POSTED: May 19th 2011
NewsUpdate
PyeongChang 2018 buoyant with Yu-Na Kim in Lausanne
LAURA WALDEN in Lausanne / Sports Features Communications
LAUSANNE, May 19: The PyeongChang 2018 bid received a major boost with the participation of superstar Korean figure skater Yu-Na Kim taking place in the presentations to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) members.
Talking with the bid team following their question and answer session with the IOC members the mood was super charged about the ‘New Horizons’ vision that they presented at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
Korea’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Sung-Hwan Kim, said, “We did a great job and answered all their questions. I am confident that this time that we will have a good result here today.
“We promised to build a year-round resort that would serve as the centre of our Winter Games Plan. In September 2010, with an investment of 1.4 billion US dollars, we opened the Alpensia resort, the heart of the Alpensia mountain cluster,” he added.
When asked if the IOC members had raised the question of the situation about North Korea he replied, “There was no question about that. IOC members are comfortable about this and did not ask questions.”
Korean president Myung Bak Lee sent a video message to everyone also confirming total government support.
Yu-Na Kim said, “I have Olympic experience and I hope that all the young people who will participate in the Olympics in 2018 will be inspired to come to PyeongChang.”
When asked about fellow colleague Katarina Witt who is chair of the Munich bid she said, “First of all I am honored to be here with Katarina Witt. She is the role model for all figure skaters in the world so I am honored to be here with her. I think it is very interesting that two figure skaters are representing bid cities.”
Bid chairman Yang Ho Cho reaffirmed the public support for the plan, “We explained that our bid is a national priority and also gave a detailed presentation of our compact Games plan and the amazing level of public support, as shown by the IOC’s poll of 92% of PyeongChang’s citizens supporting the bid.”
Joining them were IOC member and head of Samsung, Kun-Hee Lee, gold medalllist and IOC member, Dae-Seong Moon, head of the Korean NOC, Yong Sung Park, PyeongChang director of planning, Byungnam Lee and Theresa Rah in charge of communications for the bid.
This key briefing for the IOC members has been a very successful appointment in the overall bid campaign calendar.
PyeongChang is running against Munich and Annecy to host the winter Olympics of 2018. The final vote will be held in Durban, South Africa in just 48 days away.
Keywords · PyeongChang 2018 · Yu-Na Kim · Sung-Hwan Kim
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.
