Archery, badminton, shooting, swimming, and fencing have been selected as strategic events, receiving a total of 4 billion won in support over four years.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on the 24th that it has opened a call for the '2025-2026 strategic event development project' and selected five sports federations, including badminton, shooting, swimming, archery, and fencing, as grant recipients.
Although it achieved a total of 32 medals at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, it faces structural limitations, such as a shrinking base due to a declining population. In response, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has opened a call for the '2025-2026 strategic event development project' to support mid-to-long-term base expansion and performance enhancement based on advanced science, considering the characteristics of each sport.
The total project cost for 2025 is 5 billion won, with a maximum of 1 billion won provided annually for each selected federation. Additionally, based on the business plans established autonomously by the sporting federations, the project will proceed for up to four years (2+2) until the 2028 Olympics through mid-term performance evaluations. The specific contents of the business plans submitted by the selected federations will be finalized through consulting with collaborative organizations such as the Korea Sports Science Institute.
Among the selected events, archery plans to establish a national team training squad to continuously improve performance and to promote archery education in school sports to broaden the base of the sport. For shooting, plans are in place to promote the analysis of training and competition videos, identify new talent, and conduct visits to professional athlete schools for talent development and base expansion, as well as inspections of competition firearms by specialized repair companies to support national representatives and professional athletes.
A Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism official noted, 'Through direct and multi-year support for each sports federation, it is expected that the autonomy and accountability of the federations will be strengthened and a foundation for the sustainable development of sports in South Korea will be established.'