The victory margin was massive and the message loud and clear:Persistence paid off for South Korea in its third consecutive bidfor the Winter Olympics.After two stinging defeats in a decade of trying, the SouthKorean city of Pyeongchang finally won its Olympic prize Wednesday,burying two European rivals in a landslide vote for the 2018 WinterGames and bringing them back to the lucrative Asian market.”We are grateful to people who persevere and are patient, andeach time the bid has improved,” International Olympic CommitteePresident Jacques Rogge said.The Koreans lost narrowly in the final round of voting for the2010 and 2014 Games, but this time they defeated Munich and Annecy,France, by a one-sided margin that few had expected.”Koreans have been waiting for 10 years to host the WinterGames,” bid leader Cho Yang-ho said. ”Now we have finallyachieved our dream.”I believe that all the IOC members understood our message.They understood it was right time, right place, right now.”Needing 48 votes for victory, Pyeongchang won an overwhelming 63of the 95 cast in the first round of the secret ballot. Munichreceived 25 and Annecy seven.”I was surprised by the one-round victory and I was surprisedby the margin,” Rogge told The Associated Press. ”We had threetechnically equivalent bids… Read full this story
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