Cho Yang-ho knows he has one big advantage when it comes to winning over the IOC members who will select the host city for the 2018 Olympics.
The South Korean bid leader can point to concrete evidence of a Winter Games already in the making at Pyeongchang, not just sketches or models.
This is the third consecutive time that Pyeongchang has been in the running.
On the face of it, the bid ticks all the right boxes but when the International Olympic Committee makes its decision on July 6 in Durban, South Africa, nobody here will be taking anything for granted.
Munich and Annecy, France, are the other candidates this time. While Pyeongchang is considered a favorite, anxiety is increasing in the Taebaek Mountains as the decision day looms.
Located 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of Seoul, Pyeongchang came heartbreakingly close to being awarded the 2010 and 2014 Games. It won the first-round ballot both times before losing by a final margin of three votes to Vancouver and four to the Russian city of Sochi.
''During the last two bids, we showed many of our plans for the Winter Olympics on drawing boards,'' Cho told The Associated Press. ''This time, when the evaluation commission visited, we showed them the actual venues that will be used.''
Seven of 13 venues are already completed. A positive technical report from the IOC's evaluation commission, impressive levels of support, South Korea's growing status in winter sports and an attractive position in the fast-growing region of East Asia are all positive aspects of the bid.
Just a ski-jump away from the Alpensia resort - so-named to evoke images of ''The Alps in Asia'' - that would be the main hub for 2018, local residents are desperately hoping that Munich, seen as the main rival, doesn't repeat what Vancouver and Sochi did in the voting.
Waitress Kim Jin-hee's expectations are typical of the 47,000 people in Pyeongchang. As she served customers the region's famous beef at the Daekwalyong restaurant recently, Kim recalled the last campaigns as bitter disappointments.
''It was so close. I felt just so sad for everyone after all the hard work, it was such a shame,'' Kim said. ''I was born and raised here and think that the Olympics would be great for the region and our children. Many people would come here and we would be known around the world.''
Officials concede that Pyeongchang, which has a bid budget of $31.5 million, struggles for brand recognition against the likes of Munich, although that is less of a weakness than in the past.
After two bid campaigns, there's more international awareness of the city in Gangwon Province, one of Korea's less developed regions. The name is now rarely confused with Pyongyang, the capital of the reclusive, communist North Korea.
The IOC technical report released in May was complimentary of Pyeongchang's bid. Its compactness was praised. All venues are within 30 minutes drive of each other. The $1.5 billion Alpensia resort would host the Alpine events, the main village and press and broadcast center. A second, smaller coastal hub comprising five venues - including figure skating - will be located a 20-minute drive down the mountain in Gangneung, a city of 300,000.
By 2017, a high-speed rail line will link Seoul to Pyeongchang in 50 minutes, and is expected to carry the bulk of Olympic visitors.
A new highway will reduce the current driving time from the capital, home to many of the weekend skiers who accounted for the bulk of the 1.85 million visitors to the area last season, from 2 1/2 to less than 2 hours.
The overall budget, including transport infrastructure and venues, is estimated at $3.5 billion. Hosting the Olympics is what leading members of the bid team, and politicians, have described as a ''national priority.''
Cho and the bid team are also keen to position South Korea as the gateway to the growing Asian market. The Winter Olympics have been held in Asia twice before, with Japan hosting the games in 1972 at Sapporo and 1998 at Nagano.
''There is huge potential for winter sports growth in Korea and Asia,'' Cho said. ''There are 650 million young people in the region. Winter sports are already growing very quickly, but it will jump much higher if we are awarded the games and not just in Korea but elsewhere in Asia.''
Winter sports have boomed in South Korea in the past four years, the product of a growing leisure class in the increasingly prosperous Asian nation. In 1999, there were only 11 ski resorts in South Korea; now there are at least 17, according to the Korea Ski Resort Business Association.
Cho is also the CEO of Korean Air - the airline will send a Boeing 747 to Durban for the vote. South Korea President Lee Myung-bak will also visit South Africa to lend his weight for the final days of campaigning.
''The last two bids were local bids, but this is a national bid with support at all levels of society, business and government,'' Cho said. ''We also have the passion and more than 90 percent of Koreans support the bid. We have been preparing for the last 10 years.''
Korea has also been improving in many levels of winter sports. In Vancouver, South Korea earned a national record haul of 14 medals, including its first golds in an event other than short-track, one traditionally dominated by Koreans. Only the United States, Canada, Germany and Norway collected more gold medals.
Kim Yu-na won the women's figure skating title. A huge star in her homeland and Asia, Kim is also an ambassador for Pyeongchang and a young rival to the figurehead of the Munich bid, two-time Olympic figure skating gold medalist Katarina Witt.
''She made a good presentation in Lausanne recently,'' Cho said. ''She impressed the IOC members and we expect that she will do the same in Durban.''
