Analysis of Pyeongchang Winter Olympics 2018

THE ANALYSIS OF EVENT LIFE CYCLE STAGES: PYEONGCHANG WINTER
OLYMPICS, 2018
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

2
Introduction
The hosting of any mega event requires dedicated efforts with profound responsibility
and includes the mobilization of huge resources in terms of manpower, financial and regional
resources. The event management of a mega event, such as the Olympic Games requires
adequate planning, credibility and capability along with adequate aid from the government of the
hosting nation and the International Olympic Association. In order to understand the event life
cycle of a mega event we will look into the various stages of the Winter Olympic Games held at
Pyeongchang, South Korea and will analyse the event through the stages of formation, growth
and staging or hosting of the event. The following sections will analyse these developments
through critical analysis of the various stages.
The formation stage of the Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympics:
The initiation to host the event started with the bidding for the event long back in 2010.
After the failure in the first the attempt, Pyeongchang had bid for hosting the event again in 2014
but lost the vote to Sochi, Russia. The Pyeongchang had started bidding for hosting the Winter
Olympic Games only to be defeated by Vancouver and Sochi in the voting rounds. The
formation stages of the event included steps that included bidding for the hosting of the event.
Pyeongchang was elected in the voting at the 123rd IOC meeting held at Durban (International
Olympic Committee 2019). The formation of the Event started right from the first bidding that
Pyeongchang made and simultaneous preparations were on to promote Pyeongchang as the host
for the winter Olympic games. The origin of the Pyeongchang’s ambitious plan to win the
hosting bid started from 1996 and the then governor Choi Gak-gyu, believed that hosting such a

3
mega event would earn South Korea an international importance and simultaneously develop the
Kangwon province (Merkel & Kim 2011, p.2371). After failing in the first two attempts the
Korean Government passed a resolution and restructured the organizing committee and after the
approval of the regional committee the “Resolution for the 2018 winter Olympic Bidding” on
July 19, 2007, to bid for their third attempt which brought success for PyeongChang (Merkel &
Kim 2011, p. 2376). With the win for hosting the event, South Korea now had the legacy of
hosting three major events within two decades, the 1998 Summer Olympics in Seoul, The Soccer
World Cup in 2002 together with Japan and the most desired 2018 Winter Olympic Games
(PEOPLE.com 2019).
The growth stage of the Pyeongchang’s Winter Olympics
The growth stage included preparations for the Olympic Games, which had already
started since their first bidding. The preparations included development infrastructure and
resources to host such a major event (International Olympic Committee, 2019). During their
second bidding, the Fédération Internationale de Ski or the FSI had supported Pyeongchang’s bid
owing to their satisfaction with the infrastructure and venues that matched IOC standards. The
Olympic Games at Pyeongchang is known to be a popular hiking and a skiing location situated
100 miles from Seoul. The Olympic Village was constructed in a manner that all the twelve
venues for the Games were all situated within the 30 minute drive from the stadium facilitates
easy accessibility. Pyeongchang already had six of the twelve venues and six more were
developed for the Games. According to the official website of the Pyeongchang, almost 80% of
the athletes can reach to the venues within 10 minutes from the village (News.bbc.co.uk 2019).
The hardware management and development had already been completed months prior to the
preparation (Rowe 2018, p. 5). The testing phase and fabrication was completed well ahead of