The next Olympic host to be decided is for the Winter Games of 2018. Vying for the honor are only three cities: Annecy (FRA), Munich (GER), and Pyeongchang (KOR).
A Little Background.
Annecy is in the Rhône-Alpes region of France, which has already produced three winter host cities: Chamonix 1924, Grenoble 1968, and Albertville 1992. The city is the capital of the Haute-Savoie department and has a population of approximately 52,000.
Munich (population 1.3 million) is the capital and largest city in the German state of Bavaria. It has already hosted the Summer Games of 1972 (best known for Olga Korbut, Mark Spitz, and the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and coaches). Germany has only hosted one previous Winter Games: Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 1936 (used by the Nazis as propaganda fodder). If selected, Munich would be the first city to host both the summer and winter editions of the Olympics, and would enlist the help of Garmisch to host the Alpine and Nordic skiing events.
Pyeongchang -- always the bridesmaid, never the bride -- is on its third consecutive attempt to host the Olympics. It has a population of approximately 47,000 and is located in Gangwon province, in the northeast corner of the country. South Korea has never hosted the winter games and has only hosted once before -- Seoul 1988. The last Olympics in Asia were Beijing (CHN) 2008; the last Winter Olympics were in Nagano (JAP) 1998. If Pyeongchang were to be selected, it would be the first time the winter games were held in Asia outside of Japan.
And the Games go to...
My bet is on Pyeongchang. It lost by just 3 votes in the final round of voting to Vancouver (CAN) for 2010, and a similarly close 4 votes to Sochi (RUS) for 2014. Going into this bid, it is already constructing many venues it would need to host, such as a ski jumping facility and world-class ski resort (not to mention the necessary hotels for officials and spectators).
I wish Munich weren't bidding so close to two European games (Torino 2006 and Sochi 2014), because I firmly believe Germany should host the Games again -- they have one of the larger and more successful Olympic teams and one of the world's largest economies. I also like their bid, which incorporates the 1972 Olympic park, including the Olympic Stadium as the venue for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies. Unfortunately, public opinion in the area is not as high as the other candidate cities.
Annecy is also up against its own geography. However, France has hosted many Olympics (five total) and its bid is a little too spread out over a difficult terrain for recent trends in Olympic hosting, and it simply does not have the infrastructure to overcome that.
In the end, the IOC could choose any one of these cities and I would not be the least bit surprised. For example, Rio de Janiero's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics was not as technically strong as the other cities, yet it was selected anyway. FIFA, the governing body for international soccer, chose Russia and Qatar (not exactly known for their love of the sport) to host their 2018 and 2022 World Cups, despite stronger, more feasible bids from other countries. So I'd say it's still anyone's game.
The host city for 2018 will be chosen at the IOC Session in Durban, South Africa, on July 6.
