(ATR) The PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics are now 500 days away as Korean organizers transition into the operational phase with a jam-packed schedule of critical test events ahead this winter.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach visited the organizers last week coinciding with the milestone and advised to "keep the enthusiasm, keep the energy" as preparations continue.
"Now, it is not planning – it is the implementing period," Bach said, according to a PyeongChang 2018 spokesperson. "You will see your work in reality every day."
Bach met with new POCOG president Hee-Beom Lee along with a delegation of six IOC representatives, including coordination commission chair Gunilla Lindberg and Olympic Games executive director Christophe Dubi.
The delegation also visited the Alpensia mountain cluster and Gangneung coastal cluster, along with non-competition venues such as the IBC, Olympic Plaza and the Olympic Village.
"President Bach was very satisfied with the venue preparations. He repeatedly said ‘Great. Great. It is amazing here’," the spokesperson told Around the Rings.
PyeongChang 2018 said construction of six new venues for the Games was 88-percent complete as of Sep. 23. The other six venues still need refurbishing.
However, issues and challenges lie ahead. The bobsleigh and luge track in Alpensia has yet to be certified as a result of technical problems last winter. Lugers traveled to PyeongChang but were unable to slide as the venue’s refrigeration plant was unable to produce sufficient ice on the track.
"We will do our best to have pre-homologation in October," POCOG president Hee-Beom Lee told ATRin Rio, referring to the official IF certification process. "We already had a detailed discussion with the federations this past week," he said referring to the luge and bobsleigh/skeleton federations.
With the assistance of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), Lee must try and convince the National Hockey League to once again shut its season down and send its stars to Korea in February 2018. The elite North American league and its players association now have bargaining power against the IOC as its ongoing World Cup of Hockey has satisfied an appetite for best-on-best international hockey.
More than 20 test events are slated between November and April including the homologation of the sliding track. The next official test event is the FIS Snowboard World Cup on Nov. 25-26. The first test event of 2017 will be the FIS Far East Cup, where regional slalom and giant slalom racers will compete on the slopes of YongPyong Resort – a venue which has previously hosted FIS World Cup competitions.
"We already had two test events that were successful and we’ll use these as the last check point for our Games," Lee said. "Starting in November, we will have a big year of test events.
"We’re confident to say all operations are on track – they are on schedule and on target," said the Korean Olympic leader.
In terms of infrastructure and travel, the high speed railway connecting Seoul and PyeongChang is expected to be completed in June 2017, reducing travel time between Seoul and PyeongChang from three hours to an hour and Incheon International Airport and PyeongChang from 3.5 hours to less than 2 hours.
Additionally, Korea’s second Youngdong Expressway is also planned to be ready come June.
Lee says the next Winter Olympics will become known as the "Peace Games".
"Korea will open doors to all countries, also to North Korea and the rest of the world – it will be the ‘Peace Olympics,’’ Lee told reporters in Rio.
Lee and PyeongChang 2018 organizers also claim the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will promote Korean traditional culture, seek to protect the environment, strengthen bonds between countries, serve the economy, and showcase Korea's advanced IT services and high tech capabilities, all delivered in a ‘barrier free’ environment.
The PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games are Feb. 9-25, 2018.
Written by Brian Pinelli
For general comments or questions,click here.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Últimas Noticias
Utah’s Olympic venues an integral part of the equation as Salt Lake City seeks a Winter Games encore
Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation chief of sport development Luke Bodensteiner says there is a “real urgency to make this happen in 2030”. He discusses the mission of the non-profit organization, the legacy from the 2002 Winter Games and future ambitions.
IOC president tells Olympic Movement “we will again have safe and secure Olympic Games” in Beijing
Thomas Bach, in an open letter on Friday, also thanked stakeholders for their “unprecedented” efforts to make Tokyo 2020 a success despite the pandemic.
Boxing’s place in the Olympics remains in peril as IOC still unhappy with the state of AIBA’s reform efforts
The IOC says issues concerning governance, finance, and refereeing and judging must be sorted out to its satisfaction. AIBA says it’s confident that will happen and the federation will be reinstated.
IOC president details Olympic community efforts to get Afghans out of danger after Taliban return to power
Thomas Bach says the Afghanistan NOC remains under IOC recognition, noting that the current leadership was democratically elected in 2019. But he says the IOC will be monitoring what happens in the future. The story had been revealed on August 31 in an article by Miguel Hernandez in Around the Rings
North Korea suspended by IOC for failing to participate in Tokyo though its athletes could still take part in Beijing 2022
Playbooks for Beijing 2022 will ”most likely” be released in October, according to IOC President Thomas Bach.
