PyeongChang Olympic Stadium Will Open Games in 2018

(ATR) The opening and closing ceremonies for the 2018Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games will take place in the newly named and still to be constructed PyeongChang Olympic Stadium.

In a statement released on Tuesday, POCOG confirmed the names of venues for the 2018 Games a year ahead of schedule.According to the IOC master schedule for PyeongChang 2018, organizers were not due to submit the names of Games-related facilities until the end of 2016.

"Just like the naming of the Games-related facilities, we will do our utmost effort to promote host and venue cities and to create legacy for the post-Games in all measures including the process of construction and operation of the venues,"POCOG president Yang Ho Cho said in statement.

During a press conference in March, Cho admitted construction of Olympic venues must be accelerated and said POCOG needs to "pick up the pace."

In its statement POCOG says the venue names are "easy to recognize and friendly to both Korean/non-Korean speakers."

Whether Gagneung, with its half-swallowed consonants,is friendly to pronounce for non-Korean speakers remains to be seen.

The names of each of the venues in the Gangneung Coastal Cluster--set to stage events including ice hockey, speedskating, figure skating, and curling--begin with 'Gangneung.'

POCOG hoped to "maintain consistency and promote Gangneung as a leading location for ice sports in Asia" in choosing the names for these facilities.

Organizers used existing resort names for snow sport venues in PyeongChang and Jeongson. "These resorts have already staged various world-class competitions," POCOG says.

POCOG says it will keep the names of the venues "as part of the Olympic legacy."

All of the names of venues in the Alpensia Sports Park begin with 'Alpensia.' For example, the ski jumping facility is named the Alpensia Ski Jumping Center.

POCOG followed the same pattern with venues in the Bokwang Snow Park, and with the Jeongseon Alpine Center, Kwandong Hockey Center and Yongpyong Alpine Center.

Venue names used for the Sochi Winter Olympics last year arguably seem more colorful than the style being used in PyeongChang. Figure skating took place at the Iceberg arena in Sochi, while curling was held in the Ice Cube. The Bolshoi (meaning "best") Arena hosted hockey with the second hockey arena named Shayba, which means "puck" in Russian.

Written byNicole Bennett

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