PyeongChang gears up for first Winter Games test events
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IOC Coordination Commission for PyeongChang Olympic Games Chair Gunilla Lindber,left, speaks at a news conference after the fifth Meeting of the IOC Coordination Commission for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games at Alpensia Convention Center. / Yonhap
By Nam Hyun-woo
PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon Province ― International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordination Commission for the PyeongChang Olympic Games Chair Gunilla Lindberg stressed the importance of test events in preparing for the 2018 Winter Games.
“The preparation for the 2018 Olympics has now entered the delivery phase and is working on the detailed services for the athletes and technicians,” said Lindberg during a press conference after the fifth Meeting of the IOC Coordination Commission for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games at the Alpensia Convention Center.
“This will be particularly important for the first sports events early next year,” she said of a series of test events which will be staged at Olympic venues between February next year and April, 2017. As the final stage of the Games’ preparations, a total of 28 international competitions will be held at the venues during the period and the first test event will be the International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Skiing World Cup in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province.
“It is important that PyeongChang 2018 delivers test events successfully and, in particular, the first event next February in order to create a solid basis for its planning and preparations for the Games,” Lindberg said.
The meeting aimed at checking the progress of Olympic preparations, was the fifth of its kind and held for three days from Tuesday. During the period, the commission members and representatives of seven International Federations on the PyeongChang program toured construction sites of the venues newly built for the 2018 Games and expressed satisfaction that the construction was on schedule.
“We had some challenges last year, but POCOG (PyeongChang organizing committee) President Cho has taken the helm, I think, the progress has picked up some speed, construction is on time, and Olympic villages are now coming up, so we don’t have big concern,” Lindberg said.
For the successful hosting of the winter Games in some 860 days, IOC President Thomas Bach promised the IOC will give $850 million to PyeongChang, which is $100 million more than was allocated for Sochi. Before the Thursday conference, a report disputed that amount according to a POCOG document, but IOC Sports Director Christophe Dubi, who was also at the conference, confirmed that “there is no doubt that the contribution here is higher than Sochi.”
During the press meeting, questions were raised over changes of some venues, including a slope in Jeongseon for alpine skiing, but both Lindberg and POCOG Secretary General Kwak Young-jin flatly denied the reports.
“We do not take venue changes into consideration,” said Kwak. “The construction is going well and the preparation for the test event in February here is in its full swing. We have discussed with local authorities and related groups, but the current site is the only option. There are forests that need to be preserved in the area so we have designed the courses to bypass the forests.”
Two days before the meeting, the ground breaking ceremony of the Olympic village, which will be built on a 42,000-square-meter site near Yongpyong Dome in PyeongChang was held. For the village, a private company, Yongpyong Resort, invested some 180 billion won and once it is completed on September 2017, it will house some 3,500 Olympians and Paralympics athletes. After the Games, the village’s individual units will be for sale.
During the meeting, the organizers announced that they have reached over 50 percent of their sponsorship target.