# South Korea Gets 2018 Winter Olympics **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 6, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066 "2011-07-06T18:06:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/1 "2011-07-06T18:06:26Z")
Barely beating out Qatar (just kidding). It’s a good choice, better then yet another rich French mountain village, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/2 "2011-07-06T18:33:30Z")
So the Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang. What’s the over/under on how many times various TV people accidentally say Pyongyang? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/3 "2011-07-06T18:48:04Z")
The lady on NPR probably said it correctly this morning but it made me do a double take when I first heard it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/4 "2011-07-06T21:38:33Z")
Didn’t Seoul have the summer games just a few cycles ago? I wonder if those are the closest sites to ever hold the summer and winter games. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/5 "2011-07-06T21:48:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Didn’t Seoul have the summer games just a few cycles ago? I wonder if those are the closest sites to ever hold the summer and winter games. I beleive so. Pyeongchang is 180 km from Seoul. Nagano and Tokyo are just a little further apart. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/6 "2011-07-06T22:21:51Z")
Montreal and Lake Placid are about 110 miles apart. ---
**Author:** ![Quintas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/48db29/32.png) [@Quintas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quintas)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/7 "2011-07-06T23:22:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Didn’t Seoul have the summer games just a few cycles ago? I wonder if those are the closest sites to ever hold the summer and winter games. 1. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/8 "2011-07-07T00:39:00Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Didn’t Seoul have the summer games just a few cycles ago? I wonder if those are the closest sites to ever hold the summer and winter games. If Munich had won, they’d have set an unbreakable record for that. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/9 "2011-07-07T01:19:50Z")
Anyone else ever wonder if we’ll ever see a Winter Olympics held in the _Southern_ Hemisphere? Maybe New Zealand or Argentina? The latter would make NBC happy, but could lead to the oddity of trying to get Americans to watch winter sports in the middle of a summer heat wave. Also it’s probally seriously screw up training for the vast majority of teams. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/10 "2011-07-07T03:29:11Z")
Do New Zealand’s highest mountains conform to Olympic skiing standards? And does Argentina even HAVE mountains? I thought it was primarily plains. Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru are where you get the Andes. And are those skiable? ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/11 "2011-07-07T04:31:31Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Anyone else ever wonder if we’ll ever see a Winter Olympics held in the _Southern_ Hemisphere? Maybe New Zealand or Argentina? The latter would make NBC happy, but could lead to the oddity of trying to get Americans to watch winter sports in the middle of a summer heat wave. Also it’s probally seriously screw up training for the vast majority of teams. Why would it make NBC happy? And yeah, though it might seem fun to watch winter sports in summer, it probably would feel too weird. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/12 "2011-07-07T04:42:11Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Do New Zealand’s highest mountains conform to Olympic skiing standards? > > And does Argentina even HAVE mountains? I thought it was primarily plains. Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru are where you get the Andes. And are those skiable? Whoosh? Aconcagua is in the Argentinian part of the Andes, the highest mountain on the Western hemisphere. [Argentinian geography](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina#Geography) Granted, it doesn’t seem that winter olympic sports are the more popular sports in Argentina. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/13 "2011-07-07T04:45:25Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > And does Argentina even HAVE mountains? I thought it was primarily plains. Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru are where you get the Andes. And are those skiable? The [whole border between Argentina and Chile](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Oo62dzUlY9A/S6qSYishIAI/AAAAAAAAASk/XxV3ZaSlMNg/s400/argentina-mapa.jpg) runs along the Andes. [Andes in Argentina.](http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/1343943.jpg) [Bariloche](http://www.ladatco.com/ski-brc.htm) is a major ski resort. Paraguay has no significant mountains. ---
**Author:** ![dzeiger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@dzeiger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzeiger)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/14 "2011-07-07T05:49:38Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Anyone else ever wonder if we’ll ever see a Winter Olympics held in the _Southern_ Hemisphere? Maybe New Zealand or Argentina? The latter would make NBC happy, but could lead to the oddity of trying to get Americans to watch winter sports in the middle of a summer heat wave. Also it’s probally seriously screw up training for the vast majority of teams. We had the Summer Olympics in Sydney, why would the Winter Olympics be more of a problem? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/15 "2011-07-07T06:22:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Didn’t Seoul have the summer games just a few cycles ago? 30 years by the time it actually happens. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/16 "2011-07-07T15:04:56Z")
Hmm, I stand corrected, I guess Argentina does. And Paraguay doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/17 "2011-07-07T21:48:35Z")
> [@dzeiger](#): > > We had the Summer Olympics in Sydney, why would the Winter Olympics be more of a problem? The mountain thing and the snow thing, for two. The winter sports are all coordinated to the northern winter. Sure, the indoor sports could be held anywhere, but the outdoor ones would have to be held in July or August in the south, and that would totally bollocks up everybody’s schedule. That’s when winter athletes rest and train, and it would screw up their sports something fierce if they had to somehow be at their peak at a different part of the calendar. Not to mention that there are really only two southern countries that even have enough mountains and snow to hold the outdoor sports, Chile and New Zealand, and they’re a long way off the tourist track. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/18 "2011-07-07T22:09:53Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Why would it make NBC happy? > > And yeah, though it might seem fun to watch winter sports in summer, it probably would feel too weird. I think Argentina would make NBC happy (more than New Zealand) because it is similar time zone as USA. In New Zealand (and Korea) the featured events will be on approximately 12-18 hr time lapse for prime time coverage. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/19 "2011-07-07T22:17:59Z")
It’s a lovely area but it is going to have to do a lot of shaping up in terms of tourism. The only decent accommodation we could find there (we visited in spring) were for huge groups of people (like for company retreats). Plenty of seedy “love motels” though. ---
**Author:** ![Pantani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/87869e/32.png) [@Pantani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantani)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066/20 "2011-07-07T23:05:59Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Anyone else ever wonder if we’ll ever see a Winter Olympics held in the _Southern_ Hemisphere? Maybe New Zealand or Argentina? The latter would make NBC happy, but could lead to the oddity of trying to get Americans to watch winter sports in the middle of a summer heat wave. Also it’s probally seriously screw up training for the vast majority of teams. Every few years someone throws around the idea of NZ bidding for the Winter Olympics. About four or so years ago a some people tried to raise funding from business to put together an exploritory group and failed utterly. The costs are just to big for a population of only 4 million, the risks are huge and the benifits questionable. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/south-korea-gets-2018-winter-olympics/588066.md?page=2)