Just hours before the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announces its short list for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, PyeongChang 2014 bid chairman Seung-soo Han said, “we expect the IOC to deliver us good news on 22nd June and also will respect the decision by the IOC”.
He added, “we did best to answer the IOC Questionnaire with help from experts in various fields and offered the best possible dossier to the IOC”.
Gangwon Provincial Governor Jin-sun Kim, Executive President of the bid committee said, “we have been carrying forward not only with all of plans for improving our infrastructure including venue facilities and the transportation network, but also with our projects to promote winter sports, including the Dream Program, one of our commitment to the IOC”.
Kim added “…we will take the lead in promoting winter sports around the world as well as spreading the Olympic Movement if PyeongChang is honoured as a Candidate City”.
PyeongChang 2014’s bid chairman and Director General for International Relations Gang-ro Yoon will represent PyeongChang 2014 at the IOC announcement in Lausanne.
If Jaca is awarded the 2014 Winter Games the city will hold the event between January 31 and February 16, 2014.
Jaca 2014’s dossier has been changed and now Zaragoza will be the main venue for the ice sports and the city of Huesca will accommodate the athletes and visitors to the Games.
Zaragoza is 140 km from Jaca and the bid committee hopes to convince the IOC and its President Jacques Rogge that Zaragoza is only 45 minutes from Jaca by rail. Also Expo 2008 is being held in Zaragoza and Jaca would likely use Zaragoza’s facilities and benefit from its international exposure.
Meanwhile Sochi’s Mayor Viktor Kolodyazhny attended a ceremonial groundbreaking to mark the beginning of construction on a new highway, one of the projects in the Federal Target Program (FTP) for the development of Sochi 2006-2014.
The program, formally approved less than two weeks ago and spearheaded by the Russian government, serves as the foundation of Sochi’s 2014 bid and commits public and private funding for the 2014 Winter Games.
