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South Korea thinks big for 2012 bid

"What is the Olympics? It's about promoting peace and love for humanity."

Kim Jin-sun, chief executive of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics bid committee

Today, the bumpy dirt roads of this Korean farming town are lined by potato patches and steep hills. But local officials envisage a future that will put Pyeongchang on the world map.

Here, they will build South Korea's first ski jumping stadium, four new ice rinks and three other winter sports facilities -- all within an hour's drive of each other.

For now these grand plans, which came with a US$852 million price tag, remain on the drawing board.

The project all depends on whether Pyeongchang wins Wednesday's vote for the 2010 Winter Olympics. The Koreans are competing against Vancouver, British Columbia, and Salzburg, Austria.

The International Olympic Committee will select the winner by secret ballot at its general assembly in Prague, Czech Republic.

For Pyeongchang, considered the outsider in the race, tensions over North Korea's alleged development of nuclear weapons could be a handicap.

Yet bid organizers see tensions on the Korean Peninsula as their biggest selling point.

"What is the Olympics? It's about promoting peace and love for humanity," said Kim Jin-sun, chief executive of the Pyeongchang bid committee and governor of Gangwon Province, which includes Pyeongchang, 160km east of Seoul.

Kim said bringing the games to Korea would help build peace on the world's last remaining Cold War border and foster the "Olympic spirit."

Local organizers describe a Pyeongchang Olympics as "Games of Purity and Peace for All."

"Winter Games in Pyeongchang will promote inter-Korean reconciliation, cooperation and peace," Kim said. "That's what makes Pyeongchang different."

Despite nuclear tensions, North Korea remains open for joint projects with South Korea and has promised to consider a joint Korean team for next year's Summer Games in Athens, and the 2010 Winter Games if Pyeongchang wins.

Athletes from both Koreas marched together under a single flag for the first time at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. The North sent athletes to a major sporting event in the South for the first time at last year's Asian Games.

Pyeongchang is already vibrating with Olympic hopes. The streets are festooned with colorful banners reading "Don't Forget Peace Valley."

"The games must come to Pyeongchang," said Moon Chang-hwan, a truck driver. Inside the cabin of his dust-coated dump truck, Moon hung a large red banner: "Yes! Pyeongchang."

"I drive around the nation. People will see this and give more support," he said, giving a thumbs-up.

South Korea's central government has promised full support for Pyeongchang and plans to invest US$2.3 billion to build railways linking all venues if the bid is successful.

The games would be spread around six major locations.

Opening and closing ceremonies would be at the planned 50,000-seat ski jumping stadium near Yongpyong Dragon Valley Ski Resort. The resort first introduced ski lifts to South Korea in 1974 and turned an obscure potato-growing region into South Korea's haven for winter sports.

The slalom and giant slalom races would be held on Yongpyong's highest piste -- the Rainbow Slope atop the 1,485m Barwang Mountain.

The bid committee plans to build a new slope in Jungbong, west of Yongpyong, for downhill races.
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