In downtown Seoul’s Olympic Museum, Rocky Yoon is about as excited for the 2018 Olympics as anyone can be.
“I still vividly remember the smell of the fresh paint during the Olympic Games,” said Yoon.
Rocky is a special advisor to help bring the Winter Olympics to South Korea and 30 years ago he helped organize the 1988 Summer Olympics.
“The entire nation was behind the Seoul Olympic games,” said Yoon.
Back then, South Korea was still recovering from the Korean War and Rocky says his country was most known around the world thanks to the television show MASH.
“’It was a catalyst for Korea because before the Seoul Olympic Games, Korea was known to the United States as war stricken. People enjoyed the soap opera drama MASH,” said Yoon.
After the games, that changed as South Korea was propelled onto the world’s stage and would become a technological powerhouse.
Billions were spent on roads, venues and buildings. That money has gone a long way, with most of the infrastructure from 30 years ago still being used today.
“In Asia, especially Korea, there’s no white elephant we have the white tiger,” said Yoon.
Now, with another Olympics sliding into South Korea comes another round of infrastructure advances.
This includes a new bullet train to the country's resort ski areas, changing a four hour drive to a one hour train ride.
It also means a chance to promote winter sports in South Korea.
“Now tourism will get in and the Gangwon Province will be called tourism capital of Korea, tourism capital of Asia and tourism capital of winter sports,” said Yoon.
It's something Rocky says will also bring another Olympic opportunity for South Korea to make history.
“This is what the Olympics are all about,” said Yoon.
