On Feb. 10, the temperature plunged to minus 8 C in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do Province, one of the three host cities for next year’s PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, which are just under one year away.
The freezing weather, however, couldn’t stop preparations for the upcoming global winter sports festival from making headway. Constructors soaked in sweat against the biting winds showed in silence that the preparations are making steady progress to make the Olympic Games as safe and successful as possible.
On Feb. 10, non-Korean media reports on preparations for next February’s PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, as they visit a venue that will host both the opening and closing ceremonies in the host city of Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do Province, currently under construction, despite a biting cold snap.
Construction progress has received heavy media coverage from non-Korean journalists and broadcasters. A total of 47 media people from 27 news outlets based in the U.S., Canada, Britain, France, Russia, Austria, Japan and China have visited construction sites in Pyeongchang, such as the site for the opening and closing ceremonies and the athletes’ village.
The group first visited the construction site for the Pyeongchang Olympic Plaza, a venue that will host a fanfare to mark the start of the sporting festival in exactly 364 days, and also the closing ceremony on Feb. 25, 2018. The venue is the size of roughly 30 soccer fields, with a capacity of more than 36,000 spectators. Construction is currently almost 40 percent complete and is expected to be completed by the end of September this year.
Journalists and broadcasters from non-Korean news networks listen as a representative from the PyeongChang Organizing Committee explains construction progress for the athletes’ village, in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do Province, on Feb. 10. The athletes’ village will be home to eight 15-storied apartment buildings with a capacity of approximately 3,900 Olympians, their coaches and sports representatives.
At another construction site, where Olympians, their coaches and sports representatives from around the world will stay during the Olympic Games next year, there were busy activities of machinery and constructors.
The athletes’ village, nestled in Daegwallyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang, will house a total of eight apartment buildings, all 15-stories, with a total area of 87,276 square meters. The lodging quarters are designed to accommodate about 3,900 people. This village is located right next to the Yongpyong Dome at the Yongpyong Resort, a venue for the Special Olympics World Winter Games PyeongChang in 2013. This dome, meanwhile, will be used, too, as a cafeteria for Olympians during next year’s games.
The Pyeongchang housing facility will be just a 10-minute drive from the Alpensia and Yongpyong resorts, two main venues that will host skiing and sledding events. After the Olympic Games, the apartments will be occupied by civilians and all the units have already been sold.
“The buildings are more than 50 percent complete as of now. We expect construction to be finished by the end of the year,” said a representative from the PyeongChang Organizing Committee.
By Sohn JiAe
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: Jeon Han Korea.net Photographer
jiae5853@korea.kr
Camera crews from non-Korean news networks shoot the snowscape, as well as the Alpensia Sliding Centre, unfolding below them from atop the Alpensia Ski Jumping Center on Feb. 10.
