For PyeongChang, this was more than a decade in the making. The small South Korean resort town had narrowly lost it's two previous bids -- to Vancouver for 2010 and Sochi, Russia for 2014 -- and their bid team was hoping that the third time would be the charm. But they had more than luck on their side: as part of their failed bids, the South Korean and provincial governments had invested heavily to ensure PyeongChang's spot on the list of world-class winter resorts. In fact, PyeongChang's new ski jumping stadium recently hosted the 2011 FIS Continental Cup with great success.
Annecy scored a devastatingly low vote of confidence from the IOC. Its 7 nods was the lowest for a Winter Olympic bid city since Quebec City's failed bid for 2002. And for good reason: France has already hosted the Winter Games three times, most recently in 1992... which was in the same exact region as Annecy.
Munich, on the other hand, was a real contender this year. Germany has not hosted an Olympics of any kind since 1972 -- also Munich -- and its last Winter Games were in 1936. Munich would have made history as the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics. However, with Torino (ITA) hosting in 2006 and Sochi in 2014, it was unlikely the IOC would have chosen to go back to Europe so soon. PyeongChang's bid would have had to have been pretty awful and/or extremely risky, and that was just not the case.
History was still made today, though. PyeongChang will be the first Asian city outside of Japan to host the Olympic Winter Games, and that is certainly something for the Olympic Movement to celebrate.
축하드립니다 -- or congratulations -- PyeongChang!
