Corporate donations exceed W40b for Korean athletes at Beijing Olympics: FKI

Corporate donations made for Korean athletes competing at the Beijing Winter Olympics have exceeded 40 billion won ($33.4 million) over the past four years, according to industry data collected by the Federation of Korean Industries Wednesday.

A total of 91 companies have donated cash and goods worth 41.75 billion won between 2018 and 2021 to support Korean national athletes preparing for this year’s Olympics, the data found.

Donations were made mostly through related sports associations, with the Korea Ski Association receiving the largest amount of 12.64 billion won from 22 companies, including Lotte Group and Shinhan Financial Group.

The Korea Ice Hockey Association was given 9.63 billion won from 12 companies, including KB Financial Group and LG Group, while the Korea Skating Union received 6.43 billion won from five companies, including SK Telecom and KB Financial Group.

The Korean Sports and Olympic Committee, which manages the overall activities of Team Korea, also received donations worth 3 billion won from 10 companies, including Naver and Lotte Home Shopping.

Some companies made donations closely linked to their own markets. 

The North Face Korea, the outdoor brand owned by Youngone Outdoor, supplied environment-friendly uniforms for athletes using recycled materials. Meanwhile, Naver, using its Zepeto metaverse platform, built a virtual athletes’ village for the Korean team to help reduce the risks of running physical facilities amid the protracted coronavirus pandemic.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)