Vice Minister Daehyun Kim of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism Visits Badminton Senior League Site, Emphasizes "Expansion of Community Sports"

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced that Second Vice Minister Daehyun Kim visited the Eojindong Complex Community Center in Sejong City on the 7th, where he toured the site of the '2026 Sports Club Division Badminton Senior League' and encouraged participating athletes and officials.

The Sports Club Division is a project designed to expand sports participation and establish a foundation for connecting professional and community sports by operating promotion and relegation leagues by level and discipline. The leagues are managed using a promotion and relegation system, where teams advance to higher leagues or are relegated to lower leagues based on their performance. In the community sports sector, these leagues are widely known as 'promotion and relegation leagues.'

This year, approximately 137,000 people are expected to participate in 2,461 leagues across 15 sports nationwide. The Senior League features 3,666 participants in 220 leagues across seven sports: soccer, billiards, table tennis, badminton, tennis, foot volleyball, and basketball. Among these, the Badminton Senior League is the largest, with 1,224 participants in 102 leagues across 15 cities and provinces nationwide.

Kim Daehyun, Second Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, visited the site of the "2026 Sports Club Division Badminton Senior League" held at Eojin-dong Complex Community Center in Sejong City on the 7th and performed a ceremonial first shot. Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism

The Ministry is expanding the existing promotion and relegation leagues, which were previously focused on young and middle-aged adults, into a community sports system that includes youth and seniors, among other groups. The Ministry is also revitalizing the Senior League to enable seniors to exercise and connect with others in their local communities on an ongoing basis. As a result, the national rate of participation in community sports and the participation rate among the elderly have both continued to rise. The national community sports participation rate increased from 60.7% in 2024 to 62.9% last year, while participation among those aged 70 and older rose from 57.7% to 59.5% during the same period.

The Ministry explained that the promotion and relegation leagues are now established as a community sports platform at the city, county, and district levels nationwide, where local residents regularly interact and compete. The Ministry particularly expects that in areas with declining populations or large elderly populations, these leagues will not only help seniors build social relationships and strengthen community bonds, but also revitalize the local area.

Vice Minister Daehyun Kim stated, "In a super-aged society, community sports are the most effective preventive policy to protect public health and proactively address the rapidly increasing burden of medical costs, as well as an investment in enhancing national competitiveness. The Ministry will expand the budget for community sports to create an environment where all generations can exercise in their daily lives and contribute to promoting public health and reducing social costs, including medical expenses."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.