Busan likely to change its bidding campaign for 2020 Olympics

BUSAN, July 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's largest port city is likely to change its bidding campaign for the 2020 Summer Olympics after PyeongChang won the right to host the 2018 Winter Olympics, officials said Thursday. Busan, the country's No. 2 city and the host city of the 2002 Asian Games, announced its Olympic bid during a summit of Asia and Pacific leaders in 2005, though its campaign has long been overshadowed by PyeongChang. PyeongChang, the alpine city in Gangwon Province, won in a landslide victory in a vote by the International Olympic Committee in Durban, South Africa, succeeding in its third consecutive attempt to bring the Winter Games to South Korea for the first time. PyeongChang's successful bid will likely derail Busan's move to host the Summer Olympics as the IOC does not give one country the right to host two Olympic Games in such a short span of time, officials said. "It is impossible to host the 2020 Summer Olympics," said Chung Kwon-yeong, an official handling sports at the Busan Metropolitan Government. The city is now considering bidding to host either the 2024 or 2028 Summer Olympics, another official Cho Young-chul said, without elaborating. South Korea hosted the Summer Olympics in 1988 and co-hosted the World Cup with Japan in 2002. The Asian country, which has become a sports powerhouse in recent decades, is scheduled to host the 2011 World Championships in Athletics next month.