Lee Kee-heung, elected head of the Korean Olympic Committee on Wednesday, said that "his main focus will be on achieving financial independence for his organization and creating jobs for retired athletes," according to Yoo Jee-ho of YONHAP. Lee, who earned 294 of 892 votes to beat Chang Ho-sung, a university professor, by 81, said,
"They will be the most important tasks during my term. I can handle other issues with the help of other KOC executives, but I will stake everything on accomplishing those two goals."
The 61-year-old was the KOC's VP from '05-16 and also president of the Korea Swimming Federation from '10-16. Before that, he had been VP of the Korea Modern Pentathlon Federation and president of the Korean Canoe Federation.
His term will run through Feb. '21 and "will take him through the next two Olympics: the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang and the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo." Lee spoke of "a mountain of problems" that the KOC is faced with, and said that he was looking forward to tackling them "one by one" with the help of other sports officials (YONHAP, 10/5).
