2018 Olympics Are Coming to Korea

The third time's a charm! When I first moved to Korea four years ago South Korea was in the midst of a bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics. It was their second time bidding for the Winter Olympics, having barely lost 6 years prior to Vancouver to host the 2010 Olympics. They had lost to Vancouver by only 4 votes. Unfortunately in 2007 Russia beat Korea in its second bid by an even more agonizing 3 votes. This past week Korea tried for the third time to host the Winter Olympics. Success! And a landslide. Korea won it's bid with 63 votes, the most ever in a first round of voting.


The 2018 Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Pyeongchang is about 3 hours from Seoul, on the east coast. They do get a lot of snow. I went skiing there this past winter. When our bus left Seoul it was cloudy, but not snowing. Right as we got into the Pyeongchang area the snow started to fall we could see they had received 12 inches of fresh snow the night before. The mountains of Korea certainly can't compare to the Alps, or even the Rockies, but I guess the IOC thinks they're good enough for Olympic skiing.


Of course, skiing just accounts for a few of the winter events. In fact, most of the events do not take place on a mountain ski slope. Korea is especially proud of their strong speed skaters. Unwitting to most Americans, South Korea has a rivalry with the United States when it comes to speed skating. Didn't know that, did you? Apparently in one of the previous Olympics the American, Apolo Ohno, knocked a Korean down and cost him the gold medal. Of course it wasn't on purpose but it doesn't matter. Koreans remain very bitter about that moment. Mention "Apolo Ohno" to any Korean and they'll respond with a scowl. Especially the kids. I just think it's amazing that they know an American athlete by name. I doubt many Americans could name any Korean athletes. There might be one, however- Kim Yuna.

Kim Yuna won the gold medal in figure skating for South Korea in last year's Vancouver Olympics, winning Korea it's first medal in that sport and earning herself the devotion of a nation. Her face is plastered everywhere here. There's even a children's cartoon based on her. I know- crazy!

Last year South Korea won a total of 14 Olympics medals in Vancouver, 6 of those gold. It was Korea's best showing ever. Compare that 2002 when they won just 4 medals in all and they've come a long way. The excitement of the Korean people is palpable and they are ready for such a big event, not just as a city, but as a nation. I attended the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics with my sister, Laura. They were so smoothly run it was amazing. If the Asian work ethic is any indication, I think the Pyeongchang Olympics will be just as organized and successful.

In 1988 Seoul hosted the Summer Olympics. That truly was a watershed event in the history of this country. It directly helped bring democracy to South Korea and was a coming out party for the country. Korea was no longer a backwater Asian country known for it's nasty northern neighbor and a war in the 1950's, but an up and coming nation capable and worthy of big things. It will be interesting to see how this next Olympics changes the country, 30 years later. Whether I'm still living in Korea or not, I know I'll be there!

Ziplining in Mungyeong- 2nd Publication!

Here is the second story I had published in Groove Magazine. For pictures, follow the link HERE and download the PDF. It's actually a really cool looking spread. I'm quite proud. Hehe.

“Just walk off the platform. It’s fun.” Yeah right. One would think such a simple instruction would be easy to follow, but when that platform happens to be 48 meters above the ground and you’re about to fly over a ravine on a wire, compliance doesn’t come quite so easily, especially if you have a healthy respect for heights. That’s like saying to an arachnophobe, “Just pet the tarantula, it’s friendly.” Yes, such things are much easier said than done.

Thea's palms were sweaty with anxiety. That day she had tagged along with a large group of American soldiers to the zipline course. She was the last of the group to take the walk of faith and even though she had just witnessed ten people zip along the wire unharmed, what if she happened to be that statistical improbability -- an accident?

Having taken a pass on bungee jumping, and refusing to even contemplate skydiving with her friends, Thea was determined not to be left out on ziplining. She took a deep breath, walked three paces off the platform, and squeezed her eyes shut. Zzzzzzzzziiiiiippppp!! The written word does not do justice to the actual sound. Unlike the dainty zip! of a jeans fly, the sound of a pulley, weighed down by an adult human, sliding down a 13mm-thick inclined steel wire at up to 40 km/hr is unlike anything you’ve heard before. It’s a reverberation. Racing back up the line it whips behind any observer standing on the departing platform like a boomerang and blasts them with vibrations. Such is the effect that even though a ziplining person might already be 100 meters down the line, it sounds like they’re whizzing right by your ear. It’s a sound that denotes speed, exhilaration, power. The power to overcome fears.

Thea opened her eyes just in time to glide in for a landing. As she gingerly took the steps down off the landing platform her pursed lips loosened and spread triumph across her face. She’d done it. She hadn’t freaked out. She hadn’t backed out. She had conquered her fear and what’s more, "It was really fun!" she gushed. "And not scary at all."

One might call ziplining a “light” adventure sport. There’s no danger of going splat should your parachute not open, nor is there expensive training involved, such as with scuba diving. In some places ziplining is even used for the treatment of acrophobia, the fear of heights.

Kang Dong-Jun, a manager at Zipline Mungyeong, says his facility has not started programs specifically for that purpose. However, he sees people like Thea nonetheless conquering their fears every day. The best part of his job he says, is seeing the energizing effect that ziplining has on otherwise risk-averse people. “They smile and thank me afterward and tell me how much fun they had,” he says. “Some even ask for my phone number.”

As an adventure sport, ziplining gained popularity in the mid-‘90s in Costa Rica as an exhilarating way to see the beauty of the rainforest while having a softer imprint on the environment. Mr. Kang helped bring ziplining to Korea when Zipline Mungyeong opened in 2009.

Nestled amongst Korea's emerald mountains, Mungyeong's scenic locale makes the perfect place for an eco-friendly zipline facility. Zipline Mungyeong remains the only large professional zipline facility in the country and, with nine different courses, amounts to 1.4 kilometers of high-flying thrills. This culminates in a spectacular ride above the trees that reveals a panoramic view of the mountain forest and Mungyeong’s rice paddies below. Standing at the start one can barely see the landing platform 378 meters away. Whizzing through the trees like Tarzan is liberating, and yet one feels perfectly secure in their sturdy harness attached to a steel line that can support up to eight tons of weight. But is ziplining truly safe?

Mr. Kang chuckles and points to the photographs on the wall of laughing children in their helmets and harnesses. “We even let children do it. Over the past two years we have had over 50,000 visitors. I’d be lying if I said we’ve had no accidents. However, none of them have been the result of ziplining.” Turns out walking down a mountain trail is more dangerous than ziplining.

So what makes ziplining stand out from other adventure sports? Mr. Kang leans back in his chair and smiles as if recalling a pleasant memory. “The great thing about ziplining is that it’s not an individual sport like paragliding or skydiving. One can experience it in a group with family and friends. And anyone can do it. Grandmothers and grandfathers even come here.”

Grandmas? Well if they can enjoy it, anyone can.