Cho Yang-ho, chairman and CEO of South Korean conglomerate Hanjin Group and airline Korean Air, led PyeongChang’s bid for the 2018 Games and will be appointed as chief organiser at a general congress of the organising committee in the coming days.
POCOG appointed their vice-president Kim Jung-haeng as an interim leader following Jin-sun’s unexpected departure but have quickly found a new successor.
Yang-ho is the current president of the Korea Table Tennis Association and vice president of the Asian Table Tennis Union but his appointment has been criticised by some because of his lack of experience in sports administration.
Yang-ho said in a statement: “Now that I’ve agreed to take on the job as the chief organizer, I will dedicate myself to ensure a successful Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, relying on my experience as the top bid official.”
“Many people in and outside Korea recommended that I take this position and I also wanted to keep the promise I’d made with the International Olympic Committee to work for a successful Olympics here.”
Yang-ho will come into the job at a troubled point for the Games with results from an investigation by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection into the financing and management of the Games still pending.
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PyeongChang 2018 appoint former bid leader as permanent chief
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Time a concern as work starts on World Cup stadium
The new stadium in Samara is set to have a capacity of 45,000 and will become the home of local club side Krylia Sovetov following the 2018 World Cup. Construction work on the stadium is expected to be completed in summer 2017 and will be linked to the city and wider region with new local infrastructure development.
Also in attendance at the ceremony was sports minister Vitaly Mutko. “All technical and administrative issues have been resolved and today we are starting to build the stadium” he said. “There are still key questions concerning the city’s development… but first and foremost is the sporting infrastructure that will be built here. Samara is football’s capital on the Volga. We are looking forward to all the necessary conditions being created for footballers and teams, as well as for fans to be welcomed.”
Three of the planned 12 World Cup stadiums are currently completed, with two of them requiring reconfiguration in order to host football games. Whilst the Russian Government is insisting that all the stadiums will be completed on time, previous delays have raised alarm.
Organizing committee head Alexei Sorokin told the Associated Press: ”That is a normal working concern. That does not mean we are lying down calmly and waiting for things to happen. It suggests that we are … attentive to it.”
Whilst some of Russia’s World Cup plans appear to be on time and on budget, delays and rising building material costs are a cause for concern. The St. Petersburg stadium, for example, was due for completion in 2008 but is now unlikely to open before 2016 and at a hugely inflated cost of $1.1 billion.
There have also been a number of concerns over infrastructure spending and logistical challenges associated with holding the World Cup in Russia but officials have maintained that these issues can be resolved on time.
FIFA have said the design work for all the other stadiums is now completed and construction work is expected to begin this autumn.
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Budget a “real concern” for Rio 2016
The scale of Rio 2016’s infrastructure projects is immense and partnership with experienced suppliers from London 2012 will be crucial for success – but budgets must be carefully monitored.
This was the message given by Rio 2016’s head of procurement, Fernando Cotrim, in an exclusive interview with HOST CITY at the South American Sport Events Seminar, organised by UK Trade and Investment during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
“If you consider that you have the greatest combination of needs in terms of materials and services in one event, you can imagine the size of challenge,” Cotrim told HOST CITY. “We are looking for around 2,500 suppliers to be in place for 2016.”
Cotrim’s major area of focus is temporary construction. “The hardest part is to get the right suppliers at the right time and to build a temporary and sustainable supply chain, he said.
“That’s the challenge – the temporary part is the most important.”
London 2012 has set the template of a mega event where the majority of infrastructure is temporary. “We are taking a similar approach. Probably around 60 per cent of constructions will be temporary.”
Not only is the concept similar to London 2012; Rio 2016 is targeting the same companies. “We will use similar suppliers. The ideal for us is to bring the same suppliers but they come to Brazil, partner with local companies and help our country to grow in this business.”
Cotrim cited Arena Group, who provided temporary venues for London 2012 and Glasgow 2014, as an example of a company with expertise in this area. Other notable suppliers include ES Global, also present at the UKTI event.
Asked what his biggest concern was, Cotrim replied “Always to be monitoring – to have the best suppliers and to stay on budget. That’s a real concern. What we’ve learned from other Games is that if you don’t manage the budget you can go to infinity.
“So you have to be very cautious about the budget. We are always seeking innovative solutions, but at the same time low cost and sustainable.”
Rio 2016 has been under fire for severe delays to its construction projects, particularly the Deodoro Park cluster of venues. Cotrim says the tide of opinion is changing in the wake of a largely successful FIFA World Cup.
