PyeongChang Winter Olympics celebrating one-year countdown
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By Baek Byung-yeul
PyeongChang, the host to Korea’s first Winter Olympics in 2018, is celebrating the one-year countdown to the global sports events.
Next year’s Winter Olympics will be Korea’s second Olympic hosting following the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics and the third winter event in Asia, with the previous two being held in Japan in 1972 and 1998.
Beginning with the opening ceremony, Feb. 9, some 6,500 athletes and officials from 95 countries will compete for 102 gold medals in 15 disciplines at 12 venues for 17 days. Korea, has set its goal to win up to 20 medals, including eight gold. Winter sports stars, such as U.S. alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, Japanese ski jumper Sara Takanashi, speed skater Lee Sang-hwa, cross country skier Kim Magnus, Russian figure skaters Evgenia Medvedeva and Cha Jun-hwan, are expected to light up the quadrennial competition.
A few days after the Olympics, the Paralympic Winter Games will also take place for 10 days from March 9 to 18 with some 3,000 athletes from 45 countries.
The PyeongChang Winter Games will take place at 12 venues. Six of them newly built while the other six have been refurbished. Officials said that the six new facilities are 96 percent complete as of January.
Before raising the curtain, the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) is in final rehearsals as a total of 26 test events are featured at the venues through April. This is to emulate the conditions during the actual Olympic season for smooth game operations. During the series of test events, 5,500 athletes and officials from 90 countries, 4,500 press corps members and 2,200 volunteers will participate.
Celebrating the one-year countdown, the POCOG will hold celebrations at host cities PyeongChang, Gangneung and Jeongseon. On Thursday, the POCOG will reveal the design of the Olympic Torch and launch ticket sales for the opening ceremony, at the Gangneung Hockey Centre.
A bird’s-eye view of the Alpensia Sliding Centre in PyeongChang / Courtesy of POCOG
PyeongChang needs more global recognition
With a year to go, some concerns have been raised that people around the world are not very aware of the Games host.
Similarly in the hosting country, Tuesday’s survey shows less than half of Koreans are interested in the PyeongChang Olympics.
According to a Gallup Korea survey of 1,003 Koreans, Feb. 1 and 2, only 48 percent said were interested in the Olympics while 49 percent said they weren’t -- 19 percent said they had zero interest. Gallup Korea added 64 percent of Koreans showed interest in the Sochi Games a week before the opening ceremony.
For individual sport events in the Olympics, 34 percent said they look forward to figure skating, followed by short track with 27 percent and speed skating with 15 percent; while 34 percent said they either didn’t have any interest in winter sports or didn’t have any knowledge of them.
Noteworthy stars at PyeongChang Olympics
Lindsey Vonn
The U.S. alpine skier, who won gold at the 2010 Vancouver Games, seeks a resurgence at the PyeongChang Olympics as various injuries have caused her to miss several competitions including the 2014 Sochi Games.
Evgenia Medvedeva
The 17-year-old Russian figure skater is known to Korean figure fans as the current ladies world record holder with a combined total score with 229.71, beating out retired figure skater Kim Yu-na. Now, the Moscow native is considered a strong favorite to earn a gold medal in the PyeongChang Olympics.
Cha Jun-hwan
The Korean figure skating star won twice at the International Skating Union Junior Grand Prix of Figure Skating during the 2016-2017 season. As one of the most promising stars among Korean winter sports athletes, the 15-year-old is predicted to be placed within the top five at the PyeongChang Olympics.
Sara Takanashi
The Japanese ski jumper missed a podium opportunity at the Sochi Games after being placed fourth. She will be the heavy favorite to earn gold in PyeongChang. She displayed her apparent dominance Sunday succeeding in winning her third straight World Cup title.
Kim Magnus
Kim Magnus, born to a Norwegian father and a Korean mother, is Korea’s promising cross-country skier. The 18-year-old who won one silver and two gold medals at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics decided to represent Korea at the PyeongChang Olympics last year.