South Korea warming up for Winter Games 2018

PYEONGCHANG: South Korea will once again be on the world sports map — as it makes the countdown to PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics Games — 30 years after staging the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul in 1988.
After two failed attempts to host the Winter Games, South Korea has finally made it the third time when the former president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, announced PyeongChang a host of the 2018 Games on July 6, 2011.
South Korea is gearing up to become the fifth nation in the world to host all four major sporting events, including Summer Olympics 1988, FIFA World Cup 2002 and the IAAF World Championship in Athletics in Daegu 2011.
The PyeongChang 2018 Organizing Committee said the Games aims to demonstrate financial balance and achieve marketing goals as well a promote the Korean culture and tourism across the world.
“Our Games once again will put Korea on the world map for sports and tourism,” said Lee Hee-Beom, president and CEO of the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG), speaking to international journalists during a recent visit to the main operations center and sports venues of PyeongChang 2018 on the sidelines of the World Journalist Conference 2017.
He added the Games focuses on promoting peace and hence welcomes everyone around the world “while ensuring complete safety and security for all.” The name of the host city PyeongChang comprises two words “Pyeong” meaning “peace” and “Chang” which stands for “prosperity.”
“Sports have the power to change the world and unite people from different cultures. PyeongChang 2018 will demonstrate the power of spirit and the power of sports; contribute to making the world a better place,” Hee-Beom added.
Athletes from all countries including North Korea will be able to compete in the Games with “no restrictions for any country”, Nancy Park, spokesperson of POCOG told Arab News. She added that if an athlete qualifies to take part in the Games, “they are more than welcome to participate and we will work closely with all National Olympic Committees to ensure that the athletes are well taken care of here in Korea.”
Through hosting the event starting next February, POCOG aims to introduce the Korean culture to the world as well as show off its capabilities in information communication technology (ICT). Every sports venue will host cultural activities.
Hee-Beom pledges the Winter Games will be “different from the previous ones. We are proud that we will focus on the culture of the Games.”
Park told Arab News that in addition to cultural activities various sponsors would showcase their products and technologies. “For example, spectators can experience new cutting edge 5G technologies including virtual realities and robots in one showcasing area.”
As of March 31, 96.8 percent of the six new venues have been completed. Alpensia Sliding Center, where the bobsleigh, skeleton and luge games will be played, and Jeongseon Alpine Center, being built for downhill, super-G, para Alpine skiing and para snowboard competitions, are still works in progress.
The Olympic torch takes a five-angled shape in the middle of the cap, representing the five continents. “Spirits of sports connects races, nations, religions, genders cultures and five continents around the world united with passion,” said Park.
The POCOG expects the main audience of the Games to be Koreans, as well as spectators from Asia particularly China and Japan.
PyeongChang 2018 aims to blur any language barriers to make the Games accessible to people from different nations.
Park told Arab News that POCOG aims to host a “language barrier-free Games” through a simultaneous interpretation device of a free mobile application called ‘Genie Talk’ provided by Hancom Inc. “Genie Talk will provide interpretation in eight languages namely Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, German and Russian.”
South Korea will be the second country in Asia to host the Winter Olympics, next to Japan, which hosted the Games twice (1972 in Sapporo and 1998 in Nagano). China will become the third in 2022.
The Summer Games in 1988 generated a profit of $479 million, the Seoul Olympic Organizing Committee said and also quoted by the Associated Press.
The budget assigned for PyeongChang 2018 has increased from 2.2 trillion Korean won ($1.9 billion) since the bid to 2.8 trillion Korean won ($2.4 billion) to cover the extra sports that have been added to the competitions. The Olympic Games increased from 86 to 102 events.
Winter sports for everyone
Young sports enthusiast from warm countries who wish to experience winter sports can join The Dream Program designed for them in PyeongChang.
Three young participants came from Saudi Arabia out of the 624 participants from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. “We believe that a program like this is part of our vision of New Horizons and our way of developing winter sports around the world. We look forward to continuing to engage the younger generation on this vision in the future,” Park told Arab News.
The initiative introduces winter sports to young people between 11 and 15 years old mainly coming from warm countries where they do not get to experience winter sports and weather for 10 days between January and February. It was launched in 2004 as part of PyeongChang’s 2010 bid. Some 1,919 youths including those with disabilities from 83 countries joined the program.
“Youth from around the world can apply to this program,” she added.