PyeongChang Olympics test events kick off amidst doubts

By Baek Byung-yeul

Dozens of test events ahead of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics are scheduled for a six-month stretch starting with Friday’s snowboard world cup.

PyeongChang already hosted four test events last February and a total of 26 test events will be held until April of next year. Test events are a final rehearsal to smooth out operations ahead of the Winter Olympics. POCOG said 5,500 athletes and delegation members from 90 countries, 4,500 press corps members and 2,200 volunteers will participate in the series of events.The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) announced the Olympic host city will stage the FIS Snowboard World Cup 2016/17. which will be held at Alpensia Ski Jumping Centre this Friday and Saturday.

The FIS Snowboard World Cup features 156 athletes and delegation members from 23 countries. Among the six snowboarding events, this week’s world cup focuses on the big air event, in which competitors perform complex tricks such as 1080, backside 1440 and double corks in the air. The PyeongChang Games will be the first Olympics to offer this event.

The big air competition also provides a rare opportunity to enjoy performances of top snowboarders. Among them are 22-year-old Canadian Mark McMorris, back-to-back gold medalist at the 2012 and 2013 Winter X Games in the slope-style event; Finnish snowboarder Roope Tonteri who won the slope-style and big air at the 2013 FIS Snowboarding World Championships; and Jamie Anderson of the United States, gold medalist in women’s slope-style snowboarding at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Korea also fields five snowboarders, four in the men’s event and one in the women’s.

Doubt over success of test events

POCOG said it expects some 70,000 spectators will visit the host city during the final rehearsal period but there have been concerns over whether the test events can be successfully staged as the whole nation is in chaos over the influence-peddling scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye’s longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil. The country’s first-ever Winter Olympics was recently tainted by suspicions that Choi and her niece Chang Si-ho pocketed profits in the Olympic preparations.

The big air snowboarding event enjoys a high reservation rate of 81 percent because tickets are available at no cost, but people have shown less interest in the other events. It is known that paid admissions for December’s short track speed skating event and February’s figure skating event have only accounted for about 10 percent of ticket sales.

Despite POCOG’s intensive promotion efforts, the PyeongChang Winter Games still suffer poor name recognition as well.

The AFP reported Tuesday that the host city is “facing the uncomfortable truth that it is a place not many people have heard of.”

Citing an example that a Kenyan delegate to a U.N. conference held in PyeongChang in 2014 mistakenly flew to Pyongyang, the agency added people around the world can be confused with the North Korean capital.