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PyeongChang marks 500-day countdown to 1st Winter Games in S. Korea
SEOUL, Sept. 27 (Yonhap) — PyeongChang marked the 500-day countdown to the first Winter Olympics in South Korea with festivities on a rainy Tuesday in Seoul.
The PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) celebrated the occasion at Yeouido Park by the Han River in western Seoul, with Lee Hee-beom, its president, joined by Sports Minister Cho Yoon-sun and Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon, among others.
PyeongChang is situated some 180 kilometers east of Seoul in Gangwon. It beat out Munich, Germany and Annecy, France in an International Olympic Committee (IOC) vote in 2011, winning the Winter Games bid in its third try.
Fireworks go off at Yeouido Park by the Han River in Seoul during the ceremony commemorating the 500-day countdown to the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Sept. 27, 2016.
The slogan for the day’s event was “Passion, Connected. Time for PyeongChang 2018.”
DJ performances and laser shows set the stage, with President Park Geun-hye and IOC leader Thomas Bach offering congratulatory video messages.
Following the fireworks, K-pop acts B1A4 and GFriend took the stage to cap off the evening.
Dancers perform on a stage in Yeouido Park by the Han River in Seoul during the ceremony commemorating the 500-day countdown to the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Sept. 27, 2016.
Lee noted the historic significance of the PyeongChang Games, the first Olympics in South Korea since the 1988 Seoul Summer Games.
“The PyeongChang Olympics will complete Korean Olympic history,” Lee said. “This is a meaningful occasion to mark the 500-day countdown with the people, government officials, sports officials and our sponsors who have supported our preparations for a successful Olympics.”
Fireworks go off at Yeouido Park by the Han River in Seoul during the ceremony commemorating the 500-day countdown to the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on Sept. 27, 2016.
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November 9, 2017 at 10:25 PM
This is a meaningful occasion to mark the 500-day countdown with the people, government officials, sports officials and our sponsors who have supported our preparations for a successful Olympics.”