“What people saw, what the media saw in the World Cup changed this mindset. Deodoro was a concern, but the suppliers are starting to work and so I think this mindset has changed a little bit. The last comment from the IOC is that we have got back on track and we are in a good shape.”
However, the IOC is still keeping a very watchful eye on Rio 2016 projects. IOC Vice President Craig Reedie confirmed to HOST CITY that the IOC’s head of Olympic Games, Gilbert Felli, will be focused 100 per cent on ensuring a successful Games in 2016. -
FIFA asks Russia to drop two World Cup cities
FIFA President Sepp Blatter recently visited Russia and met with President Vladimir Putin as well as Vitaly Mutko and Alexet Sorokin, the Chairman and the CEO of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Local Organising Committee respectively, to discuss the plans.
The Interfax news agency quoted Mutko as saying: “The existing conception of the 2018 World Cup provides the staging of the event at 12 stadiums in 11 cities. FIFA recommended staging the World Cup at 10 venues in nine cities.”
“We will once again tour the 11 cities, and then a decision will most likely be made. Everything will depend on how things move along and how the cities view the post-tournament program.”
“We’ll finalise our decision taking into consideration the progress of the host cities in their World Cup preparations.”
Blatter first revealed the reduction plans at the final press conference of the 2014 Brazil World Cup in July. He said: “We are not going to be in a situation, as is the case of one, two or even three stadiums in South Africa, where it is a problem of what you do with these stadiums.”
Issues with stadium construction and underdeveloped infrastructure have also been cited as the reasoning behind FIFA’s demands, with several sites facing huge delays. Russian daily newspaper Kommersant recently suggested the cities of Volgograd, Kaliningrad and Yekaterinburg were the most likely to be excluded from the World Cup.
However, other cities also face uncertainty. The construction of the 45,000 seated Rostov-on-Don Stadium is still yet to commence whilst in Saint Petersburg, the $1.1 billion New Zenit Stadium has faced massive delays. Construction work on the new home of Zenit Saint Petersburg began in 2006 but by 2012 was only half built and facing a complete redesign of the stands. The stadium may now not open until 2017, nine years past the original deadline.
On the other hand, some Russian cities have fared much better with their World Cup developments. For example, the new Kazan Arena recently hosted its first football match after being completed in record breaking time last year.
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Rio’s transformation will be best ever – Nuzman
As venue construction finally starts to shift up a gear in Rio, the president of the Rio 2016 organising committee has pointed out that the wider developments in the city will have a bigger impact on Rio than any other Olympic city in history.
Speaking on the two year countdown to the Games, Carlos Nuzman said “The Games will leave a huge legacy for both Rio and Brazil, and are starting to take shape. No other host city will have had such big transformational benefits from the Games as Rio.”
Carlos Nuzman is the latest of many distinguished speakers confirmed to speak at HOST CITY’s Bid to Win conference on 28th October in London, where he will give an exclusive presentation.
The civic developments include a massive facelift of the historic port area, major transport upgrades, sanitation improvements, anti-flood measures as well as new educational facilities. These projects are being accelerated through 27 government initiatives in the areas of infrastructure, the environment and social improvement.
The future of the Olympic sports facilities are also being taken into consideration as part of the legacy plans. The Olympic Park’s three sports halls – the Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre, the Rio Olympic Velodrome and the Olympic Tennis Centre – will remain in use after the Games, collectively forming Brazil’s first Olympic Training Centre (OTC) for high-performance athletes.
The fourth Olympic hall, which will host handball matches during the Games – will be repurposed into four schools. “Converting the Rio 2016 handball arena into four schools after the Games is an excellent example of Rio’s commitment to ensuring the 2016 Games leave tangible benefits for the local community,” said Nuzman.
“The ‘nomadic architecture’ concept defined by our government partners is a first for the Games and we are proud that 2,000 Brazilian schoolchildren will benefit from it for many years to come.”
Transport overhaul
Sports events in 2016 will take place in widely dispersed areas in Rio. The Maracanã stadium is 13km north of Copacabana and Ipanema; the Barra Olympic Park is about 25km west of central Rio; while the Deodoro cluster is in a similarly distant part of town with little in the way of hospitality services.
Barra is already connected to the international airport via the Transcarioca BRT, which was built in time for World Cup, complementing another BRT service to Barra that opened in 2012.
A 32km Transbrasil bus rapid-transit (BRT) scheme will connect Deodoro to central Rio, benefitting 900,000 passengers daily. However, Transbrasil’s tender date has been delayed and work will not start until October at earliest.
