In 1988, Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics. I saw this as a potential festival of peace in my own backyard and had many of our members from around the world come to Seoul for the event. The members helped guide the international athletes and officials, cheered the athletes, served them food, and presented them with mementos of their visit to Korea. Since China and the Soviet Union were both participants in the Games, I saw it as an event that could critically alter the Cold War era. Seeing the Olympic Games as a festival of peace gave it the potential to create harmony between the communist bloc and the free world. On the day of the opening ceremony I sat in the general seating area of Jamsil Main Stadium and watched with great joy.

       After the Olympics, I carried on the energy of the Games by founding the Ilhwa Chunma professional soccer team. The Ilhwa team has won several championships and built up a strong fan base. We have since founded the soccer teams Clube Atlético Sorocaba and Centro Esportivo Nova Esperança (CENE) in Brazil, the home of samba football, and continue to operate them today. The reason I chose to create soccer teams is that I enjoy the sport. I have enjoyed sports since I was young, and for a time I did some boxing and some traditional martial arts. Soccer, however, is the one sport that I continue to enjoy into my old age. In my school days I used to run around the schoolyard diligently kicking the ball, but now I enjoy watching it. When the World Cup was held in Seoul, I had three television sets set up side by side so that I could watch all the games. I never missed a game that Korea played.

       Soccer is a microcosm of life. No matter how well I might dribble the ball down the field, if someone from the opposing team who is faster and more skilled comes along and steals the ball away from me, then in an instant everything I did until then is for nothing. Also, even if I might dribble all the way down the field and take a shot at the goal, if the ball hits the goalpost and bounces back, that’s the end. It’s up to me to dribble the ball, but it takes more than one person to get the ball into the goal. I need a teammate like Ji Sung Park, who will assist me at the critical moment, or someone like Young Pyo Lee, who will adroitly draw the other team away from me.