Sports organization to host int'l academic conference to celebrate 1988 Seoul Olympics

SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Yonhap) -- The Korean Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (KAHPERD) announced Sunday it will host an academic conference in commemoration of the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics this week.

The 38th International Sport Science Congress will open its two-day run Wednesday at Seoul Olympic Parktel, with Korea National Sport University scheduled to host presentations Thursday.

This year's conference will be held under the title, "Rethinking What Sport Does: Science, Society and Future," as it will explore how sport can influence the human body and mind and its role in shaping social relationships, industrial structures, governance and changes to technology.

In a statement, KAHPERD said the conference will also focus on connecting the legacy of the 1988 Summer Games, the first Olympics to be held in South Korea, with the social tasks of today and will serve as a platform for discussion on the new values that sport must create in a rapidly changing environment.

The first day will feature keynote speeches from four international academics: University of Queensland professor Clifford Mallett; Tania Braga, former head of Olympic Games Impact at the International Olympic Committee; Gerald Fritz of the University of Europe for Applied Sciences in Germany; and University of Georgia professor Bryan McCullick.

The second day will see some 250 presentations on a wide range of topics, including sports psychology, sports sociology and physiology, with academics and experts from the United States, Canada, Japan and China, among others, also set to give speeches.

"This year's conference will pose questions on what sport really does to people and society," KAHPERD President Choi Kwan-yong said. "I hope that researchers will move out of their comfort zone and participate in sessions outside their areas of expertise so that they will see fresh perspectives and new questions."

The event will be sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation.