Flame lands in South Korea for 2018 Winter Games

INCHEON (South Korea): The Olympic flame arrived in South Korea yesterday, 100 days ahead of the opening ceremony for the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

South Korean Olympic gold-winning figure skater Kim Yu-na and the country’s sports minister carried the flame, in a white security lamp, down the steps at Incheon airport after a flight from Greece.

It had been kindled from the sun’s rays in a ceremony at the ancient Temple of Hera in Olympia.

“Today is a very important and proud symbol of our work and pas- sion in bringing one of the most exciting sporting events ever to our country,” said chief organiser Lee Hee-beom.

“We want the Olympic torch relay to connect you to the Games, and ignite passion and excitement in every corner of Korea,” Lee added.

The 2,018km torch relay was led off by 13-year-old figure skater You Young – although she is too young to compete in the Games – who jogged past hundreds of cameras wearing a “1” tag on her chest.

A total of 7,500 torchbearers will carry the flame, organisers said, symbolising the 75 million people who live on both sides of the divided Korean peninsula.

The Games will be held from Feb 9-25, but have been marred by slow ticket sales and the looming menace of nuclear-armed North Korea, just 80km away from Pyeongchang across the Demilitarised Zone.

Over the two weeks of the Games, 1.18 million tickets are available, with 180,000 sold internationally so far.

But South Korea is far from the traditional winter sports markets of Europe and North America, making domestic sales crucial, and South Koreans have bought little more than 160,000.

Sales are strong for blue-riband events, such as the ice hockey finals, and sports traditionally popular in the host country, such as short track speed skating and figure skating.

But for less popular disciplines such as luge and cross country skiing, ticket take- up has been weak, raising the embarrassing prospect of images of empty seats being beamed around the world.