A new 26km Transolímpica, due to open in January 2016, will link the competition centres in Barra and Deodoro and is expected to be used by 400,000 people per day.
The major transport upgrades also include the creation of a light rail transit (LRT) service in the city centre and the extension of the underground metro system. A new 16km underground line, Linha 4, is due to open early in 2016, linking central Rio to Barra with a predicted journey time of 34 minutes.
To find out more, attend HOST CITY: Bid to Win (www.bidtowin-hostcity.net) and experience the exclusive update from Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman -
Nanjing 2014 excludes 3 athletes over Ebola fears
Three more young athletes from West Africa will not be able to compete in the Nanjing Youth Olympic Games due to the perceived risk of transmission of Ebola, it emerged on Friday.
Nigeria and Sierra Leone have already pulled out of the Games, citing discrimination and warnings from Chinese authorities.
“Based on health authority guidelines it has been decided that athletes from affected areas will not compete in combat sports,” the IOC said in a “joint communique” with the organising committee.
It was also decided that no athletes from the region would compete in aquatics, based on “the inability to completely exclude the risk of potential infection”.
According to the joint communique, two athletes in combat sports and one swimmer will be unable to compete. According to the Nanjing 2014 website, Liberia’s Momodu Sombai was due to compete in swimming, alongside Alhoussene Sylla of Guinea. Mamadama Bangoura, also of Guinea, was set to compete in Judo.
The remaining West African athletes will be “subject to regular temperature and physical assessment throughout the period.”
On Wednesday it emerged that Nigeria and Sierra Leone were withdrawing their entire teams from the Youth Olympic Games.
“Nigerian athletes were quarantined, isolated and barred from training alongside athletes from other countries since they arrived the competition venue over news of Ebola virus in Nigeria. Following this discrimination, we have resolved to pull out from the Games,” said Gbenga Elegbeleye, director general of the National Sports Commission.
According to Patrick Coker, the president of the National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone, their Chinese Embassy had warned them that they “might find themselves in a troubled and awkward situation once they get to China’s port of entry.”
But according to the IOC, no teams have been excluded from the Games. “The organizing committee has made it clear that all delegations are welcome to the Games and each country is free to take their own decision on attendance,” the joint communique said.
“We regret that due to this issue some young athletes may have suffered twice, both from the anguish caused by the outbreak in their home countries and by not being able to compete in the Youth Olympic Games.”
The IOC and organising committee will invite the athletes to compete at a future event in Nanjing “to experience the welcoming atmosphere and spirit of the city and Jiangsu province.”
They have also offered to include the national flags of the affected countries in the opening ceremony, which takes place on Saturday 16th December and promises to be as spectacular as Beijing’s in 2008. -
Tokyo 2020 organisers propose venue relocation
The organising committee has informed the IOC of possible revisions to the locations of some of the Games venues and organisers are considering moving certain venues into locations in the Greater Tokyo area, some as far as an hour’s drive from the city centre.
The original Tokyo bid promised a compact Games with the majority of the venues located within a five mile radius of the Olympic village, far more condensed than many recent Games. Only the shooting, modern pentathlon and football events were originally planned to be held outside of the five mile Olympic village zone.
The new plans could see some venues being moved out as far away as the city of Saitama which could result in some considerable transportation headaches. However, organisers have insisted that the revised plans would be made possible with improved transport infrastructure whilst still cutting costs. The IOC has previously praised Tokyo’s venue layout and have been impressed by the city’s progress.
The cost of the Games has been a cause of contention amongst Tokyo’s citizens with protests being held against the new 80,000 seated stadium which will replace the current National Stadium.
Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe has had to defend the new plans and told a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan that he has a responsibility to Tokyo taxpayers.
“How can I persuade the taxpayers to pay this kind of money? We are working with the IOC and the various sports federations to make the Games sustainable. Legacy is very important. If you abolish everything after the Games who can accept that?” said Masuzoe.
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Samsung extends Olympic partnership to 2020
Samsung has been a part of IOC Worldwide TOP Programme since the 1998 Nagano Winter Games and the extension means the South Korean firm will now feature as a supporter of the Rio de Janeiro, PyeongChang and Tokyo Games as well as the Youth Olympic Games through to 2020.
IOC President Thomas Bach said: “We are delighted to be able to continue our partnership with Samsung. The funding generated by the TOP Programme directly supports the staging of every Olympic Games, as well as every one of the National Olympic Committees, enabling athletes from all over the world to prepare for and compete at each Games.
