Speakers
Description
National Sport Governing Bodies (NSGBs) have emphasized sport integrity which can be defined as “manifestations of the ethics and values which promote community confidence in sports” (Australian Government, 2016). Globally, NSGBs struggle to prevent and address integrity issues and rethink how they promote integrity and minimise integrity risks and violations by way of good governance and independent policy reforms. Despite such global interest on sport integrity, there has been little empirical research on sport integrity in South Korea. Thus, this study aims to explore the risks and violations that affect sport integrity within South Korea’s elite sports context. Drawing upon interviews with five athletes, three coaches, three parents and three administrators, the analysis reveals three risks: 1) match-fixing as a means to enter a socially prestigious high schools, universities or/and professional teams with good competition results rather than as to fix matches to earn millions of dollars for some athletes, 2) bullying and harassment from coaches and peers who want to achieve better results in South Korea’s elite sport system, and, 3) Corruption in sports that emerged as power is concentrated in a group formed by hyul-yon (blood connection), hak-yon (academic connection) and ji-yon (regional connection). Overall, the results confirm that match-fixing, bullying and harassment and corruption in sports can serve as key risks which influence sport integrity in South Korea’s elite sports context.
