The head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in charge of evaluation of candidate cities for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games has said South Korea's Pyeongchang emerged as a strong candidate competing on an equal footing with Vancouver, Canada and Salzburg, Austria. According to Kim Un-yong who presided over the meeting in his capacity as the head of the IOC subcommittee on television and radio, Gerhard Heiberg made the remark while attending an IOC meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on the strategy to sell the rights to broadcast the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympiad. Kim quoted Heiberg as saying he was satisfied with the fact that Pyeongchang emerged as a strong candidate that can organize the 2010 Winter Olympics well although Vancouver and Salzburg were considered as strong candidates at the initial stage.