PyeongChang, South Korea To Host 2018 Olympic Winter Games

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted on Wednesday and after the first ballot PyeongChang, South Korea was selected to be the host city for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

Personally, I wasn't surprised since PyeongChang was second to Vancouver, by 3 votes on the final ballot for the 2010 Winter Games and after again losing to Sochi for the 2014 Games PyeongChang became well versed as to what the IOC wanted and laid out a great proposal.

PyeongChang's bid stressed an Athlete-friendly plan with the ski and snowboarding venues located either on the outskirts of PyeongChang or nearby and another big attraction was an athlete village at each venue. 

 It's hard to read the minds of the IOC voters but I think location played a big part - North America in 2010, Sochi, Eastern Europe 2014 - and with Munich and Annecy also in Europe Asia must have had added attraction with PyeongChang.

A real big plus for the Games being held in PyeongChang and something we can all get behind is, as Andrew Judelson, Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer of U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association said recently, "The PyeongChang Olympics will also provide an opportunity for our daytime skiing and snowboarding events to be viewed live in primetime evening hours across America."

Finally, let's not forget PyeongChang has been good for the U.S. Ski Team in the past - Ted Ligety won the first World Cup Giant Slalom event in YongPyong which is to be the alpine technical events venue in PyeongChang.

Connect With Mike: Facebook
Twitter: @MikeDoyleSki | @About_Skiing

_{PyeongChang, South Korea Candidate City Logo}