(Unofficial translation)

Fellow Koreans, athletes, coaches and officials representing 17 provinces and cities,

I congratulate you with a joyful heart upon the opening of the 100th National Sports Festival. The first Joseon national baseball competition, the inaugural National Sports Festival, was held in Seoul, and its 100th event is once again being held in Seoul. It definitely carries profound significance. 

The National Sports Festival’s history has run alongside the 100-year legacy of the March First Independence Movement and the founding of the Provisional Government. The Republic of Korea’s status today as a sports powerhouse and the National Sports Festival’s 100-year history have been made possible thanks to the descendants of our decorated independence activists and our elders who have worked hard to advance athletics in Korea. They are joining us here today. I am deeply grateful to them all.

Listening to the Korean sports choir sing the national anthem, I could sense the prestige and achievements of a National Sports Festival that has lasted for 100 years. I also appreciate the members of the Korean national team who join the choir, including silver medalist from the 1956 Melbourne Olympics Song Sun-cheon and the leader of the choir Lim O-kyeong. I congratulate the citizens of Seoul, Mayor Park Won-soon and other relevant officials who have prepared this spectacular event – the first time in 38 years that a single city has been the sole host.

Fellow Koreans,

The history of the National Sports Festival’s 100 years is steeped in our people’s self-confidence of can-do spirit. 

In 1920, the year after the March First Independence Movement, the Joseon national baseball competition began with the first pitch being thrown by a great teacher of the nation, Lee Sang-jae, who goes by the pen name of Wolnam. It was an event that reaffirmed our national pride and aspirations for independence through sports. In the wake of the Korean War, the National Sports Festival has served as a celebration of harmony and unity to rebuild a nation left in ruins and find a way toward prosperity.

The National Sports Festival has continued uninterrupted since liberation except for 1950, the first year of the Korean War. The 1951 National Sports Festival held in Gwangju during the War received enthusiastic encouragement from the International Olympic Committee and people around the world.

The National Sports Festival has also served as a catalyst for regional development. Since 1957, the event has been held on a rotating basis across the country, and every host city has benefited from the construction of such infrastructure as competition venues and roads. The sports facilities built on those occasions have been utilized as community spaces for local citizens, including sports enthusiasts and arts and culture professionals, contributing to balanced national development while facilitating the development of local communities.

We created the Miracle on the Hangang River by rising above the ravages of war and poverty. We also turned the 1988 Seoul Olympics into a festival of harmony between the old Eastern and Western Blocs. We overcame the 1997 foreign exchange crisis and paid off the resulting IMF bailout earlier than expected, and we managed to write a legendary success story by reaching the semifinals when we hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup. In addition, we successfully hosted the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games as a peace Olympics, bringing momentum into the peace process on the Korean Peninsula. 

The fruits that we are harvesting today as a sports powerhouse were cultivated from experiences and abilities gained from organizing and managing the National Sports Festival. 

Our athletes’ sportsmanship and the tears and sweat they’ve shed to overcome their limits have moved us all. Thanks to them, we’ve been able to solidify our can-do spirit while holding onto hopes amid a myriad of difficulties. 

Fellow Koreans, 

Now, we have to move beyond the National Sports Festival’s past century of achievements and race again, united as one with renewed determination. 

The new chapters in the coming century of sports history that the Republic of Korea will write should embody fairness for all, human rights and peace on top of individuals’ spirit to take on challenges, their courage and will.  

The Government will provide support to help all athletes realize their dreams –
while making sure that their autonomy and human rights are respected – whether they do popular or less well-known sports. We will also render assistance to ensure that they can perform at the peak of their abilities while equitable and fair opportunities are guaranteed. An increasing number of athletes will be able to enjoy welfare benefits.  

Every citizen of Korea should be able to enjoy leisure sports in their neighborhood, and furthermore, the barriers between elite sports and “sports for all” will be torn down so that athletes will be nurtured among those doing sports as part of their daily lives since childhood. 

More than anything else, I dream the day when the 2032 joint Seoul-Pyeongyang Olympics will be held in this very spot where we’ve gathered today. 

When inter-Korean dialogue was severed and bilateral relations underwent difficulties, sports have opened the door for meetings and talks. Just as the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics helped open an age of harmony between the Eastern and Western Blocs and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics an age of peace on the Korean Peninsula, the joint 2032 Seoul-Pyeongyang Olympics will be an event to signal the opening of an era of common prosperity on the Korean Peninsula.  

I hope the citizens of Seoul and all members of the sports community once again play a leading role in making it possible for Seoul and Pyeongyang to jointly host an Olympics in 2032.  

Distinguished athletes, 

You yourselves are the heroes of the National Sports Festival. You’ve long pushed yourselves to go beyond your limits. With confidence in the sweat you’ve shed so far, I hope you will all display your abilities to the fullest. 

Just as your predecessors have written chapters in the century-long history of the National Sports Festival, your impressive competitions will fill new pages of sports history that will go on to inspire our people and the next generation of athletes. 

The 100th National Sports Festival will be the most successful from the support of every Korean. Reflecting upon the course of its past century, I hope it will emerge as a festival of harmony and hope for the coming century. 

Thank you.