Analyzing the Ideology of Victory in Sport through Žižek Theoretical Framework

This study undertakes a critical examination of the entrenched victory-oriented ideology in Korean sports through the philosophical framework of Slavoj Žižek. Employing Žižek’s theoretical constructs of ideological fantasy, the symbolic order, the imaginary order, the Real, and jouissance, this research elucidates how “victory” operates not solely as an athletic objective but as an ideologically reproduced socio-cultural imperative. The victory-oriented ethos in Korea has been historically consolidated through state-driven elite sports policies, media-generated hero narratives, and institutional reward systems that conflate athletic triumph with personal worth, social recognition, and national prestige. Within this framework, fantasy functions as the organizing lens that conceals structural contradictions, the symbolic order institutionalizes “victory” as a normative value, and the imaginary order fosters athletes’ identification with an idealized victorious self. The Real, as the irreducible locus of lack, perpetuates a compulsive cycle of desire, sustained by the painful pleasure (jouissance) derived from the pursuit of unattainable ideals. This study posits that traversing the fantasy-by dismantling the socio-symbolic belief that victory constitutes the sole measure of athletic and personal value-serves as a critical point of departure for disrupting the ideological reproduction of victory-oriented culture. Such a philosophical reorientation offers a foundational perspective for reconfiguring Korean sports as a domain that privileges humanistic values, inclusivity, and sustainable development beyond the imperative to win.