Big plan unveiled for athletes' villages

A conceptual drawing of one of the athletes villages for the 2018 Winter Olympics. / Courtesy of POCOG

By Baek Byung-yeul

The organizing committee for the 2018 Winter Olympics, which will be held in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, unveiled its construction plans and official name for the athletes’ villages, Tuesday.

POGOC Vice President Kwak Young-jin

“With a total construction cost of 322.9 billion won ($288.9 million), a total of 1,224 apartments including 600 in PyeongChang and 624 in Gangneung will be constructed by September of 2017,” Sung Baik-you, spokesman for the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) said at a press conference in central Seoul, Tuesday.

The organizing committee said that the athletes’ villages will officially be called the “PyeongChang Olympic Village” and “Gangneung Olympic Village.” During the 2018 Winter Paralympics scheduled for March 9 to 18, the athletes’ village will be called the “PyeongChang Paralympic Village.”

“We have decided the official title of the athletes’ village in coordination with International Olympic Committee and International Paralympic Committee,” the committee said, adding that the apartments in the two villages will be sold off as either rentals or condominiums after the Games.

Yongpyong Resort will take charge of construction of the PyeongChang Olympic Village while state-run Korea Land and Housing Corporation was selected to construct apartments in Gangneung Olympic Village.

‘Venue construction progresses well’

About 20.5 percent of the six venues for the 2018 Games have been constructed, which will allow the athletes to hold test events next year, POGOC Vice President Kwak Young-jin said during a press call.

“The construction progress is going into orbit. Everything is working as planned. The Alpensia Sliding Center has the highest construction rate of 33 percent among six venues,” Kwak said, adding the construction rate of the sliding center for the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events will go up to 60 percent by the end of this year.

In case of soil erosion during monsoon season, Kwak said diversion channels and grit chambers at 11 locations and a debris barrier have been installed at the construction site of the sliding center.

For 30 households living close by the sliding center, the committee will fully compensate them this month, adding it will complete migration of the residents by October.

Asked why the POGOC is delaying appointing the director for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the vice president answered the committee will announce the person at the beginning of next month at the latest.

“At this moment, I can only say that we are taking a thorough review. We will announce the director for the ceremonies soon,” Kwak said.