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The International Olympic Committee moves on to the next round of bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics and announces applications for Annecy (France), Munich (Germany) and PyeongChang (Republic of Korea).

The 2016 host city of Rio de Janeiro was elected October 2 2009. Sochi Russia will host the 2014 winter Olympics which will prove an interesting challenge for European based Annecy and Munich. With two of the overall three bids in Europe this will make an challenging mix splitting the dominant decision making European IOC members.

PyeongChang was in the bidding for the 2010 Games losing to Vancouver and back again for the 2014 Games losing to Sochi Russia so, like Rio de Janeiro, this makes their third time and could be their lucky charm.

Germany has a track record hosting the Olympics starting with the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen winter Games twinned with the Berlin summer Olympics. Then Munich held the 1972 summer Games that were tragically hit with the Black September terrorist attack.

France has a bigger history with Paris weighing in with two summer editions 1900 and 1924 and winter Games Grenoble 1968 and Albertville 1992. Korea has the legacy of the 1988 Seoul summer Games so all three nations bring experience to the competition.

On the 6th of July 2011 at the IOC session in Durban, South Africa the final vote will be made.