1. Overview of PyeongChang 2018

With the five goals of the Games, namely, Economy, Culture, Environment, Peace and ICT successfully carried out, PyeongChang 2018 was able to showcase to the world by opening “New Horizons” of the future winter sport development as well as the Olympic Movement.

PyeongChang 2018 prepared the Games with twelve competition venues among which six new venues and six existing venues refurbished and improved.

IBC, International Broadcasting Centre, was built in order to accommodate the needs and demands of the OBS, Olympic Broadcasting Services. It customised services for over 80 international broadcasters.

Two respective Olympic Villages and one Media Village were constructed; one for Snow Sports Athletes, another for Ice Sports Athletes, and another for Media. They accommodated 13,445 Olympic participants including athletes and media.

In addition, the accommodation allocation plan with 21,254 rooms was completed for the Games Stakeholders. All in all, one-stop services for members of the delegations in order to support athletes to achieve their best performances in the Field of Play.

For the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the Olympic Stadium with 35,000 seating capacity was built in conjunction with the adjacent Olympic Plaza which showcased “Culture and ICT Pavilion”, Medals Plaza, as well as Olympic Cauldron NOC Houses, and Sponsor Booths, etc.

2. Highlights of PyeongChang 2018

As you are well aware, PyeongChang 2018 was the biggest-ever Winter Olympic Games in history where 2,920 athletes from 92 NOCs participated.

Also, PyeongChang 2018 welcomed six countries –Malaysia, Singapore, Kosovo, Ecuador, Eritrea and Nigeria– that have never participated in Winter Olympics before, thereby, expanding “New Horizons” of winter sports to Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

POCOG ensured full stadia by achieving a slightly over 100% of ticket sales target.

The accumulated number of spectators for PyeongChang 2018 exceeded 1.4 million.

On the occasion of the Lunar New Year holidays, more and more spectators came to see the Games showcasing a nationwide enthusiastic support.

PyeongChang 2018 was successful not only in terms of popularity but also the number of new Olympic records.

Fifteen new Olympic records and two new world records as well as numerous personal bests have been set.

Under the theme of “Every day, Culture & Festival”, spectators enjoyed not only the competitions but also a variety of cultural programmes, thereby creating a “Colourful and Vibrant Cultural Olympiad” in the unique Live Sites.

PyeongChang 2018 showcased the world’s first and finest 5G services, which will be commercialised in Korea and beyond in March next year, together with a wide range of cutting-edge technologies represented by Robots, and Automatic Translation Services bringing down barriers for eight languages.

CNN broadcasting, on 19 February, praised “PyeongChang is the most high-tech Olympics ever with 5G”.

A total of 14,545 volunteers participated in the Games and 1,029 were foreigners from 66 countries.

The volunteers’ attrition rate was 0.98%, but the dedication and efforts by the volunteers led to a successful PyeongChang Games.

3. PyeongChang 2018 realised a Peace Olympics

The Olympic Games brings together the world in peace and harmony, and in PyeongChang, the world became one transcending the differences of race, religion, nation and gender. In particular, the athletes from South and North Koreas built friendship, and it showcased much bigger possibilities beyond sport.

PyeongChang 2018 shares striking similarities with Seoul 1988 in that both of the Games were hosted at the centre of the cold war. Moscow 1980 was boycotted by the Unites States and the Soviet Union did not participate in the LA 1984, making those “half-games.” However, Seoul 1988 set a stage of reconciliation with West and East countries’ participation, including the United States, the Soviet Union, East and West Germany, Hungary, Czech, etc. One year after the Seoul 1988, the Berlin Wall collapsed and the cold war came to an end, followed by the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The political geography is as much complicated as that of 1988. Especially, the tension of the peninsula escalated more than ever due to North Korea’s nuclear experiments and the launching of the ICBM in 2017.

PyeongChang 2018, in the midst of the critical situation, had a mission to spread the message of peace and reconciliation and it successfully served the purpose of a Peace Olympics throughout the Games, thereby cooling down the tensions on the Korean Peninsula:

(1) At the time of its Olympic Flame lighting ceremony here in Olympia last year, NOC Presidents of future Olympic Games Hosts also in attendance to promote peace and cooperation through the Olympic Torch Relay activities.

(2) Olympic Truce Resolution was adopted by a record number of 193 UN Member-States on 13 November last year.

(3) South and North Korean athletes showcased to the whole world a joint marching at the Opening Ceremonies under a unified Korean Flag, with the image of the Korean peninsula on, enabling the first-ever unified Korean Team in the Women’s Ice Hockey.

The world admired South and North Korean athletes marching and competing together during the Games. Pope Francis paid his high tribute to PyeongChang 2018, saying “Joint entrance of Team Korea, a unified Korean team signaled hope for a world where conflicts can be resolved peacefully.”

It is noteworthy that the joint marching and the unified team were not the first cases in Korean Olympic history. They competed together under the unification flag in 1991 when they played as a single team in the World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba, Japan and the World Youth Football Championship in Lisbon, Portugal. They marched together at the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, and the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics.

Nevertheless, the joint marching and unified team at PyeongChang 2018 carried a distinctive significance. When marching together and even competing together as a unified Korean team, it constituted a strong identity of one single nation. The gestures of reconciliation and unity finally lead to the dialogues between the two Koreas, culminating in the historic Inter-Korean Summit as well as the United States and North Korea Summit.

PyeongChang 2018 proved to be a benchmarking example serving as a cornerstone to promote peace and reconciliation clearly showcased by the athletes through the Games. We call it “Olympic Spirit”. And we would like to call it “Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship, and Respect”.

‍

‍

LEE Hee-beom, "Athletes as Role Model in the Process of Reconciliation", in:K. Georgiadis (ed.), Challenges an Olympic Athlete faces as a Role Model, 58th International Session for Young Participants (Ancient Olympia,16-30/6/2018), International Olympic Academy, Athens, 2019, pp.74-77.

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