By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter



After a flurry of heated battles, Pyongchang in Kangwon Province was selected over Muju in North Cholla Province as the South Korean bid to apply to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) on Thursday held a standing committee at the Taenung Training Center to confirm the recently released International Ski Federation (FIS) report on Muju ski courses, and announced that it unanimously chose Pyongchang as the Korean bid. The committee meeting was originally scheduled on Tuesday but was canceled that day due to an intense rally by Muju officials.

With the result, the committee will present the conclusion to the KOC general assembly set on Dec. 29 for the decision to be officially endorsed. Pyongchang will be able to submit an application to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) next summer for the first step of the bidding process.

The sport-governing organization noted that the agreement between the two provinces stating that North Cholla would vie for the 2014 Games no longer holds since its courses failed to meet the global standard to host an international event of that size.

It also remarked that it decided to bring the issue to an end now since it is much more desirable to focus its capacity on promoting one place instead of going on with exhausting and inefficient debates.

Earlier, FIS sent its official report to the KOC on Dec. 14 after conducting field assessments in September and November, concluding that ``it cannot support the construction of new race courses in Muju for technical and environmental reasons.’’

Pyongchang, a county some 160 kilometers east of Seoul, won the domestic competition against Muju, but lost the final vote to decide the host city for the 2010 Games to Vancouver, Canada, at the IOC meeting in July 2003. However, it impressed the international sporting community by outnumbering Vancouver in the first voting.

Several European cities, such as Annecy or Grenoble, France; Salzburg or Innsbruck, Austria; Sofia, Bulgaria and Oestersund, Sweden have already made formal announcements to compete for hosting the 2014 event. Other cities, such as Jaca, Spain and Lake Tahoe in the United States are also reported to be considering joining the competition.

Cities including Munich, Germany; Tromsoe, Norway and Zurich, Switzerland have recently withdrawn from the bidding.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr