Austria, Germany may skip 2018 Korea Games
If the situation worsens and the security of our athletes is no longer guaranteed, we will not go to South Korea. KARL STOSS, Austria OC head
PARIS: Austria and Germany joined France on Friday in raising the spectre of staying away from the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea amid security fears over nuclear-armed North Korea.
Despite efforts by the IOC to calm the jitters, winter Olympic powerhouse Austria said it was prepared to envisage staying away from the Pyeongchang Games next February if security concerns deepened.
Karl Stoss, head of Austria’s national Olympic committee, said that “if the situation worsens and the security of our athletes is no longer guaranteed, we will not go to South Korea.”
Stoss’ comments follow those by France’s Sports Minister Laura Flessel, who warned Thursday: “If this gets worse and we do not have our security assured, then our French team will stay here.”
The absence of Austria and other leading winter sports powers would be a hammer blow to the Pyeongchang Games.
GERMANY JOINS CHORUS
A more muted response came from Germany, another winter sports heavyweight that tops the all-time Olympic medal table in biathlon, luge and bobsleigh, and whose team won 19 medals in Sochi including eight golds.
The security question and the possibility of keeping the German team at home would be addressed “in good time” by the government, the National Olympic Committee and security authorities, the German interior ministry told AFP subsidiary SID.
French sports minister Flessel, a five-time Olympic medallist in fencing, was the first leading politician to publicly cast doubt over a country’s participation at the Olympics which run from February 9-25 in Pyeongchang which is situated just 80km (50 miles) from the heavilyfortified frontier with North Korea.
On Friday, the IOC issued a statement aimed at calming security fears amid escalating tensions over bellicose North Korea’s recent nuclear test and missile launches.