Chief organizer of PyeongChang carries torch

SOCHI, Russia (Yonhap) ― Kim Jin-sun, the chief organizer of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea’s PyeongChang, on Wednesday carried the Olympic torch in Sochi.

With the 2014 Winter Games just two days away, Kim carried the Olympic flame for 200 meters in the Adler district in the host city.

PyeongChang will be the first South Korean host of a Winter Games in four years’ time. The east coast resort town won the bid to host the quadrennial event in its third try, after losing out to Vancouver and then to Sochi.

Kim, a former governor of Gangwon Province, where PyeongChang is located, served as the head of the bidding committee in PyeongChang’s first two tries. He was appointed as a special ambassador for the successful third bid.

“I was praying for a successful Olympic Games here in Sochi,” Kim said afterward.

“I also told myself we have to prepare really well for our own Olympics.”

Kim said he will try to pick the brains of Sochi organizers and ensure that PyeongChang will host “a perfect Olympic Games.”

“The torch relay in PyeongChang will be unique, and it will be open to everyone,” Kim added.

“Our focus will be on running an Olympic Games that’s distinctively PyeongChang.”

Kim and the rest of the organizing committee for PyeongChang will operate an exhibition hall named “PyeongChang House” during the Sochi Winter Olympics to promote the 2018 Games.