South Korea's bid team from Pyeongchang were left feeling they
had been stabbed in the back on Wednesday after narrowly losing,
for a second successive time, the right to stage the Winter
Olympics.
Pyeongchang were beaten by four votes by Sochi in the ballot to
stage the 2014 Games.
"It's almost like being stabbed in the back," Pyeongchang
development director Jeon Yong-kwan said.
"I don't get it. We have worked for years to improve our
previous bid. We did everything the IOC asked of us. It wasn't just
a show."
In Prague in 2003 Pyeongchang were edged out by Vancouver for
the right to stage the 2010 Olympics.
Jeon also suggested Sochi, who are yet to build venues to stage
the Games, might not be ready.
"I don't think they can build all the venues in the time they
have though they say they can," he said.
"I don't want to say anything. Not now," said a shocked Gangwon
province leader Kim Jin-sun, minutes after the result.
"I decided not to talk yet," he said walking away as the
Russians, a few metres further down were preparing to sign the
Games contract amid roaring applause.
Kim had masterminded the bid that would have taken the Winter
Games to Asia for only the third time, and the first time outside
Japan.
He had the backing of South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun who
spent three days in Guatemala trying to convince the IOC of the
bid's quality.
In the weeks running up to the Games, Pyeongchang bid officials
sounded confident they could win the Olympics after losing out four
years ago to Canada's Vancouver by only three votes.
This time it was four votes that gave the winter edition of the
Games to Russia for the first time.
"I just don't get it," said Pyeongchang Development Director
Jeon Yong-kwan. "It (the bid) was real. It was not fake. If that
did not work I don't know what would," he said.
Bid leaders were left speechless, looking over to the overjoyed
Sochi team celebrating the win, shortly after IOC President Jacques
Rogge announced the decision.
(China Daily via Agencies July 6, 2007)