Samsung: It's Now Apropos to Download PyeongChang 2018 Mobile App

Fresh from the PyeongChang 2018 home page, Samsung is encouraging free downloads of the Games' new mobile app.

Interpreting the Korean/English promotion, I gather this new app -- which took about 10 minutes to upload to my Galaxy 3 purchased after a slick demo during Sochi 2014 -- is free now through January 31.

It's unclear whether the app will then be available for a buck, er, won or two during February (make that 1,000 or 2,000 won).

Upon launching the app, I found it easy to navigate and fairly basic, likely to become expansive and delightful in ease-of-use during Games time when daily activities, venue updates, results and transportation items are all the buzz of many an Android and iPhone.

Very handy: weather updates on the home screen (in Celsius -- it's minus 12 in Korea as I write this post). A finger click on the weather plus sign (+) expands the to a venue-by-venue page and list including temps and icons indicating snow, sun or other current conditions across the Olympic region.

The home screen also dons Omega's Olympic Games Countdown clock followed by sections for news and a series of boxes in Korean that I suspect may become the advertising/promotional nod.

The list icon at the top left of the home page expands to two core sections for Games and Spectators, with schedules, sports, venues, cheering/fan, official partner/sponsor and links.

In these app sections, I simply LOVE the link to the 2018 Olympic Torch Relay in progress (great calendar, maps and photos).

Also LOVE the section for the Cultural Progamme. Did you know the Korean National Ballet will perform "Anna Karenina" at the Gangneung Art Center, for instance? And I just bought my ticket for the Jarasum International Jazz Festival on Valentine's Day, also in Gangneung, via the app. Music to my fingers.

Rounding out the Spectator section: Explore Korea, Tickets, Transportation, Accommodations and Store links to official merchandise.

The only thing silly I found about the app is the image created to promote it. Is the guy in the over-sized red sweatshirt supposed to be Korea's answer to illusionist David Seth Kotkin?

Samsung's 2018 Olympic app -- apropos for any Korea-bound traveler for next month!

Images via PyeongChang2018.org

Final Push Toward PyeongChang

Two weeks from now (Feb. 4), this blogger will be aloft on a Delta Air Lines flight half-way across the Pacific. Destination: Seoul, and a couple of days later via rental car, PyeongChang and the 2018 Winter Olympics.

It's exciting this countdown to the Games, my fifth consecutive snowy Olympiad and 11th overall trek to a new host city.

This will be a first-time adventure in South Korea, and I'm as pumped about exploring the historic 1988 summer Games sites in the nation's capital as much as experiencing the shiny and new venues in the mountains and on the east coast of the Korean Peninsula.

Photo via KoreaHerald.com

As with prior travels to Olympic competitions at destinations deemed "unsafe" (Rio with Zika), "un-secure" (Athens w/terrorism) or "scary" (Sochi or Beijing and "being watched"), friends and family already inquired about the outlook for PyeongChang safety and the Olympics' proximity to potential aggression from North Korea.

Honestly, since 2016 I was always more hung up on the potential for a Rio-repeat (abysmal and frustrating fan/volunteer logistics) than ever concerned about the Communists a few mountains away from the snow venues south of the 38th Parallel.

Photo by Amy Sancetta/AP

Fortunately, North Korea's pro-Olympic stance announced on January 1, and subsequent friendly conversations involving International Olympic Committee top brass and diplomacy from Korea's North- and South-based leadership, put many folks' (and my own) further at ease that peace will reign in PyeongChang. Will a Nobel Peace Prize result from this? Maybe.

It's historic and exciting to read about the unified team, individual athletes from both South and North, and the delegation crossing the border in just over 21 days. I'm definitely going to try to score an interview with some North Korean athletes or fans (wish me luck).

Let's just hope The White House avoids mucking up things in the next 18 days to the Opening Ceremony and the 16 Games-time days and nights that follow!

Thankfully (sort of), the Team USA delegation leader-designate is Vice President Mike Pence -- what thin ice will he manage to skate and create next month? We'll see.

Blog and PyeongChang mascot image by Nicholas Wolaver; ski jump photo via KoreaHerald.com; Torino 2006 Opening Ceremony photo via Associated Press.

Want to Carry a 2018 Olympic Torch?

With just a few more weeks until the Rio 2016 Olympics of summer, a key milestone just passed -- with an open invitation to perhaps carry a torch -- in the countdown to the next Winter Olympiad.

In celebration of the 600 Days to Games mark on June 20, organizers for PyeongChang 2018 announced a global Torch Relay Idea Contest open to anyone and everyone worldwide. 

On the competition homepage, entrants find the following greeting:

"The PyeongChang 2018 Torch Relay will shine the light of the Olympic and Paralympic flames on Korea's hidden potential. Please share your ideas for the torch relay, including potential routes, torchbearers, modes of transport or ways to spread the word about the event. 

"We especially welcome ideas that highlight Korea's defining qualities -- passion, creativity, dynamism and uniqueness. Make sure your ideas are based on your personal stories and experiences."

Entrants are instructed to read a brief history of the Olympic torch relay tradition, then consider what type of entry (route, runners, transport, publicity) they wish to suggest. 

From what I can tell, individuals or teams of up to three people may enter.  

In case contributing to Olympic history isn't enough of an incentive, the most creative entries in adult and "students under twenty" (ages 14 to 20) categories may win a trip to Olympia, Greece, to see the start of the 2018 Olympic torch relay, tickets to Winter Olympic events, cash and/or merchandise. 

Though the trip to Greece is billed as the top prize, perhaps second prize is more extraordinary in that it includes a runner's segment as torchbearer. 

Winners will be chosen through three stages of evaluation including basic entry requirements, "expert" review and a public vote, presumably online and worldwide. Multiple entries are encouraged. The contest is open through August 12.

I love that video files or images are allowed to enhance the entries -- it will be fun to brainstorm some creative options from Atlanta and to see what folks around the world contribute. 

Personally hoping a truly new addition to the Olympic torch relay tradition will be created through this contest, which would be a great legacy for the Korean hosts staging their second-ever Olympiad and first Winter Games. 

For anyone on the fence about entering, keep in mind "the most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part."

Images via PyeongChang 2018

Coffee Fix For PyeongChang 2018

Though 3.5 years or 1,256 days remain before the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games open in South Korea, news media are on a (caffeine?) buzz about the planned opening of a coffee-themed amusement park set to open in the same province as the five-ringed event.

According to KoreaBizWire.com and other sites, a "coffee theme park" is confirmed to open by 2017 in Gangwon Province.

One story references a nearby LEGOLAND and an island tourism destination as other possible distractions for those heading to the next Winter Olympic site (though this Attractions Management story states the LEGOLAND is but a rumor, at least for now).

With Coca-Cola's worldwide sponsor status locked in with the IOC for decades, I don't anticipate a competing "official coffee shop chain of the Olympics" to get signed any time soon.

But it may be interesting to experience the Tom N Toms Coffee locations in Korea upon arrival for the Games.

Now curious whether the new coffee theme park may include a "coffee bath" experience like the one apparently open in Japan, I'm also curious whether the spinning rides in Korea may eventually feature oversized coffee mugs or branded paper containers versus teacups.

Image via JapanProbe.com