It's PyeongChang!

The bid for the 23rd Olympic Winter Games has come to a close, and it seems many of the IOC members did not have a difficult time choosing the host city. With the voting over in the first round, PyeongChang (KOR) won with a whopping 63 votes (more than the 48 needed for a majority), and Munich and Annecy went home empty handed... well, except for their 25 and 7 votes, respectively.

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!

On the Road to 2018

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.