Culture vice minister heads to Nagoya to back Korean para athletes

South Korea's culture ministry said Tuesday that Vice Minister Kim Dae-hyun will travel to Japan this week to support the national team at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games and to review how the squad is being looked after during the Oct. 18-24 competition.

Kim, the ministry's second vice minister, is scheduled to be at venues in Aichi Prefecture from Oct. 20 to 22, starting with the athletics stadium and then moving to swimming, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair tennis and wheelchair fencing as Korean athletes compete. Korea sent 357 people to the Games, including 214 athletes across all 18 sports, 104 competition officials and 39 headquarters staff.

There is no single central athletes' village; instead the event is spread across six zones, with the Korean team housed in one small village and 17 hotels. The Korean Paralympic Committee's support team goes to where the athletes are: medical staff travel to hotels and venues to provide services such as physical therapy, with clinics set up in each of the six zones staffed by rehabilitation and orthopedic specialists. Two officials have been assigned to each of the 18 sports, 36 people in all, and catering is being arranged around each group's location. Kim is due to visit the support team's headquarters in Nagoya on Oct. 22 to check its operations and encourage the staff.

On the evening of Oct. 20, Kim will attend "Asian Night," an event the ministry is co-hosting with the Korean Paralympic Committee to bring Asian para sports officials together on the sidelines of the Games. About 150 people from Korea and abroad are expected, including the AsPC president, members of the International Paralympic Committee's executive board, heads of national Paralympic committees across Asia, international federation officials and organizers of the Games.

At the event, the Korean Paralympic Committee and the BDH Foundation will sign a sponsorship agreement to support the development of para sports in 12 Asian countries.

Kim framed the trip around the athletes themselves. "The challenge of our athletes, who have pushed past their limits, is itself the greatest inspiration," he said. "The government will stay by the team's side to the end so that the sweat shed in Nagoya leads to valuable results."