IOC impressed by South Korea's 2014 bid

SEOUL, Feb 17 (Reuters) South Korea's bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics is impressive but the country may need to bolster its winter sports competitiveness, an International Olympic Committee evaluation official said today.

The IOC evaluation team have just finished a four-day inspection of Pyeongchang, a mountain town 200 km (120 miles) east of Seoul.

In the coming weeks, it will visit the other host candidates -- Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi and the historic Austrian city of Salzburg. The winning bid will be announced at an IOC meeting in Guatemala in July and the evaluation committee report will be made public on June 4.

''We have been most impressed to find what Pyeongchang could offer to the Olympic movement,'' Chiharu Igaya, the head of the IOC evaluation team, told a news conference in Seoul.

Thousands of residents turned out to greet the 16-member IOC team as it toured the possible venues.

Igaya said he was encouraged by the show of support on the ground and by the South Korean government for the bid, but he added the campaign still faced challenges.

''To have a successful Olympic Games, it is quite important that the host country has (a) world standard level of performance,'' he said.

South Korea excels in some winter sports, such as short track skating, but is no match for the overall competitiveness of athletes from the other candidates Russia and Austria.

Pyeongchang, which narrowly lost out to the Canadian city of Vancouver in its bid to host the 2010 Olympics, has put together a proposal to keep the Games in a compact area at sites that have already hosted international ski and snowboard events.

It is also trying to sell its location as a place that will help spur winter sports growth in Asia.

Igaya said Pyeongchang's proposal to keep the Games compact was a good selling point. Other Winter Games have had venues spread out across large distances, making transport difficult.

The Winter Games have been held twice before in Asia, Japan's Sapporo and Nagano.

REUTERS PDS RK1725