Korean Fencing Team at Risk of Missing Asian Championship Over Protest

The fallout from the "Jamsil ballot-counting site protest" is spreading to the sports community, with members of South Korea's national fencing team now at risk of being unable to compete in the Asian Championship.

According to the sports community Tuesday, the Korea Fencing Federation failed to pay the entry fees for athletes set to compete in the Asian Fencing Championship in India by the payment deadline, which fell on the same day. Protesters have been blocking the entrance to the handball stadium at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul, preventing federation staff from entering their office inside the stadium to process the remittance.

The handball stadium, which was used as the ballot-counting site for the Jamsil area in the June 3 local elections, was where a ballot shortage occurred. Protesters have blockaded the stadium's entrances since June 5.

The Asian Championship is a major event grouped together with the Olympics, the World Championship, and the Asian Games as a Grand Slam competition. This year's event is scheduled to be held from June 18 to 24 in New Delhi, India. At this rate, South Korea, a fencing powerhouse, will be unable to participate in the competition at all.

Nine sports organizations under the Korea Sports & Olympic Committee are housed in the handball stadium: the Korea Handball Federation, the Korea Fencing Federation, the Korea Alpine Federation, the Korea Wushu Federation, the Korea Sepaktakraw Federation, the Korea Underwater Fin Swimming Federation, the Korea Billiards Federation, the Dance Sport Federation of Korea, and the Korea Water Ski & Wakesports Federation.

Staff from these organizations, whose operations have been paralyzed, are at a loss, repeatedly attempting to enter their offices each day only to be blocked. Work ranging from preparations for hosting international competitions to paying coaches' salaries and taxes has all been halted. The Korea Sports & Olympic Committee is also in a difficult position, as the 100-day countdown to the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games begins Wednesday.

Members of the nine resident organizations plan to hold a gathering in front of the handball stadium at around 9 a.m. Wednesday to explain the current damage and seek cooperation for entry into the stadium.