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| Construction work is under way on the hockey center in PyeongChang, the mountainous eastern city that will host the 2018 Winter Olympics, Monday. The Winter Games will be held Feb. 9-25, 2018, at a "belt" of venues clustered within 30 minutes of each other. / Yonhap |
By Nam Hyun-woo
With the Rio Olympics coming to an end on Sunday, the event provided lessons for the organizers of the PyeongChang Winter Games which will come to Korea in less than two years.
The 2018 Winter Olympics will take place from Feb. 9 to 25 across Gangwon Province, where the host city PyeongChang is located.
While gearing up preparations domestically, the PyeongChang organizers visited Rio de Janeiro to "watch and learn" what they should work on in the next 530 days before the Winter Games begin.
The organizing committee of the 2018 Games sent 71 officials to experience how the Olympics is run. They participated in the management of athletes' village, transportation, accommodations and other issues. Also, the organizers set up a promotional center on Copacabana Beach, and some 140,000 people have so far visited.
"I learned from the Rio Games that expanding the budget is not the only solution for hosting a great event," PyeongChang chief organizer Lee Hee-beom said of the Rio Games opening ceremony, during a press conference on Sunday.
Rio organizers reportedly spent about $21 million for the opening ceremony. The amount is approximately half of what London spent on its show for the 2012 Games. Despite the low budget spent by London, its show drew praise for its colorful and energetic production.
"The opening ceremonies of recent Olympics have been a stage to boast their economic prowess by pouring massive amounts of money into them. However, I was impressed that a creative idea is more important than money," Lee said.
The build-up to the Rio Games had been plagued with concerns about safety, infrastructure, and fears of the Zika virus. Unlike the concerns, the Games ended without major problems. The biggest fear was safety, but no major terrorist attacks were made, with the country having some 22,000 soldiers to patrol Olympic ones.
However, there were language barriers and other problems of infrastructure, which PyeongChang could also experience in 2018.
At the Rio Games, some venues, including the velodrome and the tennis center, were still not completed just weeks before the opening ceremony.
Delay in the construction schedule is also a problem that PyengChang organizers must contend with.
For the first Winter Olympics in the country, the organizers are constructing six new venues and remodeling six existing ones.
Of the new venues, causing concern is the Jeongseon Alpine Center, which will stage alpine downhill, Super-G and combined events. It is estimated to be 68.4 percent completed, currently, and the constructors say the center will have its course and track ready by October next year, while full completion will come two months after that.
Building the center has been making slow progress as environmentalists opposed that huge environmental damage will result in building a one-off athlete-only course. Last year's heavy snowfall also slowed down the construction. And then the organizers spent a difficult time in making artificial snow.
The construction process of other new venues is picking up momentum, with Gangneung Ice Arena, Gangneung Hockey Center and Kwandong Hockey Center being 90.2 percent, 90.6 percent and 92 percent complete, respectively.
Another Rio problem that may be repeated in PyeongChang was the language barrier. Chief organizer Lee said he learned that language proficiency among volunteers is important. Reportedly, many of the Rio volunteers did not have a good command of English, causing inconveniences for travelers, athletes and others.
The PyeongChang organizing committee said that it is in the process of volunteer recruitment. Lee pledged that the committee will deliver it Olympic Games "language barrier free" by using experienced human resources to enhance language service.
Developing culture content other than sports also comes as a task for the PyeongChang organizers. Watchers said that the Rio Games had a lack of "things to do, see and enjoy" after the competitions end. This may be a case for PyeongChang, a small and rural alpine town.
"I've traveled to every corner of Rio, and I'll make sure PyeongChang won't make the same mistakes," Lee said.
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