POSTED: April 21st 2010
InDepth
Kim hopes it will all be downhill for Gangwon's 2018 Olympic dream
KEIR RADNEDGE / Sports Features Communications
LONDON/SEOUL: Kim Jin-sun enjoys family skiing breaks and he is also Governor of South Korea’s Gangwon Province. Now he is combining both his personal and professional ‘lives’ as co-chairman of the bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2018.
If PyeongChang succeeds it will not be for want of trying. This is the third attempt after the resort lost out to Vancouver for 2010 and to Sochi for 2014.
Kim says: “I enjoy snow sports like skiing with my family from time and time and I have had a lifelong dedication to winter sports development in my country. Bringing the Winter Games here has become something of an obsession for me.”
Born and raised locally, Kim served as mayor of the cities of Gangneung and Bucheon as well as vice-governor for administrative affairs. He was elected governor of Gangwon province in 1998 and re-elected in 2002 and 2006.
Personal credentials
Now also president of the national Governors' Association, he can also point to personal credentials in the field of environment issues after having received the Green Award for Public Officials in 2000 from the Korean Federation for Environmental Movement.
All this has broadened his command of the multiple factors essential to a winning bid.
He says: “Already we welcome huge numbers of tourists every year including around 500,000 in the winter season - and not all of them from the Asian region either. This is one of the reasons we know this region has great potential to develop into one of the main winter sports destinations - and then, of course, why it's so suitable for the Winter Games."
Kim believes all the facts and stats justify his confidence finally in being able to persuade the International Olympic Committee to put its faith in PyeongChang at the third time of asking.
He says: “Seoul airport is within two and a half hours and work is already under way on an integrated transport network of expressways, national highways and high-speed railways."
Reassurance
Gangwon's organizing expertise, on view over more than a decade now, is another factor of reassurance for Kim and his team. The province staged the 1999 Asian Winter Games and continues to host a wide range of international winter events in disciplines such as speed-skating, alpine skiing, snowboarding, biathlon and ski-jumping.
Kim says: "We know that what is important is not only what we have shown in the past but what the future holds. We know how important that is to the Olympic movement and we think we can fulfil that legacy.
"For example, in 2004 we first organized a winter sports experience project which we called the Dream Program and so far we have invited more than 800 young people from more than 40 countries to participate.
“We think that is meaningful contribution to the worldwide advancement of winter sports and demonstrates our commitment, above and beyond the practicalities of Games organisation, to the movement’s core ideals."
Keywords · Gangwon Province · Kim Jin-sun · PyeongChang 2018 · olympic bids
For more information contact:
Laura Walden ()
All original materials contained in this section are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Sports Features Communications, Inc the owner of that content. It is prohibited to alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.
