PyeongChang test event to kick off this weekend

Korea’s Kim Hyeon-tae skis during a training run for a test event for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics at the Jeongseon Alpine Center in Jeongseon, South Korea, Wednesday. / Yonhap

2018 Games in ‘operational phase’ says chief organizer

By Nam Hyun-woo

The International Ski Federation’s (FIS) Alpine Skiing World Cup, the first test event for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, will be held Feb. 6 and 7 at the Jeongseon Alpine Center, a venue for the upcoming Winter Games.

During the Lunar New Year long weekend, the newly built Olympic alpine course will host the men’s downhill race on Saturday and men’s super-G race on Sunday, with 58 top skiers and 137 officials from 16 countries, according to the organizing committee for the World Cup races.

The races will be the first official competition at the venue in Jeongseon County, Gangwon Province, and the first of 28 Olympic and Paralympic test events scheduled ahead of 2018.

“We made many promises to the international sport community when we bid to host the 2018 Games,” said PyeongChang Olympics chief organizer Cho Yang-ho during a press conference in Seoul Wednesday. “We are now fulfilling these promises, and our first World Cup, also the first of 28 test events, will be the highlight of our passion for winter sports.”

According to the race organizers, most of whom are also PyeongChang organizers, nine out of the top 10 downhill skiers on the FIS downhill leader board this season will be in action at Jeongseon.

PyeongChang chief organizer Cho Yang-ho speaks during a press conference in Seoul, Wednesday. / Yonhap

Among the skiers is world’s no.2 Peter Fill of Italy. He claimed his latest win at a tough World Cup downhill race in Kitzbuhel, Austria, on Jan. 23 and bagged a bronze medal at the 2011 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships men’s super combined event. Following him is Adrian Theaux of France, who won a downhill World Cup race in Santa Caterina di Valfurva, Italy on Dec. 29.

The only absentee among the top 10 downhill skiers is Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who crashed in Kitzbuhel and suffered a torn cruciate ligament, which ended his season. The Norwegian leads the world’s super-G rankings.

Sunday’s super-G competition will feature plenty of Olympic stars. Super-G no.2 Andrew Weibrecht of the United States is leading eight of top 10 super-G athletes who will be on the Jeongseon slope. The American was the silver medalist at the Sochi Olympics men’s super-G and collected the bronze medal four years earlier in the Vancouver Games. No.3 Kjetil Jansrud of Norway collected a gold medal in super-G and bronze in downhill at Sochi and currently boasts 12 FIS World Cup wins.

Marcel Hirscher of Austria, the overall points leader who's sitting at no.10 on the super-G rankings, will also race in Jeongseon. Hirscher has won 36 FIS World Cup races and collected four FIS Alpine World Ski Championships titles.

Kim Hyeon-tae will be the sole skier representing the host country. Kim initially was not a preliminary entry, but qualified after he collected enough FIS points last month.

During the press conference, Cho stressed the significance of the test events, a tool to evaluate their ability to stage international competitions.

“We have moved from the planning phase of the Games to operational phase and with two years to the Games,” Cho said.

He said one of the issues that the organizers currently are focusing on is coming up with snow contingency plans in case inclement weather hampers events relying on snow. A number of FIS events have been canceled due to the lack of snow and the PyeongChang organizers also have experienced setbacks in snowmaking at the Jeongseon course.

“I agree that that (warm weather condition) may hamper us in two years,” Cho said. “Therefore, we will make sure our snowmaking capacity will be at 120 percent, as well as study snow storage systems which were used in the Sochi and Vancouver Olympics,” Cho said.

Ahead of the races, Gangwon Province, where the host county of PyeongChang and sub-hosts of Gangneung and Jeongseon are located, will hold an Olympic-themed festival Thursday to mark a two-year countdown to the Games and “boom up” public awareness of the world event. However, the plan caused friction between the International Olympic Committee (IOC), PyeongChang organizers and Gangwon Province.

Gangwon Province used the name “Olympics Festival,” and planned to operate booths selling the region’s traditional foods and goods. However, the IOC deems this as “ambush marketing” and rejected the use of “Olympics” for the event’s name, as it could devalue the exclusive sponsorship rights that the IOC sold to other companies and even infringe the trademark.

Lacking time to scrap the plan and with Gangwon Province clinging to the event, claiming its necessity, the IOC reportedly allowed it to use the name only this time and asked the PyeongChang organizers to closely monitor activities during the festival. “We are deeply regretful about that,” said Cho adding that PyeongChang organizers have issued warnings to the provincial government.