3 cities seek to host 2018 Winter Games

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Cities in France, Germany and South Korea placed bids to be chosen as the site for the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.

Annecy, France; Munich, Germany, and PyeongChang, South Korea, met Friday's International Olympic Committee deadline to submit their intention to be considered as host sites for the XXIII Winter Games and XII Paralympic Winter Games.

The IOC will appoint a committee to review each city's potential to carry out the Winter Games. Locations that meet IOC qualifications will enter a phase of the selection process in which officials from the cities submit in-depth reports on their Olympic projects.

The next deadline for the candidate cities is March 15, by which answers to a questionnaire must be submitted to international Olympics officials. The selection process will conclude with a vote in July 2011 during an IOC meeting in South Africa.

The IOC has Winter Games scheduled for 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, and 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Summers Games are set for London in 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016.