The International Ski Federation (FIS) has issued an official report stating that North Cholla Province’s Muju region doesn’t meet Olympic standards to become South Korea’s candidate for the 2014 Winter Olympic bid, leaving the Gangwon Province city of Pyeongchang the sole candidate.
According to an official letter to the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) Tuesday, the FIS wrote, “(We) cannot support the construction of new race courses on the terrain of Muju’s South-Kokyu Mountain for technical and environment reasons”.
IFS conducted field assessments on the downhill and super-G ski courses in the area in September and November. The letter said, “the (South Dokyu) mountain has a vertical drop of approximately 750 to 800 metres. Only certain parts of the terrain have the potential to be developed into a competition course”.
The KOC is to hold a standing meeting on December 21 and a general meeting on December 29 to decide the selection of a candidate by the end of the year.
Lee Yoon-jae, Secretary General of the Korea Sports Council, said the FIS is very determined about its decision, and the decision is not likely to be reversed or suspended.
Three years ago there was an agreement between Jeonbruk and Gangwon that Muju would be the bid city for the 2014 Games if Pyeongchang did not win the bid for the 2010 Winter Games, which went to Vancouver Canada. But now the agreement is likely to be nullified.
But there are protests from Jeonbuk provincial authorities. They say, “the inspection conducted by the FIS was about facility standards. But the report only offers tests on environmental effects without any information on facility standards. It is suspicious that there might have been an invisible force behind the inspection. It is unfair that the report cited that only Jeonbuk province was unsuitable for the Games, even though environment damage is inevitable for Gangwon province too if they want to develop their planned descent course in Jungbong on Mt. Gariwang”
Meanwhile reports say Gangwon province is keeping a low profile. Kim Man-ki, publicity manager of Gangwon’s Pyeongchang Winter Games Bid Committee said, “we have remained as an observer in the Muju situation because we didn’t want to break the agreement between the two provinces. We just hope the FIS made a fair and reasonable decision”.
