AN OLYMPICS TRIAL IS A GOOD KOREA MOVE, KIM!
IN just over a month, Team Ireland will travel to Pyeongchang in South Korea to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics.
Amongst the athletes who’ve already qualified and dream of bringing medals home to Ireland are Sochi snowboarding veteran Seamus O’Connor from San Diego, Austria-based Alpine skier Patrick McMillan, freestylers Brendan Newby from Utah and John Brown from New Hampshire, slalom and giant slalom racer Tess Arbez from France and cross-country skier Thomas Westgard from Norway.
By January 24th, another three athletes – Dublin-based Cormac Comerford, Essex native Kieran Norris and Emma Ryan from Massachusetts – will know if they have done enough to qualify after a tough few months of racing.
Our 2018 team members hail from a diverse range of places around the globe and are eligible to compete for Ireland through Irish parents or grandparents.
They follow in the footsteps of former Irish Olympians Kirsty and Tamsen McGarry, Pauli Schwarzacher-Joyce and Clifton Wrottesley who narrowly missed out on a bobsleigh bronze medal at Salt Lake City in 2002.
Like many, I’m intrigued by what awaits the Irish team in Pyeonchang when the games begin on February 9.
In his New Year address, IOC President Thomas Bach remarked that ‘there has never been such a political background to a host city for a summer or winter Olympic Games’, referring to the high political tension between North and South Korea.
Nuclear war rhetoric between Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump has everyone on edge and unsurprisingly, by late 2017 ticket sales for the Games were still reportedly low.
The Games themselves are recovering from controversy with the Russian team suspended as a result of the Sochi 2014 doping scandal and a decision made that only clean individual Russian athletes will be allowed to compete.
Add those ingredients together and there could be quite a journey ahead for our athletes.
One thing that’s certain is that Kim Yong-Un will be watching closely, perhaps jealously, as the Games unfold.
In 2017, British snowboarding champion Jamie Barrow made a controversial trip to North Korea, visiting the capital Pyongyang before heading to the ski resort of Masikryong on Mount Taewha.
Constructed in just ten months during 2013, the luxury ski resort was designed to rival Pyeongchang and as a vanity project for Jong-Un, who reportedly spent time at school in Switzerland. While basketball champion Denis Rodman once famously said that he has skied with Kim Jong-Un, the DPRK leader was photographed riding a chair lift without skis during a visit to the slopes.
Skiing is labelled an elitist sport at the best of times but the notion of a luxury resort where a ski lesson costs the equivalent of an average month’s wage is criticised as an immoral folly. Masikryong’s slopes are often empty, out of reach of all but the richest North Koreans and curious international visitors.
UN sanctions mean that ‘luxury’ equipment like snow mobiles cannot be bought. Instead locals – adults and children – have been photographed clearing icy roads leading to the resort with pick axes and other basic tools.
IOC president Thomas Bach has said the Olympic Games must always go beyond political division and act as a symbol of hope and peace. Let’s hope all parties are listening and let’s wish Team Ireland a successful and safe Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Good luck Team Ireland!