Kim Yeon-kyung, an advisor to the South Korean women’s national volleyball team, encourages the players during the women’s match between South Korea and Bulgaria in the FIVB Volleyball Nations League (VNL) at the Seosuwon Chilbo Gymnasium in Suwon, South Korea, on June 27.
Kim Yeon-kyung (35, Heungkuk Life), the “signature” of Korean volleyball, has formalized her bid to become an International Olympic Committee (IOC) athlete.
Recently, the Korean Olympic Committee sent out a notice to its affiliated organizations, “Guidance on the Nomination of IOC Athlete Candidates for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.
This is part of the process to select the Korean representative to the IOC. Kim’s team, Heungkuk Life, also received the letter and Kim announced her intention to run. Nominations are due by 6 p.m. on April 4.
Kim, “Shooting Emperor” Jin Jong-oh (44) and “Taekwondo Hero” Lee Dae-hoon (31) are among the candidates to represent South Korea on the IOC.
The IOC Athlete Commissioner elections will take place during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
As the eight-year term of the current IOC Athlete Commissioner, Yoo Seung-min, head of the Korea Table Tennis Association, will end at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the KTA will select one new domestic candidate to challenge for the IOC Athlete Commission.
Two South Korean athletes have been elected to the IOC: Moon Dae-sung (taekwondo) at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Yoo Seung-min (table tennis) at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Representing South Korea’s women’s volleyball team, Kim helped the Taeguknangs reach the quarterfinals at both the London 2012 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021. In London, she was named MVP of the women’s volleyball team after finishing fourth.
She also won several championships while playing for Fenerbahçe and Exxerbahçe in Turkiye, 한국야동 earning her the title of one of the best players in the world.