PyeongChang cautious about chances for Olympics

By Na Jeong-ju

DURBAN — As the IOC vote to choose the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympics nears, there are widespread views here that the winner will be either South Korea’s PyeongChang or Germany’s Munich with France’s Annecy lagging far behind.

Some foreign news reports have said that PyeongChang is leading Munich in a close race. But Korean delegates here have declined to discuss PyeongChang’s chances, only saying they will do their best until the last moment.

“Of course, such reports are very encouraging. However, nobody can tell who will be the winner until the ballots are cast,” an official said, asking not to be named. “What we have to do is to just do our best to impress all IOC members until the vote takes place.”

The official said all Korean delegates have been advised to stay away from the media and keep quiet about the country’s bidding activities in Durban to avoid misunderstanding and “unnecessary” disputes.

Such a cautious approach is based on lessons from PyeongChang’s two previous failed bids.

The town narrowly lost to Canada’s Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics and then to Russia’s Sochi for the 2014 Games.

“In the lead-up to the votes for the 2010 and 2014 Games, there was encouraging news as well, but the result was not what we had expected,” the official said. “Such a mishap should not happen again.”

This week, Korea has held rehearsals for a final presentation to IOC members, which will take place just before the vote today (local time) at the International Convention Center.

President Lee Myung-bak, who arrived here Saturday and attended the rehearsals, will deliver a speech in English at the presentation to woo support from IOC members, according to Cheong Wa Dae.

“We have made a lot of preparations for PyeongChang and we are making efforts to fulfill the IOC’s demands sufficiently,” Lee said in an interview with foreign media Monday. “If a fair assessment is made, I anticipate that PyeongChang will be selected.”

In recent years, Korea has emerged as a winter sports powerhouse in Asia. The country finished fifth in the gold medal tally at last year’s Vancouver Olympics with six gold medals and came in third with 13 gold medals in this year’s Asian Games, after Kazakhstan and Japan.

PyeongChang, despite its two failed bids in the past, has made efforts to promote winter sports worldwide through its “Dream Program,” designed to give youngsters from countries with weak sports infrastructure opportunities to learn and enjoy winter sports in Korea.

“We’re expecting good results since we worked really hard,” Cho Yang-ho, head of the bid committee, said in Seoul before departing for Durban. “The atmosphere, I think, is good for us so far, but we don’t know until the final vote is counted.”