The "2025 National Sports Festival for All" has opened, the largest festival for all sports lovers in Korea.
A total of 22,676 athletes from 17 cities and provinces across the country will participate in this year's grand festival (hosted by the Korean Sports Council, hosted by the Jeollanam-do Sports Council, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and sponsored by the National Sports Promotion Foundation) to be held in Jeollanam-do from the 24th to the 27th. Each event will be held in 59 stadiums located in 17 cities and counties in Jeollanam-do. Representative players who have come up from city and provincial selection contests will compete in good faith to create a venue for regional and intergenerational harmony.
The Grand Festival, which began in Jeju in 2001 under the name of the National Sports Festival, has established itself as the nation's largest sports festival by contributing to the promotion of people's health and harmony between regions and classes through sports.
During the grand festival, the '29th Korea-Japan Sports Exchange Invitation Event' will also be held. The Japanese team, consisting of 151 sports enthusiasts aged 30 or older from Ehime Prefecture and Ishikawa Prefecture in Japan, will participate in a total of eight sports, including soccer, badminton, and tennis. At the welcoming ceremony held at Hotel Hyundai by Rahane Mokpo at 7 p.m. on the 24th, Kim Nami, secretary-general of the Korean Sports Council, and Yuuki Umakoshi, head of the Japanese national team, exchanged souvenirs to strengthen the friendship between the two countries. The Japanese team will participate in the opening ceremony (25th), competition in each event (26th-27th), and cultural exploration and farewell party (28th-29th). In September, 158 Korean athletes in eight sports will be invited to the 「Japan Sports Masters 2025」 held in Ehime Prefecture, Japan, to continue friendship between the two countries through sports and cultural exchanges.
The average age of club members participating in this competition is 46.67, with 3,113 people in their 60s the most. By region, Gyeonggi-do has the largest number of athletes with 2098, the oldest participant is Lee Tae-ro, a 91-year-old player in Park Golf in Busan, and the youngest participant is Shin Yu-ju, a 6-year-old athlete in the ice sports of Gwangju.
At Mokpo Stadium on the 25th, 'OK! NOW South Jeolla Province! Energy up! Sports for all!More than 10,000 people attended the opening ceremony under the grand theme of ', including Kim Young-rok, Governor of Jeollanam-do Province, Jang Mi-ran, Second Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kim Yoo Seung Min, Chairman of the Korean Sports Council, and Secretary-General Kim Nam-i, as well as participants in each city and province event and visitors to provincial residents. There was also a meaningful scene in which Lee Jong-ho, a former national soccer player from Suncheon, Jeollanam-do, and Lee Yoon-ri, a silver medalist in shooting at the 2024 Paris Paralympics from Wando, Jeollanam-do, declared the opening.
Since the beginning of his term, the chairman of the Korean Sports Council Yoo Seung Min has been actively communicating with the club members of each sport at the first national sports festival site. Chairman Yoo, who visited Mokpo on the eve of the opening ceremony, visited almost all events, including park golf, gateball, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, and bowling, to experience the event himself, hang medals in person, respond to requests for selfies and signatures, participate in cultural events, encourage city and provincial sports association officials and local volunteers, and are working hard every day. Chairman Yoo's true value of showing the passion of Olympians and sportsmen by actually experiencing 68 sports events during the campaign for the president of the Korea Sports Council is also shining at the sports festival. Chairman Yoo posted real-time images of the club's activities on social media on the spot and wrote, "Fighting volleyball!" "Way to go, tennis!" "Way to go, table tennis!" They are giving generous support with a message.
Meanwhile, the Korea Sports Association is guiding various projects and raising public interest in sports by operating an electronic wallet promotion center for sports clubs and athletes at Mokpo Stadium during the competition. For detailed information related to the competition, refer to the official website of the competition and the official website of Jeollanam-do.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
