Test event prep in final stage, says PyeongChang

A snow cannon blasts artificial snow on Jeongseon Alpine Center on Dec. 17, which is scheduled to stage the men’s World Cup downhill and super-G event on Feb. 6-7, the first 2018 PyeongChang Olympics test event. / Courtesy of the PyeongChang Olympics organizing committee

By Nam Hyun-woo

Organizers of the PyeongChang Olympic Games are confident about hosting the first test event for the 2018 Games in February despite some setbacks.

Committee spokesman Sung Baik-you told The Korea Times Sunday that preparations for the test event are in their final stage, stressing that the committee is fully committed to hosting the event as planned.

“It is a promise with the rest of the world,” said Sung. “We are aware that there is not much time and various factors caused a small delay to the initial plan, but personnel in Jeongseon are working day and night to meet the Jan. 20 deadline.”

The remark came after several International Ski Federation (FIS) officials expressed concern over delays in setting up gondolas and other mandatory facilities in Jeongseon Alpine Center, Gangwon Province. The venue plans to stage a men's World Cup downhill and super-G event on Feb. 6-7 as the first of 28 Olympic and Paralympic test events scheduled to run through 2017.

The FIS and the organizing committee agreed to complete the venue by Jan. 20, when a final decision on the races would be made. The organizers said Gangwon Province and an Austrian ropeways maker, Doppelmayr, are working with them on a “tight schedule.”

Organizers said last week the completion rate was around 53 percent, with 60 percent needed to run the races. They say the key remaining parts to be completed include the gondola system and covering the slope with snow.

In the 2,648-meter-long Jeongseon course, four concrete pillars will be erected to serve as middle stations. Due to continued rain in the past two months, the pillars needed reinforcement, which organizers said has been completed. They are now working on assembling parts, with cable installation set to finish on Jan. 6.

For snow, the organizing committee has been operating a snow-making system to create a depth of 1.5 meters. Concerns have been raised over warm weather in the region, but organizers said they are optimistic in meeting the deadline.

The men’s downhill course, designed by Bernhard Russi, chairman of the FIS Alpine Committee and a former downhill Olympic champion from Switzerland, will run 2,648 meters, with a vertical drop of 825 meters. According to the committee, the men’s and women’s courses will be combined for the first time in Winter Games history, in a bid to preserve more forest surrounding the race course.

Following an FIS request, the organizers said they will ready two medical helicopters provided by the Ministry of Defense on the Jeongseon course. Additional helicopters from the Gangwon Province Fire Department will be on standby.

The organizers said they have begun recruiting a short-term and volunteer workforce to run the event. Before the FIS World Cup event, a Far East Cup race is scheduled at the course on Jan. 27-28 as a trial.