Korean and Russian Spending for Winter Olympics Bid Raise Concerns

The situation in the run-up to the announcement of 2014 Winter Olympic Games venue is the same as it was four years ago.

With three days left, at 1:30 a.m. on July 3 before the 199th International Olympic Committee (IOC) General Assembly, tensions are running high in the media room at the Holiday Inn in Guatemala City, where the Korean delegation is staying. The assembly will select the host city of the quadrennial sports event the next morning.

Secretary-general of the Korean bidding committee Bang Jae-heung said, “An unfavorable article on Pyeongchang has emerged from the foreign media. We will do whatever it takes to find the truth behind the article.”

The article was written by Stephen Wilson from the Associated Press (AP), reporting that IOC officials have paid attention to the large amount of money Pyeongchang paid to win the bid. Wilson wrote that Russia and Korea have spent a lump sum equivalent to 40 million dollars, respectively. The number is equal to the amount poured into Olympic bids by London, Paris, New York, Madrid and Moscow combined in their competition to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.

He pointed out that the official Olympic sponsor Samsung, a Korean conglomerate, and aspiring Gazprom, a Russian state-run oil company, have effectively bankrolled the bidding campaigns.

The Russian delegation was said to be angry to hear that someone had brought a newspaper from Russia into one of IOC official rooms in secret. The paper covered police suppression of anti-government protests in Moscow and an explosion in the Chechen Republic claimed the lives of two soldiers. The woman who brought in the newspaper was identified as a member of competitor delegation after looking into camera records at the hotel.

The Korean delegation said, “No notice has been delivered from the IOC and we did not do that. We will focus on our bidding efforts up to the last moment,” renewing its commitment once again.

Just one day before the announcement of the 2010 Winter Olympic venue in 2003 in Prague, the Czech Republic, a newspaper article expecting Pyeonchang’s failure was delivered to one of the IOC official rooms.

In the meantime, President Roh Moo-hyun, in his visit to Guatemala City, met with IOC president Jacques Rogge and other officials late into the night on July 3, campaigning for Pyeongchang’s win.

A spokesman for the president, Cheon Ho-seon, said, “The president said the 1988 Seoul Olympics largely contributed to developing Korea and citizenship. And Koreans have been strongly supporting this bid. The president also has highly praised Jacques Rogge for his outstanding leadership.”

zangpabo@donga.com jyw11@donga.com