Summer in South America, winter in South Korea

[July 07, 2011]  DURBAN, South Africa (AP) -- First South America, now South Korea. The Olympics will be breaking ground again when Pyeongchang hosts the 2018 Winter Games.

After a decade of trying and two painful defeats, the South Korean city finally won its Olympic prize Wednesday, crushing two European rivals in a landslide vote for the 2018 Games and taking the event to the Asian country for the first time.

Pyeongchang's overwhelming victory in a secret ballot of IOC members was a resounding endorsement of the bid campaign pledge to expose winter sports to a hungry new market in Asia.

The victory followed the IOC's trend in recent votes, having taken the Winter Games to Russia (Sochi) for the first time in 2014 and given South America its first Olympics with the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

"I didn't expect a victory in the first round, frankly speaking," IOC President Jacques Rogge said. "I thought there would be at least two rounds. But well done, I mean the best one has won convincingly.

"I think it is combination of two factors. To reward the perseverance and patience. The fact they (Pyeongchang) showed the vision that they wanted to introduce winter sports in Asia has also played a role."

The Koreans lost narrowly in the final round of voting for 2010 and 2014, but this time they trounced bids from Munich and Annecy, France, by a one-sided margin that few had expected.

Pyeongchang stayed strong with its belief that the IOC would listen to its call for the Winter Olympics to go to Asia for just the third time.

Only two of 21 previous Winter Games have been in Asia after Japan hosted the event in Sapporo in 1972 and again in Nagano in 1998.

"I believe that all the IOC members understood our message," Pyeongchang bid leader Cho Yang-ho said. "They understood it was right time, right place, right now."

Needing 48 votes for victory, Pyeongchang received a massive 63 of the 95 votes cast in the first round of the secret ballot in Durban. Munich received 25 and Annecy seven.

"Rio and us have shown other developing countries that with a good bid and a good campaign they can host games, too," Korean Olympic Committee President Park Yong-sung said. "It's a great chance for developing countries to take hope to organize either the Winter Games or Summer Games in the future."

Under the slogan "New Horizons," Pyeongchang hammered home the theme that it deserved to win on a third try by offering the potential of spreading the Olympics and becoming a new hub for winter sports in the region.

The Pyeongchang team -- led by South Korea President Lee Myung-bak -- hit all the right notes in its final presentation before the vote, combining emotion and humor with its solid technical bid plans.

Kim Jin-sun, the former governor of Gangwon Province, pleaded with IOC members to give his country its chance after Pyeongchang failed with successive bids for the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics.

His voice choking and eyes welling with tears, Kim encapsulated Pyeongchang's longing when he said it was his destiny to stand before the IOC for a third time and "humbly ask" them for the chance to host the games.

"They nailed the message, absolutely," IOC executive board member Craig Reedie said. "Nobody was in any doubt about what it was all about. I just think it's a sense of fairness (awarding the games to Pyeongchang)."

[Associated Press; By GERALD IMRAY]

AP Sports Writer Stephen Wilson contributed to this report.

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