Korean badminton women's doubles standout Kim So-young (31) and the eldest member of the Korean men's archery team, Oh Jin-hyuk (42), have also thrown their hats into the ring for the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Until three days ago, it was widely believed that Kim Yeon-kyung (35-volleyball), Park In-bee (35-golf), Lee Dae-hoon (31-taekwondo), and Jin Jong-oh (44-shooting) were in a four-way race for the Korean seat.
(IOC Athletes Commissioner 'War of the Stars'... Domestic qualifiers more competitive than Olympic gold https://bit.ly/44SzhLa)
However, after the Korean Sports Federation closed the nominations for IOC Athletes' Commissioners for each sporting organization on Thursday, a total of six candidates will participate in the 'unification' process.
National Olympic Committees (NOCs), such as the Korean Olympic Committee, have until the first of next month to nominate one candidate to the IOC.
The KOC will have three weeks to review documents and conduct interviews to determine the final candidate.
IOC Athletes' Commissioners are elected 스포츠토토 directly by athletes participating in the Olympic Games.
The athletes who are selected to represent Korea will have to campaign and win over voters at the Paris Olympics, which begin on July 26 next year.
South Korea has had two IOC Athletes' Commissioners so far.
Moon Dae-sung, 47, a former national taekwondo athlete, became the first South Korean and Asian to be elected to the IOC at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The current IOC Athlete Commissioner is Yoo Seung-min (41), President of the Korean Table Tennis Association, who was elected at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.
At summer events like the Paris Olympics, four of the IOC's athletes' commissioners are new faces. Yoo is one of four whose terms will end at the Paris Games.