sponsorship in sports is essential. When financially strong companies provide support, innovative science and technology can be applied to team operations, and that in turn leads to success in international competitions. Ultimately, Olympic success is achieved on the foundation of corporate financial sponsorship.

Minchae Kwon

Intern Researcher, Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)

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Original title: [칼럼] 기업 후원이 올림픽 성적 뒷받침한다

Author: Min-chae Kwon

Date: 2024-08-14

Source: https://www.cfe.org/bbs/bbsDetail.php?cid=free_opinion&idx=26795