Tonight at midnight Korean time, IOC officials in Durban, South Africa will announce the city that will host the 2018 Winter Olympics. The three cities that are in contention are:
Munich, Germany
Annecy, France
Pyeongchang, South Korea
Each country has been busy presenting to the IOC why their city should be considered for the Olympic Games. Yuna Kim was an ambassador on the South Korean delegation that made their presentation earlier this week.
Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988, but has never hosted the Winter Olympics. They lost the bid for the 2010 games in Vancouver by 3 votes, and for the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia by 4 votes. The last Winter Olympics held in Asia was in Nagano in 1998.
This is one decision that a lot of people will be staying up late or waking up early to catch the results. I will be trying my best to be awake at that time to see how the vote ends.
I was a little surprised at how big this event was in Korea... as if this was like a presidential election or something. But 1988 Summer Olympics in Korea being such a historically significant event in Korea, I suppose another hosting of Olympics must be very important.
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