<Photo description: (Top) Trail runner Kim Young-jo of KOLON Athletes; (bottom) trail runner Kim Ji-su>

- Moves beyond sponsorship with an official athlete team of top-tier athletes across trail running, climbing, and more

- Athletes to serve as “field engineers,” helping strengthen global technical competitiveness through real-world performance data

The KOLON Industries FnC Organization (KOLON FnC) announced that its outdoor brand KOLON SPORT has officially launched KOLON Athletes this year as part of its efforts to strengthen its outdoor expertise. Moving beyond its previous ambassador-based sponsorship model, KOLON SPORT will formally operate an athlete team to build deeper partnerships with athletes and advance field-based R&D.

The launch of the team is designed to demonstrate the brand’s technical capabilities in real field conditions. The athletes will serve as “field engineers,” pushing products to their limits and validating their performance. Drawing on real-world data and experience gained through competition and training, the athletes will provide direct feedback to the brand. Their insights will be actively incorporated from new product planning through the testing stage, creating synergies that help KOLON SPORT build verified technical assets.

To support this, KOLON SPORT will provide athletes with sport-specific equipment and high-performance products, as well as systematic support for improving competitive performance, including participation in major competitions in Korea and abroad. Athletes will be given an environment where they can focus fully on peak performance, while the brand will translate field feedback into technical development, continuing a more deeply integrated partnership.

The team is composed of globally competitive athletes with established track records in trail running, sport climbing, ice climbing, and archery.

In trail running, one of the brand’s key strategic focuses this year, KOLON SPORT has assembled a group of top athletes in Korea. The lineup includes Kim Ji-su, who holds the best-ever UTMB result by a Korean runner; Kim Young-jo, winner of major races in Korea and abroad, including Trans Jeju by UTMB; Ahn Ki-hyeon, winner of the Jeju International Ultramarathon; Yang Joo-ha, who has swept major 50K and 100K races, including SEOUL 100K; and Kang Min-gu, who has qualified for the 2026 UTMB® World Series Finals. All five athletes are scheduled to take part in KOLON TRAIL RUN 2026, KOLON SPORT’s first self-hosted trail running race, to be held in Hoengseong, Gangwon Province, from April 18 to 19.

The climbing and archery lineup also features national team-level athletes. The team includes Kwon Ga-eun, winner of the Asian Youth Championships in sport climbing; Sung Hanareum, a multiple-time National Sports Festival champion; and Kim Min-cheol, a national team member who placed in the top five at the UIAA Ice Climbing World Cup. The lineup is further strengthened by Kim Woo-jin, a member of Korea’s national archery team who ranked world No. 1 in 2025.

A KOLON SPORT representative said, “The launch of KOLON Athletes embodies the brand’s strategy to use trail running as a key pillar in strengthening its influence across the outdoor market. By building technical competitiveness based on field data accumulated together with our athletes, we will continue to elevate KOLON SPORT’s standing in the global market.”