PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games Breaks Ground for New Speed Skating Rink
All six new competition venues are on track for completion to ensure test events will be held during the 2016/17 winter season
GANGNEUNG, October 29 –Today the PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) (President Yang-Ho Cho) began construction on the speed skating rink located in the Gangneung Coastal Cluster.
POCOG President Yang-Ho Cho visited the site and said “With today’s groundbreaking, all our competition venue preparations are in full swing and I am confident that there is good momentum in our progress. POCOG will continue to work closely with the central government and Gangwon Province to deliver an excellent Olympic Winter Games in 2018.”
PyeongChang 2018 will have a total of 13 competition venues – 4 existing, 3 refurbished and 6 newly constructed. With the groundbreaking for the speed skating rink, construction work on all 6 new venues is in progress.
The 5 new venues already under construction are expected to be completed by November 2016, while the speed skating rink is due to be delivered by January 2017 in time for a test event scheduled the following month.
POCOG have scrapped plans to stage the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2018 Winter Olympics outside Pyeongchang. A new venue will be built in the host city.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held to launch the construction of ice venues for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The event was attended by nearly one thousand people, including key officials and representatives of Gangwon Province and the PyeongChang 2018 Organizing Committee, as well as the Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry.
The latest construction project will be carried out at the Gangneung Sports Complex, which already houses a few sporting venues, including an ice rink that will be refurbished to become the curling venue for the PyeongChang 2018 Games. The venue construction of figure/short track skating, ice hockey I and II, as well as speed skating is scheduled to be completed by October, 2016 in order to meet the timeline for Test Events during the winter of 2016-17.
The total cost of ice venue construction is estimated at 425 million US dollars.
