Tokyo Olympics: South Korean athletes urged to ignore row with Japanese hosts

South Korea aims to finish in the top 10 of the medals standings, but deteriorating relations with Japan have overshadowed the build-up to the Games

Ongoing disputes over the legacy of conflict between the two nations have cast a long shadow – even athletes’ meals have become a source of friction

Reading Time:4 minutes

South Korean archer Kang Chae-young is one of her country’s leading medal contenders at the Tokyo Olympics. Photo: World Archery Federation

Published: 7:00am, 23 Jul 2021Updated: 2:17pm, 23 Jul 2021

South Korean athletes competing at the Tokyo Olympics have been urged to ignore diplomatic tensions between their government and the host nation, which have included calls for boycotts and threatened to disrupt preparations for the event.

“We’ve been telling athletes to focus on achieving the best results, regardless of what’s happening in the rest of the world,” a senior official of the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee (KSOC) said, speaking anonymously. “We’re making our best efforts to ensure that athletes are not affected by things that have nothing to do with sports.

Athletes have also been instructed not to make any explicit statements about the political situation.

“As in the past Olympic Games, we’ve told athletes not to engage in any activities that may run against the IOC [International Olympic Committee] rules such as making political gestures at ceremonies,” the official said.

Team South Korea, which includes 232 athletes competing in 29 sports, is expected to win several medals in archery and could also contend in taekwondo, shooting and fencing. Administrators have set their sights on finishing in the top 10 in the overall medals tally.

However, preparations for the Games, which open on Friday, have been overshadowed by deteriorating relations after South Korean President Moon Jae-in abandoned plans to visit Japan, where he had hoped to hold a summit with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. A senior Japanese diplomat also courted controversy by making crude remarks to a South Korean journalist ridiculing Moon’s expectation of a summit with Suga during the Games.