OpEd: War and Peace in PyeongChang

This column originally appeared in Japanese in the Mainichi Shimbun, Sept. 18.

(ATR) Will the 2018 Winter Olympics be the Games nobody wants to see?

The signs are troubling.

Missile launches and nuclear bomb tests from North Korea -- just 60km from Olympic venues -- may be too close for comfort for winter sports fans to travel from around the world.

Demand for tickets is weak worldwide. Ticket agents in major markets such as the U.S. say they anticipated low interest and committed to selling fewer than normal for a Winter Olympics.

The NHL decided to continue its season in the U.S. uninterrupted. Depriving the Games of the biggest stars in professional hockey doesn’t help either.

Each new rattle of the nuclear swords by North Korea and the U.S. probably chases away more potential spectators. And not just from the U.S.

Japanese fans have the shortest travel time to South Korea of any nation. They must have mixed feelings about whether to risk the journey.

Going to the Olympics is not a casual, last-minute decision for foreign spectators. Flights must be booked, hotels secured. If the Winter Olympics in Korea was a tough sell before the nuclear escalation, the situation can only have grown worse.

There is a decided lack of demand among international media to cover the 2018 Olympics. Credentials to cover the Games that used to be in short supply are now going begging.

PyeongChang organizers are cautious in dealing with international media. We hear the organizing committee wants to avoid press conferences because most of the questions would be about North Korea.

It’s a frustrating situation for the South Koreans. All they can do is prepare for the Olympics as if nothing is happening. The realm of international politics is outside their control.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach must understand how his compatriots in PyeongChang feel. Every press conference he has held in recent months includes persistent questions about the threat to the Olympics.

So far the world’s National Olympic Committees have been quietly supportive. But if tensions continue to mount in the weeks ahead, there is the distinct possibility that countries may decide against sending athletes into harm’s way.NOCs will be torn between their responsibility to bring athletes to the Games against their obligation to keep those athletes safe. Should one country defer on 2018, others may follow.

There are efforts to bring North Korean athletes to PyeongChang. Whether they qualify for their events or are given wild card status, the presence of the North Koreans could divert attention from war to peace.

The IOC President insists there is no "Plan B for 2018", such as another location. An IOC member familiar with winter sports says that proposing an alternative to PyeongChang would undermine South Korea’s work of the past seven years.

Let’s be frank, however. Should an outbreak of war force a change in venues, it seems more likely that there will be no Winter Olympics in 2018 after all.

Written by Ed Hula

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