Korea Sports Council produces and awards medals to athletes participating in the Asian Games team preliminaries

MVP prize money of 30 million won... Skill development, fighting spirit, and leader awards are also presented.

(Nagoya = Yonhap News) Reporter Choi Song-ah = The Korea Sports Council will produce medals for athletes participating in the swimming team preliminaries who contributed to the Korean team's place at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games but did not receive physical medals due to competition regulations.

The Sports Council announced on the 28th that it decided to separately produce and award medals with the same specifications as the actual Asian Games medals to honor the efforts of athletes who participated in the team preliminaries, including swimming, but did not receive medals due to competition regulations.

The non-distribution of medals to preliminary and candidate athletes was made known belatedly when Kim Min-seop, who won a bronze medal in the men's 200m butterfly swimming event on the 25th, said, "The national team won medals in the two team events, but I was disappointed to hear that medals would not be awarded to the preliminary swimmers in this competition."

Kim Min-seop did not receive a medal because he did not compete in the finals even though he finished as a preliminary athlete in both the men's 400m relay, where he won a silver medal, and the 800m relay, where he won a bronze medal.

Since the organizing committee of this event arbitrarily applied regulations that are not found in other international competitions, criticism poured in from all over the field regardless of the event, saying that it was a fragment of unreasonable cost-cutting and administrative chaos.

In addition, the Sports Council decided to encourage the national team players and leaders who did not win medals by producing and awarding 'medals commemorating their participation in the Asian Games', and 'leader medals' of the same color as the athletes' medals to directors and coaches of the winning sports.

In addition, the Sports Council plans to select one player (MVP) as the most valuable player (MVP) of the team through a vote of the media and give him a prize of 30 million won, and also award the Skill Development Award, the Fighting Spirit Award, and the Leader Award (each worth 10 million won) through separate screening.