 Kim Yu-na, seen in this Oct. 12, 2010 file photo during the Sportswoman of the Year Award ceremony, will make a presentation to IOC members during a Technical Briefing on May 18 in Lausanne, Switzerland. / Korea Times file |
By Yoon Chul
Figure skating star Kim Yu-na will urge all IOC members that PyeongChang is the best bid to host the 2018 Winter Games.
In a Technical Briefing, scheduled for May 18 and 19 at the IOC headquarters in Lausane, Switzerland, Kim will speak instead of Korean bobsleigh pioneer Kang Kwang-bae, sport director of the PyeongChang bid committee.
The 20-year-old Olympic gold medalist will promote the superiority of PyeongChang’s preparations from the view of an athlete.
The IOC members will be able to meet the figure skating star face to face to help make their decision.
It will be also the first official stage on which both Kim and figure skating legend Katarina Witt, who is leading Munich’s bid, will appear.
To the three bid committees of PyeongChang, Munich of Germany and Annecy of France the Technical Briefing is the only official stage to appeal to the 103 IOC members before they vote for the host city for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Durban, South Africa on July 6.
Before the briefing, the IOC members will hear the results of the final inspection of the cities.
The IOC’s Evaluation Commission carried out the on-site inspections from January to February.
As IOC members are prohibited from visiting candidate cities individually, the report of the Evaluation Commission and the presentations at the Technical Briefing will be very important.
The Korean figure skating icon is an ambassador for PyeongChang but she couldn’t afford to spend too much time in the role as she had to prepare the ISU Figure Skating World Championships.
She made the welcoming speech when the AIPS Congress was held in Seoul in March. Kim was also scheduled to take part in the SportAccord Convention in April but was unable to do so because of her return to competing internationally at the ISU Figure Skating World Championships, which had been postponed from March to April due to the massive earthquake and Tsunami in Japan where the event was originally scheduled.
There were originally 111 IOC members but six are from Korea, Germany and France and are not allowed to vote and IOC President Jacques Rogge will not vote either.
Francis Nyangweso of Uganda died in February leaving 103 IOC members eligible to vote.
PyeongChang is taking on the challenge to hold the Winter Games for a third time.
With the slogan “New Horizon,” PyeongChang showed the improvements it has made during the final inspection and Korea hopes to spread winter sports in Asia through the Olympics.
In the IOC Assembly on July 6 if one city gets over 50 percent of the vote it will be selected as the host city. If none of the contenders manage to get over 50, the one with the lowest tally is eliminated and a second round of voting will take place.
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