International Olympic Committee to decide 2018 Winter Olympics host city
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will announce today, July 6th, the winning city that will be have the honours of playing host to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games.
The final contenders for the privilege are PyeongChang of South Korea, Munich of Germany and Annecy of France. PyeongChang is publically considered to be the favourite while Munich is trialing closely behind. Annecy is trailing third and some expect it to
be the surprise winner.
Representatives from all three countries as well as the members of the IOC are present in Durban, South Africa today. Each of the three cities will be making their final presentations in the 45 minutes time that has been allotted to every city. First to
go is the city of Munich after which Annecy will be making its presentation with Pyeongchang last.
Pyeongchang is making the bid to host the Olympic Games for the third time. Its earlier attempts for the 2010 as well as the 2014 Olympic Games were close but unsuccessful. If Munich gets to be the lucky one out of the three, it will have earned the credit
to become the only city to have hosted both the Summer as well as Winter Olympic Games.
The IOC members in Durban comprise a total of 95 people, with seven members not present for the voting that is scheduled to begin in the later part of the day. The city that gets a majority of the votes cast by a secret ballot will be selected as the winner.
For this purpose, at least 48 votes are required.
However, if no city is able to pull in a majority of the votes for itself, a second round of voting will take place but this time without the city that was able to gather the least number of votes.
When the Olympics come to a city, it translates into a huge economic impact for the country. This is why heads of states of each of the three countries have gotten involved with the presentations today. PyeongChang is being represented by President Lee Myung-bak
while Munich has brought along German President Christian Wulff. Annecy is being represented by Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
The decision will be announced tonight after 11 p.m.
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