Pyeongchang not giving up on Winter Games dream

SEOUL, Sep 3 (Reuters) South Korea's Pyeongchang is undeterred by two failed Olympic bids and hopes to make it third time lucky by bidding to host the 2018 Winter Games.

The South Korean town, which lost to Vancouver by three votes for the 2010 Winter Games and suffered a second round loss to Russia's Sochi for the 2014 event, had not given up on its dream of hosting a Winter Olympics, the bid committee said today.

''Citizens in Gangwon province and people in (South) Korea still have a strong desire for the Olympics in their hearts,'' Kim Jin-sun, governor of the eastern province, said in a statement.

More than three-quarters of Gangwon residents and close to 90 percent of South Koreans favoured a third bid according to an opinion poll taken after the July loss, the committee said.

''There may be many factors involved but we decided to try out again because we have experience that we've accumulated in the past two bids,'' a Pyeongchang committee official said.

Austria's Salzburg, which contested the 2014 games, has decided against bidding again, saying the cost of mounting a campaign could prohibit smaller countries in the future.

Pyeongchang had won the first round of voting in July that eliminated Salzburg. Sochi edged past Pyeongchang by four votes in the final round.

Sochi spent a reported 40 million dollars on the bid and Russian President Vladimir Putin was on hand at the IOC session on an aggressive charm offensive that overshadowed the presence of the leaders of South Korea and Austria.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said the committee would review the presence of heads of state for futures votes and also run audits to assess national bids.

Reuters TB GC1219