‘Shooting emperor’ Jin Jong-oh (43 years old) and short track Olympic gold medalist Jo Hae-ri (36 years old) were nominated as co-organizers of the 2024 Gangwon Winter Youth Olympics (Youth Olympics). This is the first time that a player from various international competitions held in Korea has been appointed as the head of the organizing committee, who is in charge of the competition.
Officials from the Korean sports community, 스포츠토토 including the Korea Olympic Committee, said, “As long as there are no major variables in the future, a plan to hold a general meeting of organizing committee members until the 19th, one year before the opening of the Games, to revise the articles of incorporation, and then elect two people, Jong-oh Jin and Hae-ri Jo, as co-chairs of the organizing committee. I know that they are pushing for it. We have notified the International Olympic Committee (IOC), including President Thomas Bach, and are waiting for an official announcement.”
The reason why Jin Jong-oh and Jo Hae-ri were nominated as the co-chairman of the co-organizing committee was that a consensus was formed that a young athlete from an Olympic medalist should be in charge due to the nature of the Winter Youth Olympics, and that both of them are currently active as directors of the Korea Olympic Committee, which is a plus factor. It is known to work.
Kyobo Life Insurance Chairman Shin Chang-jae, who was appointed as the first organizing committee chairman in September 2020, stepped down in early September of last year without reappointing after completing his two-year term. Since then, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Sports Association have been struggling for more than four months to find a successor to the organizing committee.
The reason it took such a long time to select a successor to the organizing committee was because Yuna Kim, who had been considered ‘ranked 0’ early on, declined. In particular, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism wanted the ‘Kim Yuna Organizing Committee Chairman’ card until the last minute in consideration of the meaning and symbolism of the Winter Youth Olympics, but she did not accept the offer.
Jin Jong-oh, who is called the ‘shooting emperor’, has won medals from the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he participated for the first time, to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He won a silver medal in the 50m pistol at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and a silver medal in the 10m air pistol and a gold medal in the 50m pistol at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, establishing himself as a signboard of Korean shooting. At the 2012 London Olympics, he won two gold medals in the 10m air pistol and 50m pistol, earning a reputation as a world-class sharpshooter. At the 2016 Rio Olympics, he dramatically won the gold medal in the 50m pistol and achieved three consecutive victories in this event, becoming the first Korean ever to win three consecutive Olympic individual events.