Roh Cheerleading PyeongChang’s Bid
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
GUATEMALA CITY __ For the first time in Olympic history, heads of bidding countries are to compete with each other to win the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
President Roh Moo-hyun arrived here Sunday (Monday on Korean time). Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to arrive here today while Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer arrived Sunday and immediately held a news conference to push his country's bid.
Roh will deliver a speech during PyeongChang's final media presentation as will Putin and Gusenbauer in the presentations of their countries' respective bids, hours before International Olympic Committee (IOC) members cast their ballots.
Joining Roh at the corridors of the Real InterContinental will be Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee and Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction Chairman Park Yong-sung, both IOC members, among other high-profile government officials and businessmen, as they look to court Olympic voters.
Upon his arrival, Roh interviewed with AP, Reuters, and AFP. He will meet with Guatemalan President Oscar Berger Monday to discuss ways of strengthening economic and diplomatic ties.
``Roh is determined to bring the Winter Games to Korea and will spend a lot of time at the InterContinental Hotel to meet IOC members and promote our bid throughout his stay,'' said Bahng Jae-heung, secretary general of PyeongChang's bid committee.
Earlier in the day, the IOC's ethics committee assigned each candidate city a meeting room at the Real InterContinetal Hotel, the venue for the IOC's executive meetings, and banned bid officials from inviting IOC members to any reception or event at any other location.
The IOC will hold a secret ballot on July 4 (July 5 on Korean time) to determine the winner.
Lobbying power nearly allowed PyeongChang to pull off one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history four years ago when it fell just three votes shy of Vancouver in the campaign for the 2010 winter games.
The presence of Samsung, an Olympic partner with powerful influence with the IOC, certainly helped PyeongChang's bid down the stretch at the 2003 IOC session.
However, PyeongChang is adopting a different strategy here, seeking to win fans among the IOC with an understated, discreet approach, with Sochi becoming the aggressors this time around.
Similar to PyeongChang of four years ago, Sochi is looking to overcome its status as the weakest technical bid with an all-out aggressive approach based on the power of lobbying, lavish promotional events, and a strong media presentation.
However, its intentions to ``shock and awe'' voters seem to have taken a small hit with the IOC refusing to recognize an outdoor ice skating rink, custom-built by the Russians to stage the performances of figure skating star Evgeni Plushenko and the country's other sports heroes, as a venue for official IOC events.
Sochi bid chief Dmitry Chrenyshenko told The Korea Times that the events at the ice rink would only be available to Russian delegates and expatriates in Guatemala, although it may open to the public should the Russian resort town win the vote in July 4.
With or without the help of ice, Sochi managed to create quite a media buzz Sunday with Russian swimming legend Alexander Popov holding a swimming session for 15 Guatemalan young athletes at a swimming pool near the InterContinental.
There are also rumors that former head of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev could be part of Sochi's final media presentations ahead of the IOC vote, which would give the Russians unmatched star power.
However, PyeongChang, which received the best evaluation among the three candidates in an IOC report announced earlier this month, seems to have little interest in matching Sochi's flash.
In their media presentations in Prague four years ago, the Koreans focused on drumming home the message of spreading the horizon of winter sports further throughout Asia and establishing a legacy of peace with PyeongChang part of Gangwon Province that shares the border with North Korea.
Although such messages still carry much weight for PyeongChang, Kim Jin-sun, Gangwon Province Governor and executive chairman of the bid, believes there will be more to say about the fundamentals this time around.
``The biggest difference from four years ago is that we can't present PyeongChang as a sports area for athletes, as we have been rebuilding and redeveloping the sporting venues there in the last four years to improve compactness,'' Kim told The Korea Times, adding that in his estimation the media presentations will weigh around 30 to 40 percent in determining the winner of the IOC vote.