[News Space=Reporter seungwon lee] As the 2025 Harbin Asian Winter Games, a winter sports festival for Asians, came to a close on the 14th, the performances of national athletes in snow sports such as skiing and snowboarding are particularly noteworthy. Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, who has provided full support to the athletes, is once again in the spotlight as the background to such achievements in Korea, which is considered to have a poor winter sports training environment.

February 14, the closing day of the Harbin Winter Asian Games, coincidentally marks Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin’s 70th birthday. Shin Dong-bin, who was born in Tokyo, Japan on February 14, 1955, received a gift more valuable than a Valentine’s Day gift.

This is because at the recent Harbin Winter Asian Games, a total of 12 medals were won in snow events, including gold medals by Lee Seung-hoon in freestyle skiing halfpipe, Lee Chae-un in snowboard slopestyle, and Kim Geon-hee in snowboard halfpipe.

According to industry sources on the 14th, Lotte has invested about 30 billion won in skiing and snowboarding over the past 10 years since Chairman Shin Dong-bin took office as the chairman of the Korea Ski and Snowboard Association in November 2014, providing full support for expanding the base of skiing and snowboarding, which are unpopular winter sports, and improving the skills of athletes. Even after Chairman Shin stepped down from the position of association chairman in 2021, executives from Lotte affiliates are still serving as chairman.

The reason Lotte Group has continued to provide support to expand the base of domestic skiing and snowboarding is because of the special interest of Chairman Shin Dong-bin, who was a member of a ski club during his childhood.

Due to the lack of training facilities and the high cost of overseas training, Korea had not won a medal in snow sports until the 2014 Winter Olympics. However, Chairman Shin Dong-bin, a former amateur skier who took office as the Chairman of the Korea Ski and Snowboard Association in 2014, is said to have drastically changed the environment for Korean snow sports.

In particular, the prize money system that rewards athletes' performance was expanded to allow prize money to be paid not only to athletes who win medals in international competitions but also to athletes who place 4th to 6th. In addition, MOUs were signed with ski associations in ski powerhouses such as the United States, Canada, and Finland to promote technology and information exchanges.

Lotte founded the 'Lotte Ski Snowboard Team' in November 2022 and began directly supporting promising athletes with high growth potential. At the time of the team's founding, four players formed the core of the team: snowboard halfpipe Lee Chae-yoon and Choi Ga-on, freestyle ski halfpipe Lee Seung-hoon, and freestyle mogul Jeong Dae-yoon. Since then, Lotte has further strengthened the team by recruiting additional athletes.

Lotte Ski Snowboard Team provides customized education programs to players, including training expenses and equipment support, as well as mental training, English language learning, and health management. To ensure that players can focus on training and competition, a dedicated team manager is assigned to systematically manage training schedules, visa issuance, and participation in domestic and international competitions.

Such 'generous' sponsorship has led to the strengthening of the international competitiveness of Korean snow sports. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, snowboarder Lee Sang-ho won the silver medal in the parallel giant slalom, the first for a Korean in a snow event. Later, in December 2023, Choi Ga-on made history by becoming the first Korean to win the FIS Snowboard Halfpipe World Cup held in Colorado, USA. Choi then won a bronze medal in the Swiss World Cup and a silver medal in the US World Cup despite a wrist injury.

Cho Sang-yeol, Senior Vice President of the Korea Ski and Snowboard Association, said, "Since Chairman Shin himself is a former skier, I can feel his special affection for winter sports and his sincerity," and "Through generous sponsorship, we have consistently emphasized the philosophy of 'not sparing any support so that talented athletes can focus on their competitions. '"

Meanwhile, Lotte Mart and Super will be the main sponsors of the '1st Korea Ski and Snowboard Association President's National Ski Competition' held at Yongpyong Resort in Pyeongchang-gun, Gangwon-do on the 15th. The competition will be divided into 6 categories for elementary school students by grade level. The event will be 'Galliance', one of the Alpine skiing events, and 96 athletes will participate.

Lotte Mart and Super have come forward as sponsors of this competition to help develop snow sports and nurture aspiring skiers. In addition to the award prize money, they plan to provide participants with discount coupon packs that can be used at offline stores and their own brand (PB) product, ‘Today’s Good’ snacks.

We will also set up a Today Good booth on one side of the stadium and provide warm tea and snacks to not only the participants but also the spectators.

Kim Jeong-woo, a person in charge of the Lotte Mart and Super Commerce Marketing Team, said, "This ski competition sponsorship is intended to help promising athletes pursue their dreams of becoming athletes by focusing on the unpopular sport of skiing," and added, "We will continue to sponsor various sports to help foster promising athletes and develop the sports industry as a whole."