RIO DE JANEIRO -- Organizers of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, have set up a virtual-reality ski simulator -- complete with fake, blowing snow -- on Copacabana Beach.Having sun and sand is normal here, but not snow, said local Danieli Evangelista, stepping off the make-believe ski slope after waiting in line for 30 minutes for a taste of winter during the Summer Olympics. Hardly anyone here ever sees snow. Its very cool, a very real effect.Its also about to get very real for the next hosts of the Olympic Games.Were not ready to go today, but were getting ready, Kim Jaeyoul, vice president of the Pyeongchang organizing committee, told The Associated Press.South Koreas games will be the first of three straight in Asia, joining the Tokyo Summer Games in 2020 and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022. These come after a run of difficult games in Sochi, Russia, and now Rio de Janeiro, with the International Olympic Committee looking for a safe pair of hands, as Tokyo labeled its winning bid three years ago.Yet organizers in Pyeongchang have struggled with construction delays, local conflicts over venues and a slow pace in attracting domestic sponsorship. This contrasts with the smoother run-ups to the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the 2002 World Cup that South Korea co-hosted with Japan.Unlike the 1988 Olympics and the 2002 World Cup, it was not the central government but a province that led the efforts to bring the Olympics, said Heejoon Chung, who teaches sports science at South Koreas Dong-A University. There is a sentiment that the Winter Games are more about Pyeongchang than the nation as a whole.The Pyeongchang organizing committee named Lee Hee-beom its new president three months ago. It was the second leadership change in two years, and thats worried the International Olympic Committee.Lee bowed to IOC President Thomas Bach, and then to almost 100 IOC members, before addressing the full membership just days before the Rio Olympics opened.Id like to assure you that our preparations are fully on track, Lee told them.In introducing him, Bach called Lee a very dynamic and reliable leader, and joked that he promised he will be with us until the games take place.Organizers say that after a rocky start, 90 percent of the sponsorship target of $760 million will be met at the end of the year. Sponsorship will provide about one-third of the 2.2 trillion won, or $2 billion, operating budget. Kim said the budget would be adjusted in the next few weeks, compensating for inflation.Six new competition venues are about 80 percent complete, and a new high-speed rail line will be finished in June of 2017 and in operation the following January. The line will link Incheon airport to Pyeongchang and reduce travel time to 90 minutes from almost twice that much.Pyeongchang is also building a controversial sliding center for bobsled, luge and skeleton, after rejecting an IOC suggestion that it use a complex previously constructed for the games in Nagano, Japan, to save money. The cost is 124 billion won ($112 million) for a venue that could be a white elephant if not managed properly.Gunilla Lindberg, the IOC member heading the planning for Pyeongchang, said the sliding center and the International Broadcast Center are slightly delayed.Meantime, competition is heating up between South Korea and China over whose Olympic ski venue might ultimately become a destination for Asian tourists. Beijing planners have picked Zhangjiakou as the ski site for the 2022 games. Pyeongchang has some advantages, as it gets more natural snow than Zhangjiakou.A ski resort built for the Beijing Games is not going to be enough, considering the population of China, Kim said. We want to attract Chinese, but also Southeast Asians.Pyeongchang is in South Koreas Gangwon Province, and the central and provincial governments have been battling over who should pay the Olympic bills as skepticism grows about the long-term economic benefits of mega-sporting events, said Chung, the sports science professor.Pyeongchang mostly got what it wanted, Chung said, noting the province has pushed off costs to the central government. It has no choice. Its still the Olympics, and you dont want to look bad hosting it.---Kim contributed from Seoul, South Korea.---Stephen Wade on Twitter: http://twitter.com/StephenWadeAP .His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/stephen-wadeFake Jerseys For Sale .5 million, one-year contract on Friday. 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Irving scored 23 points, Tristan Thompson had 20 points and 10 rebounds and the Cavaliers beat the Denver Nuggets 117-109 on Friday night. COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Columbus Blue Jackets won another game with a strong finish.Jack Johnson, Cam Atkinson and Seth Jones each had a goal and an assist as the Blue Jackets beat the New York Islanders 6-2 for their sixth straight win.Josh Anderson, Brandon Saad and Lukas Sedlak also scored for Columbus and Sergei Bobrovsky had 25 saves.Ive never been on a team thats been in this position at this point of the year, Johnson said of his teams surge. And Ive been in the league 10 years. You really appreciate it when youre having a season like this.Josh Bailey and John Tavares scored for New York, which had earned a point in a season-high five straight games (4-0-1). Jaroslav Halak made 32 saves until he was pulled after the Blue Jackets scored four consecutive goals in the third period.Anderson put Columbus ahead 3-2 at 2:19 when he picked off a defensive pass and banged it in from the slot seconds after coming onto the ice for his shift.Saad, Sedlak and Jones scored in a 5-minute span to make it 6-2 with 5:37 to go.Youre not going to play good when you make dumb decisions with the puck, Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. It has nothing to do structurally. It has nothing to do goaltending-wise. We just made some bad decisions.New Yorks third-string goalie Jean-Francois Berube then replaced Halak and stopped the one shot he faced in his season debut.The Islanders came out quick and it took Columbus a while to get going. New York took a 1-0 lead 5:59 in when a defensive pass by the Blue Jackets Sam Gagner at the boards was deflected by Bailey, and the popup was bobbled by Bobrovsky into the net. Bailey was given credit for an unassisted goal.We just had to keep on playing, get our feet, simply our game, and I thought we did a good job with that, Columbus coach John Tortorella said of the Blue Jackets slow start. Weve done a good job of that all year long, as far as just trying to play and not worry about what happened.Thee Blue Jackets tied it up on a power play with 6:01 left in the first when Johnson wound up from just inside the neutral zone and fired a bullet past Halak.dddddddddddd It was Johnsons first goal of the season.Columbus Brandon Dubinsky and New Yorks Travis Harmonic went to the penalty box for 5 minutes each when both threw down the gloves and threw punches near the end of the first quarter.Columbus took a 2-1 lead when a speeding Atkinson took a pass from Johnson in the neutral zone and beat Halak on the breakaway 10:16 into the second. New York tied with 7:28 left in the period when Tavares lifted the puck over Bobrovskys pad from in front of the net.The Blue Jackets took off in the third period.After Anderson gave Columbus the lead for good, Saad made it 4-2 on a wrister from the high slot at 9:23.Sedlak, who scored his first NHL goal on Friday night, scored another when he tapped in a loose puck with 7:21 to go. Jones capped it with just over 5 1/2 minutes remaining.Our mindset is, whether were down by a goal or up by a goal, were still trying to press and get the next goal. Atkinson said.Game notes Columbus is 9-1-1 in its last 11 home games. ... Blue Jackets F Nick Foligno was a scratch because of illness for the second straight day. Oliver Bjorkstrand was called up from Cleveland (AHL) on Friday to replace him. ... The Blue Jackets loaned D Dalton Prout to Cleveland on a conditioning assignment. ... C Ryan Strome was back in the lineup for the Islanders after missing one game due to illness. ... Islanders scratched G Thomas Greiss, D Scott Mayfield and LW Anthony Beauvillier. ... Bobrovsky has allowed two goals or fewer in 18 of 23 games.UP NEXTIslanders: Host Washington on Tuesday night.Blue Jackets: At Edmonton on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game trip to western Canada. ' ' '