Part 2 - LA84 Foundation

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19. Olympic Village
Birthday celebrations
The Olympic Village Headquarters
threw birthday parties for athletes and
officials whose birthdays fell during
their stay at the village. A taekwondoist
from the U.S.A. was the first,
celebrating his 31st birthday on
September 4 at the discotheque of the
Athletes' Hall with a cake presented as
a complimentary service by the headquarters.
All together, 756 athletes and
officials saw their birthdays come
around during the 33 days from
September 3 to October 5.
The headquarters delivered birthday
cards in advance so that fellow
athletes could be invited to the party,
and a cake and small souvenirs were
presented as complimentary gifts. For
23 days from September 11 to October
3, more than 10 people celebrated
their birthdays each one day on
average. On 16 days during the period
there were more than 20 celebrants
bringing large crowds of well-wishers
to the village discotheque.
Traditional wedding ceremony
A Korean traditional wedding was performed
at the Flag Plaza for an hour
from 6 p.m. on September 28, sponsored
by Yejiwon. Ham (marriage gift
box) parade and samulnori (traditional
Korean percussion quartet) processions
customary to the eve of the
wedding day were held, followed by
the three phases of the wedding
ceremony. Deacon Han Kap-soo was
put in charge of the proceedings and
the processes were explained
simultaneously in Korean and English.
The event drew great interest from
foreign visitors.
Village beauty pageant
The "Miss Olympic Village Pageant"
was held one day before the closing
ceremony. The event lasted for two
hours from 8 p.m. on the second floor
of the Athletes' Hall theater in the
presence of the village mayor and 300
athletes and officials. It was presented
in three sections, jogging suit, uniform
and native costume competitions. The
pageant was an occasion to enjoy
without being bound by formality. The
Grand Prix went to Teresa Folga
(gymnast) from Poland, Gold Prize to
Chen Yi An from Chinese-Taipei, Silver
Prize to Silver Koeswanoli from
Indonesia and Bronze Prize to Park Sieun
of Korea. The Popularity Prize
went to Revial Sharon from Israel, and
Good Health Prize to Yendork Juliand
from Ghana.
Industrial tour and Folk Village
tour
A total of 1,307 people visited the factories
of Samsung Electronics,
GoldStar Co., Ltd. Pacific Chemical
Co., Kia Motors Company, Oriental
Brewery Co., Ltd. and the Folk Village
through nine tour programs. The
industry observation course was a
half-day event, departing the village at
12:30 p.m., touring around the factory
for an hour and half and then two additional
hours at the Folk Village. Par-
ticipation of East bloc athletes and
officials on the tours helped especially
in promoting diplomacy.
Regrettable, however, was that the programs
could not be amply promoted in
advance due to the advertisement
restrictions imposed by the Olympic
Charter.
Home visits
Home visits were aimed at enhancing
mutual friendship by introducing
Korean families, their ways of life and
Korean customs and virtue. The program
was attempted nine times during
34 days of village operation, but only
45 people participated. The problem
with the program was that there were
not enough Korean family volunteers
and there also were not many athletes
and officials who wanted to take part.
Preparation of meals by families was
pointed out as a major obstacle.
19.9.3
Reception and Protocol
Events related to village reception and
protocol were much larger in scale
than the ones involving the Asian
Games two years earlier. The village
mayor, deputy village mayor and the
reception headquarters worked
vigilantly to meet and send off more
than 100 VIPs on six or seven occasions
each day.
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VIP reception
Reception procedures, preliminary
visits and other necessary steps had
been fully discussed in cooperation
with the Headquarters Hotel. Due to
the frequent schedule changes,
however, and unexpected visits, village
reception involved a series of
emergency meetings and instant decisions
according to appropriate circumstances.
Moreover, there were problems
caused by de-centralized VIP facilities
such as headquarters office,
Administration Center, entry guidance,
parking lot and others, but the problems
were somewhat eased by efficient
use of radio communication
network.
The Olympic Village Headquarters
classified VIP reception into three
categories and rendered cordial reception
commensurate with status. VIP
category and the number of VIPs in
each classification are shown in the
table:
Category 1 received honorary
treatments such as a call upon the
village mayor, village full-course tour,
allocation of interpreter, photographer
and guide, use of VIP room, VIP
lounge and entry to the Residential
Zone.
Category 2 VIPs visited the village
mayor, deputy mayor or operations
manager. Other conveniences such as
village facility tour, interpreter, use of
VIP room, VIP lounge and entry to
their national delegation's residential
area were allowed when necessary.
Category 3 were allowed to enter only
the International Zone and the
Residential Zone if necessary. They
were allowed to use the VIP lounge
and use an interpreter.
The VIP room was located right next to
the mayor's room so that it could be
used when meeting with the mayor,
deputy mayor or reception manager.
The VIP lounge was located in the
basement of the Reception Operation
Headquarters with floor space of 684
square meters. It was open for use by
village VIP visitors at their convenience.
Various types of banquets such as
cocktail, buffet, luncheon and dinner
were hosted with international cuisine
upon request. In all, 3,470 VIPs visited
the village on 197 occasions — 250
people in Category 1 on 27 occasions,
320 people in Category 2 on 48 occasions,
450 people in Category 3 on 65
occasions and 2,450 others on 57
occasions. Prime Minister Brundtland
of Norway (on September 14), King
Karl Gustav of Sweden (on September
15), and President Roh Tae Woo (on
September 24) were among the VIP
visitors.
Banquets
Various other banquets were hosted at
the village in addition to official
banquets and invitation dinner parties.
Village Mayor Kim Yong-shik hosted a
dinner party on the 18th, the day after
the Opening Ceremony, with 160 NOC
Chef de Missions invited to a gathering
aimed at promoting friendship.
More than 200 people attended a dinner
party held at the village theater as
well. After the flag-raising ceremony,
welcome parties were held at the
village banquet room where people
had the chance to meet each other
and add their signatures to the visitors'
list.
The village headquarters had hosted
63 banquets for 3,589 people by
September 20, starting with the reception
following Ireland's flag-raising
ceremony on September 5. The contractors
in charge of VIP lounge operation
prepared the banquets upon
request for national holidays and VIP
service.