This study examines media discourses of the naturalized athletes of the South Korean men’s national ice hockey team. Building on the conceptual frameworks of imagined community, ethnic nationalism, and previous studies on athlete migration and naturalization, we further an understanding of the process of deconstruction and reconstruction of South Korean ethnic and national identity. We use Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis to explore how South Korean media legitimized the naturalization of foreign athletes without Korean ancestry and suggest three themes found from the discourses. First, the discourses highlighted the significance of the South Korean team’s Olympic success, which provided a legitimate reason for the recruitment of foreign athletes. Second, the naturalized athletes were described as “saviors” who possessed superior careers, physicality, and playing skills. Lastly, the media complimented the naturalized athletes’ acculturation to Korean culture by emphasizing their commitment to the nation. We argue that by forming and distributing discourses that favored the naturalization of athletes, Koreans have expanded the boundary of Koreanness. We discuss, then, the expansion of Koreanness in relation to the notion of flexible citizenship in the era of neoliberal globalization.

This study offers a critical discourse analysis of media representations of coach Sarah Murray, the first foreign, the first female, and the youngest head coach of the South Korean women's national ice hockey team at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. We focus on the South Korean media, which framed and manipulated coach Murray's credibility, especially the caliber of her coaching, while constructing a familial tie and restating the global hierarchy between North America and South Korea in the sport of ice hockey. We suggest how the media (re)produced denotative/connotative meanings of the recruitment of Coach Murray and her leadership through determinant moments by engaging a discussion of the discourse that both constructed coach Murray as subordinate to male figures and affirmed whiteness as the center of the global context.