Whilst Pyeongchang was always the favourite to follow Sochi on the roster of new winter hosts, the two traditional European winter sports venues were crushed by the margin of the first-round defeat.

"Obviously the members had made their minds up beforehand," Thomas Bach, President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and vice-president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), told insidethegames.

Munich had put on a scintillating final presentation full of emotion, colour and innovation but it ultimately counted for nothing as they picked up only 25 votes.

Munich 2018 bid leader Katarina Witt, Germany's idolised former figure skating champion, burst into tears within minutes of the result, having been certain the city would push Pyeongchang close.

Bach sympathised with Witt and said he could not explain why Munich got fewer than half the support of their Korean rivals.

"I can't believe what happened is in any way the result of our presentation," he said.

"The response from all sides was very positive. I say again, the members must have made their minds up."

Bach said the IOC members had clearly decided on another opportunity to go for new markets, in the same way that FIFA, controversially, voted for Russia for the 2018 World Cup and Qatar for 2022.

There was nothing controversial, however, about today's vote never mind how surprising the margin of victory.

"The decision was between two principles, either to go for new markets or strengthening the existing foundations," Bach said.

"The members decided on the former.

"Clearly the fact that it was the third consecutive bid of Pyeongchang played a role.

"They emphasised this in their presentation, asking for sympathy, not to say compassion.

"It's too early for us to make a final statement on whether we did anything wrong but most people within our group could not imagine what we could have done better.

"The only explanation I have is that we were not a new market."

If Munich's team were deflated with only 25 votes, Annecy were clearly embarrassed to have picked up only seven, the second lowest in recent history for either the winter or summer Games.

Annecy was always trailing badly but had the advantage of being an established winter sports resort visited by millions of skiers worldwide.


Charles Beigbeder, who had tried his best to play down Annecy's failings in the final few days of lobbying, conceded the result was "a massive disappointment".

Annecy had been quizzed after their presentation about lack of public support but Beigbeder said this was not the reason they were trounced so badly.

"We are surprised by the margin of defeat of course," he said.

"Pyeongchang will stage a great games and we are proud to have been offered the chance to serve the Olympic Movement.

"But this is very difficult to explain.

"We genuinely, perhaps naively, thought our message was getting through.

"There were some good signals so we are extremely disappointed.

"We have to accept that our competitors were just too strong."

Jean-Pierre Vidal, 2002 Olympic slalom champion, said Annecy did not have the same level of contacts with IOC members as Pyeongchang.

"They managed to convince the members of their vision which was obvious.

"Both previous times they bid, they only just failed to get through.

"There was one great favourite.

"Maybe it was their time.

"Was it the right decision for us to bid?

"We thought we could serve the Olympic values.

"It's too early to think how France will react."

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