[Opinion] Yes! Pyeongchang

It is never easy to pick a winner between the Olympic Games and the World Cup in terms of popularity. The 2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games attracted 16,500 athletes from 202 countries. Scale-wise, the Olympic Games far outweigh the World Cup, but the World Cup ranks above the Olympics in terms of TV viewers. The number of Athens Olympics viewers was 20 billion, while that of the 2006 World Cup was 33 billion.

Which is more popular, the Summer Olympics or the Winter Olympics? The 2006 Torino Winter Olympic Games featured 2,600 athletes from 82 countries. On the surface, the Summer Olympic Games seems to have the upper hand, but the Winter Olympic Games have unparalleled influence. The latter is led by economic powers such as Europe and the U.S. where winter sports were born. Winter sports must be played in snowy regions that have all-weather facilities. Poor countries do not even dare to enjoy them. The host countries of winter sports are advanced and reap the economic benefits from that.

An International Olympic Committee (IOC) inspection team came to Pyeongchang, one of the candidate cities, to select the 2014 Winter Olympic Games host city. If Gangwon Province’s dream of hosting the Winter Olympic Games comes true, Korea would catapult itself among the “Triple Crown” countries hosting not only the Summer Olympic Games and World Cup, but also the Winter Olympic Games. Up until now, only five countries have enjoyed the honor of hosting all three events: the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and Japan. They are world leading advanced countries. If Korea becomes the sixth, its national prestige will skyrocket.

Many Koreans would remember how the whole society was closely united to “host the Olympics as best as we can” during the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. No need to describe how passionate Koreans were in uniting to achieve “the ambitious dream of entering the World Cup semi-finals” in 2002. But after several years, Korea, which used to yell in unison, “Go Korea!” has fallen prey to vicious conflicts. Would Korea be empowered by hosting the Olympic Winter Games, as an advanced country, and achieving social integration? The local residents of Pyeongchang shouting, “Yes! Pyeongchang” in unison and unity toward the inspection team hint at a rosy picture.

Hong Chan-sik, Editorial Writer, chansik@donga.com