Athletes preparing for next year’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics have not expressed concerns about their safety amid an escalating crisis involving North Korea, international federation heads said.
Regional tension has risen since the North conducted its sixth, and by far its most powerful, nuclear test on Sept. 3, following a series of missile tests, including one that flew over Japan.
Further sanctions imposed by the UN this week have angered North Korea and a state agency in the country threatened to use nuclear weapons to “sink” Japan and reduce the US to “ashes and darkness.”
Photo: AFP
“I was in Pyeongchang only a few days ago and it is not an issue for the athletes at the moment,” International Ski Federation president Gian-Franco Kasper told reporters this week. “In Pyeongchang for the [South] Koreans it is also not an issue.”
“I have not specifically heard any concerns, not from any skiers,” he said.
Pyeongchang, the first Asian host of Winter Olympics outside Japan, is to stage the event from Feb. 9 to Feb. 25.
“If it stays like that then people should not be worried. We are convinced that Pyeongchang will be the safest place in the world during the Games,” Kasper said.
However, he said that the crisis could affect ticket sales for foreign fans.
“It could certainly impact foreign visitors. That I can imagine, that people think: ‘We won’t go there now,’ but they [Pyeongchang] would not have too many foreign visitors anyway,” he said.
Rene Fasel, who heads the international ice hockey federation, also said he had not heard of any concerns from ice hockey players.
“Honestly, we are 100 percent convinced this will work,” he told reporters. “At the moment, there is absolutely nothing. Not a single word. It’s all good.”
“If it stays like that then no problem. We will simply go,” he said.
Another winter federation official said the presence of the Chinese and US Olympic teams would also be a key factor in the safety of the Games.
“North Korea would not do anything with a large Chinese team in town,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
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