North Korean pair could be Games changer
First to qualify for Olympics good news in Pyeongchang — if they’re allowed to skate
OBERSTDORF, GERMANY— The North Korean coach stood just off the ice and exhorted her figure skaters: “Keep going! Keep going!”
And the pair of Ryom Tae Ok, 18, and Kim Ju Sik, 25, responded, at an international competition here Friday, with the best performance of their career to become the first athletes from their isolated nation to qualify for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.
The International Olympic Committee and South Korean organizers have said repeatedly that they hope North Korea’s participation would lead to a peaceful Games, a sense of reconciliation and a lessening of concerns that nuclear brinkmanship would interfere with the event.
One critical question remains, however: Will North Korea send them or any other athletes who qualify to the games in February in Pyeongchang, South Korea, amid escalating tensions on the peninsula and the fact that the two Koreas are, technically, still at war. No peace treaty was signed after the Korean War ended in 1953.
The two nations have been on convivial sporting terms this year — North Korea sent its women’s hockey team and a taekwondo team to compete in the South — but the Olympics have never gone forward free of geopolitics.
North Korea boycotted the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, the South Korean capital. And North Korea’s current leader, Kim Jong Un, is highly unpredictable.
Sung Baikyou of Pyeongchang’s organizing committee told The Associated Press on Saturday that the achievement by North Korean skaters could make it easier to persuade the North to participate.
“It widens the room for more talks regarding North Korea’s potential Olympic participation, including inviting its organized cheering groups,” which Pyongyang frequently sends to international events to support its athletes, Sung said.
When the skaters were asked minutes after Friday’s performance if they hoped to compete at the games, their coach, Kim Hyon Son, stepped in and said, “It is up to the North Korean Olympic Committee to decide whether they will participate or not.”
The North Koreans appeared relaxed and open — to a point — at a second meeting with reporters after the competition here, the Nebelhorn Trophy, but requested that no questions be asked about the Olympics. Their reluctance probably stemmed from the fact that the decision will not be theirs, said Bruno Marcotte, a prominent French Canadian coach who also works with the skaters. “It’s out of their hands,” he said. Clearly, though, the outcome was important to North Korea. It has invested considerable time and money to make Ryom and Kim eligible for the Winter Games and respected at the international level. The skaters trained over the summer in Montreal with Marcotte, whose wife, Meagan Duhamel, is a two-time world pairs champion. And the pressure of a suitable performance here seemed to weigh on Ri Chol Un, an official with the North Korean skating federation.
“I’ll sleep after the long program,” Ri had told Marcotte.
Friday’s long program, lasting four minutes, was not flawless. Ryom and Kim reduced planned, side-by-side triple Salchows to two rotations instead of three, at Marcotte’s instruction. The jump had been inconsistent in practice, and there was no need to take an unnecessary risk.
In this subjective sport, many felt the judges would be sympathetic, but Friday’s Olympic qualification appeared deserved. The North Korean pair finished with a total score of 180.09 points, their career best at an international competition. They took sixth place overall but, more important, they finished third among a subset of pairs from countries seeking five available Olympic spots.
“I was a little nervous, but the coach comrades, they trusted us and people have been cheering for us,” Kim, the skater, said. “We took a lot of motivation from them.”
At the conclusion of their routine, Ryom and Kim thrust their arms in the air.
“I felt delight and extremely grateful to our coaches,” Ryom said. “There were many people of different nationalities and backgrounds cheering for us. The fact that we gave them some kind of joy, that was the best part in the performance.”
Ri, the skating official, once nervous, was now exultant.
“I love our skaters very much,” he said. “Our skaters hope to be world level. I’m proud.” Other competitors also seemed happy for the North Ko- reans.
Timothy Leduc, an American skater who will attempt to gain the lone Olympic pairs spot for the United States in January with his partner, Ashley Cain, said: “We’re all citizens of the world; we’re all humans. They are incredible athletes. It’s very fun to watch them compete. If they go out and earn their spot under the same panel of judges we’re all being judged under, they’ve absolutely earned it.”
Anita DeFrantz, a vice president of the International Olympic Committee from the United States, said in an interview last week in New York: “It’s always important to have this show of peace which the Games embody. And the opportunity for athletes to get together, especially from nations that traditionally haven’t been friendly, is a wonderful thing.”
South Korean officials have said they are planning the games in the belief that North Korea will participate. DeFrantz said: “We hope so. I hope there’s no reason for them not to. I know we’re doing everything we can to insure that there is no barrier.”
If North Korea does not compete in Pyeongchang, Ryom and Kim would still have a chance to enhance their international standing at the world figure skating championships in March in Milan, Italy. Ryom and Kim finished 15th at the 2017 world championships, an event far less fraught with world politics.
“I want to continue to improve until I become world champion,” Ryom said this week.