As South Korea closes in on its one-year countdown to the 2018 Winter Olympics, the Game’s
organizers look to focus attention on the country's first Olympics in 30 years.
Chairman Lee, it seems like it was just yesterday that the entire country burst into tears hearing
Jacques Rogge call out PyeongChang as the the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games
in Durban.
I was there myself bringing a live coverage of that.
Now, the winter games are just one year away.
Although no Olympic Games have ever been immune from certain controversies but the ongoing
political scandal in this country appears to have affected preparations for the Games.
As PyeongChang closes in on the one-year countdown this month, how confident are you in the preparation
work?
You're right.
It feels like yesterday that IOC President Jacques Rogge called out '2018, PyeongChang
' and we cried tears of joy.
But now we're just a year away.
We're in charge of 12 sports venues.
Six were built from scratch and the rest are refurbished.
All of them are immaculate.
As for the rest, the broadcast center will be handed over to Olympic Broadcasting Services
on May 15th.
The Olympic Stadium will also be completed by September, and the Olympic Village by the
end of the year.
The physical facilities are all on schedule.
Attention on the scandal has made it hard to drum up public interest, both global and
domestic, in the Games and companies which had committed to sponsorship have postponed
signing the deal.
What kind of plans do we have in the works to pitch up global interest in Korea?
It's true that the recent political scandals have caused some trouble for the PyeongChang
Olympics.
But on February 9th there will be a special ceremony to start the one-year countdown.
And on February 11th, when we in Korea celebrate the first full moon of the new lunar year,
there will be a huge fireworks display.
You could really say the Olympic Games have already begun.
What would you say sets the upcoming PyeongChang Winter Olympics apart from all the other Witner
Games in the past?
The IOC President said recently that sports have the power to unite the peoples of the
world.
Thirty years ago, when we hosted the '88 Seoul Olympics, it was a chance for our country
to reach out to the world.
And in 2002, when we hosted the World Cup, you remember the Korean Red Devils who sang,
'Oh Daehanminguk '
When you say 'Daehanminguk', or 'Republic of Korea,' we think of that chant.
At the Rio Olympics where I took part in the torch relay, whenever I told Brazilians that
I'm from Korea, they would immediately sing it to me.
That's how much power sports have to unite the world.
And that's what the PyeongChang Olympics will do as well.
What would POCOG, the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the Winter Olympic Games, like
to have achieved by the end of the February next year?
What is your definition or what do you think is Korea's definition of a successful Winter
Olympic Games?
Winter sports until now have been mostly European.
It was mostly European countries that hosted the games.
But after PyeongChang, it'll be Beijing that hosts the 2022 Winter Olympics.
So now that Korea, Beijing, and previously Japan, have all hosted the Winter Games, winter
sports will go from being a European event to an Asian one.
After PyeongChang has hosted the Winter Games, people from China, Japan, and Southeast Asia
will come to PyeongChang for winter sports, and PyeongChang will be a city that people
want to return to again and again.
The PyeongChang Games will be an Olympics of culture and IT, through which we will showcase
traditional Korean culture and our cutting-edge technology.
When athletes and the Olympic family arrive at Incheon International Airport, there will
be a robot to greet them, saying 'Welcome to Korea '
They'll have access to 5G Internet, it'll be broadcast in UHD.
It will really be a state-of-the-art Olympics.