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By Yoon Chul
The PyeongChang bid committee will offer the utmost convenience to the media if it hosts the Winter Games, offering free wireless Internet among other benefits. The media center will be located close to the journalists’ accommodation.
Korea, an information technology (IT) powerhouse, would provide services based on its state-of-the-art technology.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 21 that Korea’s Internet connection speed is No. 1 in the world and by the end of 2011 Korea intends to link every home in the country to the Internet at one gigabit per second — 200 times faster than the United States.
With rapid growth in online systems expected by the year 2018, the media would hope to offer one of the world’s fastest Internet connections.
The PyeongChang media village will be just a five minute walk from the Main Press Center (MPC) and International Broadcasting Center (IBC) in the Alpensia Cluster. The Coastal Cluster will have its own Coastal Media Center (CMC).
The committee will prepare accommodation for 11,000 working in the media, split evenly between the Alpensia and Coastal Clusters. The Alpensia location will host the snow events while the ice events will take place at the Coastal site. Journalists can move from one cluster to the other in 30 minutes on free shuttle bus available around the clock.
As the Olympic village is divided into two areas, the committee will explore ways of ensuring the most convenient security system with the least inconvenience for the athletes and reporters.
Many foreign journalists suffered from language barriers during the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Given this, the PyeongChang bid committee will train 600 volunteers, who will be assigned to the media for three years before the Winter Games begin.
The bid committees of PyeongChang, Annecy of France, and Munich of Germany will learn their fate on July 6 when the 103 IOC members will vote on the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics.
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