Korean town's quiet Olympic bid

PYEONGCHANG, Gangwon - Yongpyong Resort has more snow than people this recent weekday, something rare. Children taking ski lessons are scattered around the resort's giant clock tower, made of skis. Snowboarders are cruising the half-pipe located between the two slopes facing the resort's main hotel. More advanced skiers dot the white slopes beyond.

All in all, a few hundred people can be found this day around the resort's slopes. That's a far cry from the several thousands that some people envision here in eight years.

Yongpyong Resort is the main stage for Pyeongchang's plan to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. After the Salt Lake City Games end Sunday, the next Winter Games, in 2006, will be held in Turin, Italy. Pyeongchang is one of eight cities that turned in official applications to host the XXI Winter Olympics. Several ski resorts surround Pyeongchang, including three major ones where the Olympic events are being proposed to take place. The city is located close to Korea's eastern coast and to Mount Seorak, both major tourist sites.

Banners promoting Pyeongchang's Olympic dream hang in the ski resort and across the community's main streets. Shin Geon-ho apparently didn't see those banners on his way in to ski this day. The college student from Seoul came for a day of snowboarding with his friends at Yongpyong Resort. He had not known about Pyeongchang's plan to host the Winter Olympics. "Pyeongchang's got zero chance," Mr. Shin predicted before hopping off to to a chairlift.

Word about the Winter Olympics in Gangwon province was also news to Lee In-suk from Anyang in Gyeonggi province. She shrugged, laughed and said, "I'm worried enough about how we're going to pull through the World Cup."

Kim Yang-yung is more discreet in his evaluation of Pyeongchang's prospects. Still an avid skier in his 60s, he has been to most of the ski resorts in Korea and several outside the country, including one in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is also vying to hold the 2010 Winter Games. Mr. Kim did not hesitate to call Yongpyong Resort the "best resort in the country." He comes to Yongpyong five times a week from Bundang, three hours away by bus. Even he was skeptical of the resort's capability of hosting the Olympics. "Well, the resort's Rainbow trail is fine even by international standards, but the resort falls short in service and other facilities."

People in Pyeongchang, on the other hand, couldn't feel surer of their passion to host the games. "We are ready in spirit," proclaimed Lee Jun-yeon, director of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Bidding Committee.

"An Asian candidate city should get the Winter Olympics in 2010 after Utah and Europe," added Ed Choe, Mr. Lee's friend and a reporter at the Gangneung branch of MBC.

One of Pyeongchang's strong suits in its bid is the city's willingness to get North Korea to host a few of the Olympic events. Gangwon is one of the two provinces on the Korean Peninsula to be divided by the Demilitarized Zone.

"If North Korea agrees, it would mean at least eight years of peace guaranteed on the peninsula until 2010, wouldn't it?" Mr. Choe reasoned. "We would be providing the North with a talk channel and a way out of the 'axis of evil'."

North Korea has yet to show any reaction to the proposal, however, and Pyeongchang has yet to be called an official candidate.

The other seven applicant cities are Andorra La Vella (Andorra), Bern (Switzerland), Harbin (China), Jaca (Spain), Salzburg (Austria), Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Vancouver (Canada). In May the cities must show that they meet the minimum requirements of organizational capacity. A short list announced in August after that process become official candidates. Those cities will then go through evaluation procedures for the IOC's final decision, which will come in a vote in Prague in July 2003.

Pyeongchang faces a fierce financial test. The local committee here needs 244 billion won ($184 million) to build five new facilities and renovate older ones. The committee hopes to get that money from the government, local taxes and private capital. But Pyeongchang has yet to finalize its figure - and its venues.

Curiously, Pyeongchang's biggest test may come from competition within Korea. Pyeongchang will be the official bidding city for the games, but it is sharing some of the events with three cities in North Jeolla province.

In November, the Korean Olympic Committee decided to get Gangwon and North Jeolla province to jointly bid for the 2010 Games. This decision elicited fierce opposition from both sides. Protests demanding that the KOC choose one side - their side - led to the KOC members getting trapped for hours inside their conference room after the decision was announced, besieged by some 100 residents of Gangwon province; to threats of lawsuits from parties in North Jeolla, and to 22 leaders in Pyeongchang shaving their heads in public to protest.

The committee finally voted in January to hand Gangwon the right to name the main host city, while allocating four of the indoor ice events to North Jeolla cities.

North Jeolla's failure to get the KOC vote was due chiefly to its lack of ski slopes that meet international standards. Muju, one of the North Jeolla cities, reacted to the KOC decision by refusing to host any events. The remaining three - Jeonju, Iksan and Wanju - plan to hold ice arena events, including hockey and curling.

Resentment and refusal to cooperate lingers in both regions of Korea. "They should voluntarily give up their events," said Mr. Lee of his would-be co-hosts some 290 kilometers away. "There is no way we can win the IOC votes if the hosting is done in two places this far apart."

Are there any efforts at patching things up?

"Efforts at reconciliation are one thing, getting the IOC vote is another," Mr. Lee said. "Right now, getting the vote is more important than reconciliation, isn't it? And co-hosting with North Jeolla won't get us the vote."

Lee Bong-kang, who works at Yongpyong Resort feels that this co-hosting plan is one reason the rest of Korea is showing scant enthusiasm about this Olympic bidding plan. He and a colleague pointed out that there is nothing about the Olympic bid in the news during these weeks when things should be especially hyped up for the Salt Lake City games.

Residents of North Jeolla province have things to say on their own. "We were the first to announce our plan [to bid for the Winter Olympics] and all of a sudden, they give it to Gangwon," said Han Su-mi, a housewife from Jeonju, voicing a common complaint among her city fellows. Further indignation from North Jeolla might rise with a declaration from Kim Jin-sun, the governor of Gangwon. During a visit to Salt Lake City to promote Pyeongchang's bid, he said he would press for Pyeongchang's sole hosting once he returned to Korea.

Back on the slopes of Yongpyong, Ingrid Funk from Germany muses on the resort's Olympic chances. "Yongpyong's a great resort," she said. "But a great resort's one thing, and a resort to host the Olympics is another."

Pyeongchang's efforts at bidding for the 2010 Winter Olympics seem full of one thing or another.

by Lim Ji-su