Some of the world’s top snowboarders arrived in Korea Sunday as the country hosts its first Snowboard World Cup from Monday to Wednesday.

The three-day competition authorized by the International Ski Federation will take place at the snow-covered Yongpyong Resort in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province.

PyeongChang, the popular winter resort some 180 kilometers east of Seoul, is staging the international event with the aim of raising awareness of the sport here. But, more importantly, it is also trying to grab worldwide attention in a bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics.

PyeongChang is now preparing to welcome a special IOC delegation which will conduct on-site inspections from Feb. 14-20.

More than 170 snowboarders, including the current world No.1 Pierre Vaultier of France, and officials from 19 countries have been invited to the competition.
There are two tittles ― the snowboard cross and parallel giant slalom, or PSL program ― up for grabs at the competition.

Snowboarding is the youngest of the FIS disciplines. Having been first introduced into FIS’s international competition calendar in 1994, the discipline debuted in the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan.

The FIS Snowboard World Cup is currently carried out in around 20 cities in 15 countries and broadcast in more than 80 countries. The Korea Ski Association with sponsorship by LG Electronics has recently launched various promotional schemes to raise awareness of the event, including discount tickets for the resort during the competition.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)