A series of key IOC meetings are due to take place in the Alpensia Convention Centre over the next five days ©Gangwon Govt

International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials will seek to address a series of challenges when a week of key Pyeongchang 2018 Coordination Commission and Executive Board meetings begins here tomorrow.

It will mark the first major set of IOC meetings of the year and comes at a time of huge challenges - both in South Korea and elsewhere in the Olympic world.

Tomorrow will mark the first of a three day inspection visit with just 11 months to go until the start of the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games.

Gunila Lindberg will chair the eighth meeting of the IOC Coordination Commission since Pyeongchang was awarded the event in July 2011.

Three protesters were killed in Seoul on Friday (March 10) following the official removal of Park Geun-hye as South Korean President following successful impeachment proceedings.

Assessing the impact of a political chaos which has engulfed the host nation will be one priority for the IOC Coordination Commission. 

A final Organising Committee budget for 2017 has still not been officially announced, while the fallout from Park's impeachment has also affected efforts to promote the Games.

Pyeongchang 2018 President Lee Hee-Beom and IOC Coordination Commission chair Gunila Lindberg will meet this week for the latest inspection visit ©Getty Images
Pyeongchang 2018 President Lee Hee-Beom and IOC Coordination Commission chair Gunila Lindberg will meet this week for the latest inspection visit ©Getty Images

Legacy plans at two outstanding venues will also be assessed along with transport and accommodation plans and overlay work at venues.

Inspectors are expected to be pleased, however, with the rate of construction process following a series of largely successful test events over the winter.

Site visits and meetings will be given extra profile by the presence of IOC President Thomas Bach.

According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, the German is due to be awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Korea National Sport University in Seoul.

He will then chair a two-day IOC Executive Board meeting here on Thursday and Friday (March 16 and 17).

It has been a tumultuous month for the Olympic Movement in which Budapest has withdrawn from the race for the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games, leaving Los Angeles and Paris as the only bidders. 

Thomas Bach, pictured attending a Pyeongchang-themed exhibition on Copacabana Beach during Rio 2016, is reportedly due to receive an honorary doctorate before the IOC Executive Board meeting opens ©Getty Images
Thomas Bach, pictured attending a Pyeongchang-themed exhibition on Copacabana Beach during Rio 2016, is reportedly due to receive an honorary doctorate before the IOC Executive Board meeting opens ©Getty Images

IOC member Frankie Fredericks has also resigned as chair of the Evaluation Commission for the 2024 bidding process as he seeks to clear his name following reports linking him to suspicious payments made by a Brazilian businessman before Rio de Janeiro was awarded the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2009.

SportAccord President Patrick Baumann has been appointed to replace him.

Discussions could take place on changes to the bidding process, including on a potential plan to award both the 2024 and 2028 Games at the IOC Session in Lima in September. 

Anti-doping reforms is another area of interest, as well as the possible suspension of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya following a failure to meet an IOC-approved roadmap for reforms.

It was originally hoped that the IOC would also be able to make final decisions on sanctioning Russia at this meeting after evidence of institutional doping was published in the McLaren Report late last year.

This will not now happen, however, due to the two IOC Commission - run by two Swiss officials, Samuel Schmid and Denis Oswald - having not yet finished their work.