S Korean athletes generous with their ‘home food’ deliveries

As a nutritionist for South Korean Olympians for 35 years, Han Jung-sook says Tokyo is a challenging mission.

She orchestrates the 16-member team feeding the South Korean team at the Tokyo Olympics, ensuring that 400 radiation-free meal boxes are delivered every day.

The team has rented an entire hotel about 20 minutes drive to the Athletes’ Village, so as to cook separately and screen ingredients for radiation.

The country’s own food programme at Tokyo Games has become an irritant in relations between Seoul and Tokyo, prompting criticism in Japan on social media and among some politicians. Organisers say food served at the Olympics is safe.

South Korea has periodically irked Japan with such steps as curbing imports of Japanese seafood, citing safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima tsunami and nuclear disaster.

“There are radiation concerns, and as a person who’s responsible for the athletes’ safety and health, our mission is to check meticulously,” said Han, who has been running such programmes since the 2012 London Olympics.

Her work starts at 4am and ends at 8pm, and she never walks out of the hotel to follow coronavirus protocols.

Inside her kitchen, manuals for sourcing and screening, including use of radiation equipment, hang at the entrance. Kimchi and sauces are from home, but fresh products like meat and veg are sourced from

Japan’s local markets.

The manuals state that seafood, vegetables and fruits from eight prefectures, including Fukushima, are banned.

Kitchen staff pack rice, kimchi, dried seaweed and eight other dishes into boxes which are dropped off at the Athletes’ Village three times a day.

South Korean athletes say they love the homemade boxed meal deliveries as they would rather eat in their own rooms than going to the village cafe.

“I have to be careful about coronavirus. So meal boxes are better,” Heo Kwang-hee, a South Korean badminton player, said. “I feel safer.”

“When South Koreans bring lunch boxes, they share them with us,” said a Japanese archer”—