South Korea to hold all Olympics-2018 events on its territory
ՍպորտAll competition events as part of the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are due to be held in South Korea as planned, the president of the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee confirmed on Friday.
Cho Yang Ho has ruled out earlier proposals that South Korea could move the competitions in sledging, bobsleigh and skeleton to Nagano, Japan. He said “for now it is our wish to have all events staged in PyeongChang, Gangneung and Jeongseon as per our original bid plan accepted by the IOC.”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board meeting in Monaco earlier this week approved a new format for the bidding process of cities wishing to host the Olympic Games, thus allowing them to hold some events in neighboring countries.
Shortly after the adoption of the Olympic Agenda 2020, IOC President Thomas Bach said the IOC planned to meet with the PyeongChang Organizing Committee to discuss the possibility for South Korea of sharing some of the events with another country.
Cho acknowledged that the recently approved "Olympic Agenda 2020" offer is “an effective and progressive opportunity for the future of the Olympic Movement,” but said it would be “difficult to apply those recommendations to our plans at this stage, given that construction for all competition venues is already in progress.”
“We do not have much time, considering test events beginning in February 2016. We are developing solid legacy plans for post-Games use of the venues, as well as measures to control costs, and will continue to work on Games preparations in close cooperation with the IOC,” Cho said.