Dec. 12--The head of Pyeongchang's 2018 Olympic Organizing Committee (POCOG) wants all the Winter Olympic events to remain in South Korea.
In a a statement dated Friday (Korea time) from the POCOG press office, Cho Yang-Ho said the organizing committee would study "the options," referring obliquely to the International Olympic Committee's offer to allow a move of the sliding center out of the country for cost reasons.
The IOC took the unprecedented step of giving the Pyeongchang organizers that option even before it was made possible under IOC rules by the Monday passage of an Olympic Charter change allowing events to be held in more that one country for reasons of geography or sustainability.
Cho said "it will be difficult to apply those recommendations to our plans at this stage, given that construction for all competition venues is already in progress."
The sliding center will cost about $100 million to build and at least $3 million a year to maintain. South Korea never has had past interest in bobsled, luge and skeleton and is unlikely to have much future interest once the 2018 Winter Games are over.
"We are developing solid legacy plans for post-Games use of the venues, as well as measures to control costs, and will continue to work on Games preparations in close cooperation with the IOC," Cho said.
Gunilla Lindberg of Sweden, chairman of the IOC's oversight committee for the Pyeongchang Games, said the sliding events could take place at any of about a dozen 12 Olympic-level sliding centers in the United States, Canada, Europe or Japan.
