Sports Organizations Breathe Sigh of Relief Ahead of Asian Games: "We Will Do Our Utmost to Support National Athletes"

Sports organizations that faced difficulties supporting national athletes due to their offices being blockaded, just 11 days ahead of the opening of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, have breathed a sigh of relief after retrieving necessary supplies from their offices with police cooperation for the first time in three months.

Employees from nine member sports organizations under the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee—including the Korea Handball Association, the Korea Fencing Association, the Korean Alpine Federation, the Korea Wushu Association, and the Korea Sepak Takraw Association, whose offices are located at the Handball Gymnasium in Olympic Park, Jamsil, Songpa-gu, Seoul—entered their offices with police assistance this morning and spent 50 minutes to an hour loading up necessary items.

This comes 95 days after protests blocking the ballot counting center, sparked by the June 3 local election ballot shortage, began, and 84 days after the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee's previous attempt to enter the offices was blocked by a protester known as "Oldarch" on June 16.

Stepping into their workplaces after a long time, employees from the sports organizations shared a common sense of relief that they will now be able to administratively support the national athletes and coaches heading to the Asian Games.

An official from the Handball Association said, "Nine employees came out and took all essential items for game operations and work, including official seals, bankbooks, and electronic scoreboards. Although there were many difficulties during the office blockade period, such as having to borrow or additionally purchase necessary items, my worries have significantly decreased compared to before now that we were able to retrieve these essential supplies today."

The official added, "National athletes for each sport will soon leave for Japan ahead of the Asian Games, and if it had been any later, we would have faced difficulties with administrative support. I am grateful that we were able to safely move items out of the office under police control."

An official from the Alpine Federation also shared, "Due to the limits on what could be loaded onto a truck, we packed computers for administrative work, accounting data for paying athlete allowances, and sponsored goods. In particular, being able to bring back the uniforms that the Asian Games national athletes will wear is a huge relief."

An official from the Fencing Association let out a sigh of relief, saying, "We first grabbed urgent items, including equipment to be distributed to athletes such as blades, uniforms, and fencing socks. We have been working without bankbooks and official seals, so having them back makes me feel much more at ease. We also brought back admission-related documents, which is a relief so that there will be no issues for the athletes."

While unable to access their offices, the Fencing Association faced disruptions in preparation as they successively competed in the Asian Championships in June and the World Championships in July.

Unable to retrieve equipment stored inside the office, national athletes had to prepare their equipment through their respective teams or individually, and the association even had to urgently import swords.

An official from the Wushu Association said, "We brought out computer towers containing necessary data, external hard drives, monitors, official seals, bankbooks, and stamps. Now that we have our official seals, administrative support for athletes and coaches has become possible."

An official from the Sepak Takraw Association stated, "We first retrieved immediately needed USBs, official seals, bankbooks, cards, items for the national team and competitions, and competition settlement data and documents. We are just relieved that we could do this ahead of the Asian Games and university admissions [issuance of performance certificates for student athletes]."

The sports organization employees expressed their gratitude to the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee and the police, saying unanimously, "We had many worries about whether we would be able to enter the office, but with a lot of help from the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee and the police, we were able to retrieve the necessary items, and we feel much more at ease."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.