2018 Olympics candidates enter final straight

By Sven Busch and Klaus Bergmann Jul 4, 2011, 11:43 GMT

Durban - The International Olympic Committee will have to choose between entering new terrain or staying with the tried and trusted when they choose the hosts for the 2018 winter Games on Wednesday.

South Korea's Pyeongchang - hoping for the nod after two unsuccessful bids - represents potentially new markets for winter sport, while Munich and the French resort of Annecy are familiar European backdrops.

Pyeongchang have the edge for many, closely pressed by Munich, while Annecy are considered the outsiders, but predicting how IOC members will vote is a notoriously difficult business.

Nothing will be certain until IOC president Jacques Rogge announces the winner at around 5.25 p.m. (1535 GMT) at Durban's International Convention Center.

For all, the last stretch of what has been years of preparations and many rounds of lobbying has begun in South Africa.

'It seems to us to be very much like being before an Olympic final,' said Germany's Olympics sports chief Thomas Bach.

'We have the training and test events behind us, and now we want finally to go out to compete. We want to go out and show what we can do and hope then it will be enough.'

Germany has not hosted a winter Games since 1936 when under Nazi rule Garmisch-Partenkirchen was the venue and the summer Games were held in Berlin. The Bavarian resort will stage the snow events including alpine skiing if Munich - the 1972 summer Games host - wins the bid.

All three candidates have been given glowing assessments from the IOC evaluators, and all three promise they will change the Olympics movement.

Germany's Olympic figure skating champion Katarina Witt, the head of the Munich bid, is tirelessly hammering home the Munich core message: sustainability, athletes-friendly Games, a safe and secure winter sport spectacle, a revolutionary environmental policy and an Olympic tradition.

Witt sees the IOC having to choose between continuing to pursue new markets or returning 'to the roots of winter sport.'

Geo-political factors may help Pyeongchang and South Korea which has never hosted a winter Games and whose slogan 'new horizons' points to the potential of new markets in Asia.

The 'most compact sports event plan' in Olympic history is also promised, but the vicinity to explosive North Korea and the lack of a winter sport tradition could be minus points.

Pyeongchang has its own figure skating queen to help the bid in the person of Olympic winner Kim Yu Na, coming up against he own idol in Witt who won golds for East Germany at the Sarajevo Games in 1984 and the Calgary Games in 1988.

The three bid cities have spent a total of almost 150 million euros (217.6 million dollars) on marketing. Annecy's budget of 29.1 million euros is the smallest, and the French venue is thought to be the outsider.

However it could tip the balance if it takes votes away from Munich, allowing Pyeongchang to win in the first round.

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