One city is the newest winner to join the ranks of Olympic towns. The other is the capital city of the last remaining Communist nation in the world.
Pyeongchang and Pyongyang couldn’t be farther apart in personality, but only one syllable separates them in the dictionary. The similarity has caused much confusion in both media and with the general public; in Pyeongchang’s first bid for the 2010 Olympics which was held in Vancouver even some members of the IOC were confused.
In an effort to overturn this prejudice, Pyeongchang’s successful 2018 bid sought to differentiate itself from its notorious brother. By stylizing the name of the city as “PyeongChang” with a capital C, organizers hoped they could avoid comparisons with Pyongyang, the capital city of North Korea.
Despite this measure, however, both USA Today and MSNBC ran headlines that emphasized Pyeongchang’s similarity to Pyongyang. Minutes after the winner was announced at the IOC convention, the American broadcaster MSNBC ran the headline, “Pyeongchang (No, not Pyongyang) wins 2018 Olympics.”
However, the Associated Press reported that confusion among foreign media has decreased after PyeongChang’s third time on the world stage.