Samsung will be the official Worldwide Olympic Partner in the Wireless Communication Equipment and Computing Equipment category and has previously provided the Olympic Games with its wireless communications platform and mobile phones, most recently at the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.
The expanded product category includes smartphones, tablets, laptops, personal computers and other computing equipment as well as desktop printers.
“Samsung also supports the operations of each Games by providing leading wireless telecommunications and technology equipment,” said Bach. “In addition, Samsung’s technologies and global marketing reach will engage fans around the world with the Olympic values and the Olympic Movement.”
Samsung said in a statement: “As mobile technologies have become an inseparable part of our daily lives, Samsung believes its continued support will play a significant role in bringing further innovation to the staging of the Olympic Games.”
The new deal means all of the existing Olympic TOP partners have committed to the programme through to 2020. Other companies to sign up to the IOC’s Worldwide TOP Programme include Coca-Cola, Atos and Panasonic who have similar deals, with each covering their own area of expertise.
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Gold Coast new venues approved for construction
The Commonwealth Games Federation has approved the final list of venues for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, allowing the next stage of development work to go ahead aided by AU$156 million provided by the Australian Government.
The next phase of construction includes the new 2,500 seat Carrara and Coomera Sport and Leisure Centres.
Some venues are already completed, including the redeveloped Gold Coast Aquatic Centre which Federal Minister for Sport Peter Dutton recently inspected. The Aquatic Centre will host the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships as its first test since the redevelopment work.
“The Queensland Government and Gold Coast City Council have provided a world class facility for this international swim meet,” said Dutton.
“The new and upgraded venues will leave a lasting legacy for the Gold Coast, Queensland and Australia. Not only will the 2018 Games help usher in the next generation of elite Australian athletes, but the new and improved sporting infrastructure will greatly benefit grassroots sporting programmes across Queensland. This will help to encourage higher rates of participation and promote the many benefits sport and physical activity brings.”
The Ministry for Sport believes the 2018 Games will provide a positive legacy for Queensland and the Gold Coast and expects the event will reap long-term benefits for “tourism, business development and improved social outcomes.”
“The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games will once again showcase Australia to the rest of the world as a first-class sporting destination, with first class venues,” said Dutton.
“After the success of the Glasgow Games, it’s clear that the Commonwealth Games are still viewed in high regard by spectators and athletes and remains an important part of the sporting calendar.”
15 out of 17 sports will be hosted on the Gold Coast, with track cycling and shooting to take place in Brisbane and some preliminary basketball games to be held in nearby towns.
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Qatar inspires Dubai to bid for Olympics
Dubai government officials have revealed plans to expand the emirate’s sporting facilities with an eye to bidding for a future Olympic Games.
The National Olympic Committee of the United Arab Emirates previously opted out of a bid for the 2020 Olympic Games with the intention of placing a bid for the 2024 or 2028 Games instead.
Ali Omar, Director of Dubai Sports Council sports development department, recently revealed that those intentions are still in place. “Hosting the Olympics is a dream,” said Omar. “We hope to submit such a bid within the next eight years, God willing.”
Their Gulf Arab neighbours Qatar have been rumoured to also be considering a bid for the 2024 Games, for the city of Doha, following their success in securing the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Omar cited Qatar’s success as an important factor that could help Dubai bring another major global event to the region. “Qatar’s move has brought the world’s attention to professional sports in the whole Gulf Arab region,” said Omar.
Dubai already has a prestigious history in hosting global sports events including the Sevens World Series, the Dubai World Cup thoroughbred horse race, the Dubai Desert Classic golf tournament, the Dubai Tennis Championships and a number of international cricket matches due to political unrest in Pakistan. Dubai will also host Expo 2020, a universal exposition taking place over six months which could set the stage for hosting an Olympic Games shortly afterwards.
The Dubai Sports City, a 50 million square feet purpose-built sports hub, would also add considerable weight to the bid with a 60,000 seated multi-purpose outdoor stadium, a 10,000 seated indoor arena, rugby and hockey stadiums and a golf course all situated within the colossal development.
The National Olympic Committee of the United Arab Emirates estimated in 2011 that 70 percent of the infrastructure needed for a Games in Dubai was already in place. But despite this Dr Ahmed Al Sharif, Dubai Sports Council secretary general, recently told media that more stadiums and facilities would be needed in order to host an Olympic Games in the city.