SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea's Olympic committee is pushing to send hundreds of athletes to a military training center to enhance their mental toughness for the Paris Olympics, a move that's been criticized as outdated and regressive.
The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee advised domestic associations last week to send athletes to the Korea Marine Corps camp in the southeastern port city of Pohang for three days of training this month, according to some associations.
About 320 athletes, including women, are expected at the boot camp, committee officials said on Thursday. Sports associations have previously asked their athletes to take marine-style training ahead of big sports events but it's the first time the Olympic committee has recommended it, committee officials added.
Those officials reportedly decided on the camp following the Asian Games in China in October, when South Korea finished third in the gold medal count to China and Japan.
After the Asian Games, Olympic committee head Lee Kee-Heung floated the idea of marine camp training and said athletes would be joined by top committee officials including himself, according to South Korean media reports.
Messages slamming and deriding the Olympic committee plan flooded South Korean social media and internet sites.
“Are we still under the period of military rules?” read a message on X, formerly known as Twitter. Another X user said “they can just select…
