Koreans have always enjoyed a variety of sporting activities and games. The impressive national economic growth in recent years has given people increased leisure to indulge their passion in sports.

On a national level, the most noteworthy accomplishments include the successful hosting of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games and co-hosting of the 2002 FIFA World Cup with Japan.

Daegu has been selected as the host city for the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Athletics, one of the top three world sports events along with the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup.

Considering Korea's size and population, its performance in international sport competitions has been outstanding. Korea is the first Asian nation to qualify for the FIFA World Cup seven times.

Korean athletes have done well in sports like baseball, golf, archery, shooting, table tennis, ski jump, short track skating, figure skating and swimming in a number of global sports competitions.

Korea has recently produced many world-class golfers. Players like Choi Kyung-ju, Park Se-ri and Kim Mi-hyun (the latter two women) became prominent figures in the golf world, having won several PGA, LPGA or Women's U.S. Open titles.

In recent years, two young Koreans have made names for themselves and their country in swimming and figure skating. Park Tae-hwan won three gold, one silver and three bronze medals at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, where he set two new Asian records. He also medaled twice in the 2007 World Aquatic Championships in Sydney, taking gold in the 400m freestyle and bronze in the 200m freestyle. His most recent feat was winning the country's first gold medal in 400m freestyle and a silver in the 200 meter freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Kim Yu-Na, bronze medalist in the 2007 and 2008 World Figure Skating Championships, won the 2007 Cup of Russia with an unprecedented high score for long program. The same year, she also won the Cup of China. In her latest achievement she also came in first in both the 2008 Skate America and 2008 Cup of China.

Also in times past, old records, show that Koreans engaged in numerous traditional sports and games, such as kite flying, tug-of-war, and other native games called geune, jegichagi, neolttwigi as well as taekwondo and ssireum.

Among the traditional sports that have been revived in modern times, the martial art of taekwondo is the best known and the only officially acknowledged sport to have originated in Korea and be practiced widely around the world.

Taekwondo uses the entire body, particularly the hands and feet, to strengthen not only physical wellbeing, but also cultivate character via physical and mental training. This self-defense cum martial art has become a popular international sport in the last decades. Now some 3,000 Korean instructors teach taekwondo in most of the world's countries.

Another important aspect of the Government's sport policies involves promoting exchanges with North Korea. The Korean Government has long pursued participation in sporting events with North Korea, believing that sport is one of the most effective means of reconciling a divided people. In addition, the Republic of Korea supported bids for North Korea to join various international sport organizations such as the World Mountain Climbers' Association and the Pan-Asian Boxing Association.