The 2018 Winter Olympics begin next week, and will last from February 9 to February 25. For the first time in 30 years, the Games will be held in South Korea. The last time that the embattled nation played host was during the Seoul Summer Olympics of 1988. The city of PyeongChang, which will host the Games this year, is located 80 miles east of Seoul and 60 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone that divides North Korea and South Korea.
World-class athletes in sports such as skiing, speed skating, figure skating, and bobsleigh will travel to PyeongChang to participate in a variety of “snow sports, ice sports, and sliding sports,” according to PyeongChang Olympics’ official site. The BBC reported four new disciplines within existing sports have been added this year: big air snowboarding, mixed doubles curling, mass start speed skating, and mixed team alpine skiing. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said they hope that these changes will have “youth appeal” and boost female participation. In addition, six nations are scheduled to make their Winter Olympics debut: Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Singapore.
To prepare for the Games, new venues, stadiums, and rail lines have been built in PyeongChang. According to CNN, the estimated cost of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics is $10 billion, five times less than the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which were estimated to be the costliest ever. In spite of all the excitement, anxiety has hung over the preparations, too. When South Korea won the contest to host the 2018 Winter Olympics seven years ago, North Korea’s antagonism looked like little more than an inconvenience. At the time, there was even serious talk of South Korea co-hosting the event with North Korea as a sign of good will, according to the Chicago Tribune. In light of recent nuclear tensions, several countries, including France, Germany, and—briefly—the United States, considered skipping the Olympics, citing concern for the safety of their athletes.
With a week to go, security concerns have been alleviated by North Korea’s agreement to participate in the Olympics. During the opening ceremony, North and South Korea plan to march together under a unified flag, according to NPR. In addition, the two nations have agreed to form their first joint Olympic team: a women’s ice hockey team. According to Robert E. Kelly, an expert on North Korean security issues at Pusan National University, a North Korean attack during the Olympics is unlikely. “I think the Olympics will be safe,” he said. Many see the fact that North Korea is sending athletes to the Games as insurance against violence during the event.
However, an article for NPR noted that this breakthrough in communications between North and South Korea does not necessarily indicate relations that will last beyond the Olympics. “The two Koreas are not talking about security issues—that is, this question of North Korea’s increasing nuclear and missile capabilities,” a reporter for NPR said.
In addition to potential security concerns, the IOC announced last December that the Russian Olympic Committee is barred from the 2018 Olympics due to the discovery of a state-run doping program. In the aftermath of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, evidence from the former director of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory indicated that many of the country’s greatest athletic stars were using banned performance-enhancing substances throughout the Games. According to an article for The New York Times, Russian anti-doping experts tampered with urine samples as part of one of the most elaborate doping efforts in sports history.
During the 2014 Sochi Olympics, Russia won the greatest number of gold medals—though many of these will be retroactively awarded to other athletes in a special ceremony at the PyeongChang Olympics. This year, official records will state that Russia won zero medals, regardless of the performance of athletes from Russia who choose to compete as neutral athletes. The IOC’s suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee allows the participation of athletes who can prove through rigorous testing that they are not using banned substances; these athletes must comply with stipulations not to wear their country’s colors or march under their own flag, according to The New York Times.
For all the controversy and uncertainty, the mayor of PyeongChang County, Sim Jae-kook, expressed confidence that things will fall together and the Olympics will be a success this year, saying “Koreans have a tendency to work at the last minute.”
Sarah is a senior double majoring in English and biology.