Five Strategies for Success of PyeongChang Winter Olympics

The strategies include "New Horizons of Winter Sports"to reach every where in Asia and even Africa

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on July 14 announced five major strategies to make the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics a huge success. The strategies are based on the main theme of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics Bidding Committee presentation in Durban before International Olympic Committee members dedicated to Opening of New Horizons for the winter Olympic sports to spread in Asia and the rest of the world.
In reflection of these visions of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, the ministry plans to legislate a new law and set up the Organizing Committee for the international winter sports event, secure cultural tourism content to create a cultural Olympics, build environment ally friendly infrastructures for a green cultural Olympics, make the Olympics economically successful and all the facilities at the winter Olympics should be built to be used later after the sports event, and put in motion the Drive the Dream II to boost the abilities of the Korean athletes participating in the Olympics and help spread the winter sports. The organizing committee will be set up within three months well before the IOC rules calling for the launch of the committee in five months from the securing hosting rights. The ministry will get the support from other government ministries including the Ministry of Strategy Finance and institutions like the National Assembly, the Gangwon Provincial Administration, and the Korea Olympic Committee as soon as possible and legislate a special law, the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics Support Law to see that the preparations for the international sports event would proceed without a hitch. Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik will regularly hold meetings of the Government Support Committee to check on the progress of the preparations and discuss what the government can do to provide its support and in cooperation.
Second, the ministry will search for various cultural contents to make the Olympics truly a cultural event also and MCST Vice Minister Park Sun-kyu will head the task force whose members would include officials and staff of the ministry's sports, culture and arts, tourism and public relations departments and let the task force work on finding tourism, cultural contents and connect them with the PyeongChang Olympics.
From 2012 to 2018, cultural and arts events will be held from time to time at various cities overseas to introduce Korean traditional culture as well as modern Korean arts. During the PyeongChang Olympics, participating countries will be invited to hold events to introduce their culture and arts through performances and exhibitions to make the winter sports event a festival for the Earth Village and also a space to show off Korean culture and arts internationally.
Third, all the Olympic facilities will get LEED(Leadership in Energy and Environment Design) certificates and expand the use of new and recycled energy to reduce greenhouse gases to make the sports event an environmentally friendly Olympics.
The government will select former athletes as diplomats and promote the idea of New Sports Horizons as promised by the PyeongChang bid committee and develop sports goods and introduce them to Southeast Asia and Africa, even, to expand amateur sports. Fourth, the ministry will try its best to cut expenses by taking advantage of its experiences in holding many international events and develop various tourism commodities related to winter sports and support the training of tourism professionals for the development of the tourism industry during the PyeongChang winter events and also to help the surge of the local economy in the PyeongChang area.
After the PyeongChang Olympics, multipurpose halls, exhibition spaces and citizens sports facilities will be used in diverse ways and the ice hockey rink will be taken apart and rebuilt in Wonju to be used as an ice hockey rink for Halla Winnia and Hi One ice hockey teams.
The ministry eyes to make the PyeongChang event as economically beneficial as possible through an effective operation of various events for maximum generation of economic benefits, including tourism and boosting Korea's international brand image and its fallout overseas.
Fourth and last, the Drive the Dream II, a drive to foster winter sports in Korea taking advantage of the PyeongChang event will be formally pushed as announced by Minister Choung Byoung-gug at the technical briefing by the candidate cities for the 2018 Winter Olympics held in Lausanne, Switzerland, in May. The government is ready to invest 550 billion won by 2018 to enhance the development of the winter sports and their expansion to every corner of the country.
The investments will be used to expand the winter sports facilities around Korea including ice rinks and grass fields along the sports arenas so that the sports fans can enjoy the sports more.
The strategies also include finding a new Kim Yu-na, the Vancouver Winter Olympics woman individual figure staking champion. A multiple training center where figure skaters can train will be built, support scientific skater training including training at figure skating facilities in advanced countries and inviting well-known foreign trainers from overseas to train domestic winter sports athletes. nw

Minister Choung Byoung-gug of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) speaks on a plan to make the 2018 Winter Olympics a success at a news conference in Seoul on July 14.

MCST Minister Choung shakes hands with NewsWorld President and Publisher Elizabeth M. Oh in an event celebrating PyeongChang's winning of the hosting rights for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Photos by NewsWorld