There are 1,671 Korean international referees in 54 sports on the global sports stage, but eight sports, including baseball, track and field, curling, and e-sports, do not have any international referees.
According to a question posed by Kim Yoon-duk, a Democratic Party member of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, based on the interim report of the Korea Sports Promotion Organization’s ‘International Referee Survey and Roadmap Establishment’ during a national audit on April 24, e-sports, baseball, athletics, curling, roller sports, squash, Nordic combined, and cricket, which are of great public interest, do not have Korean international referees.
Even with international referees, only 22 sports have a chairman or member of the International Referees Committee, a decision-making body, and only 186 referees, indicating a lack of international referee diplomacy, Kim said.
Kim emphasized the urgent need to take measures, noting that the number of Korean international referees assigned to the 2024 Paris Olympics was only six in four sports – boxing, weightlifting, sailing and triathlon – compared to the usual 16.
“Even if we have international referees, if they are not active in the international arena, the sport suffers in international competitions,” said Kim Yoon-duk, a lawmaker. “It is very necessary to produce international referees, so we should make more efforts to train international referees and engage in sports diplomacy to increase our sports capabilities.”
Cho Hyun-jae, director of the National Sports Promotion Organization, said, “We will first assign preliminary referee training to sports that do not have international referees.” 파워볼분석