FLAME OF HOPE BURNS BRIGHT
Winter Olympics opens shrouded in drama of global politics
TWO WOMEN stood out as the heat from the Olympic flame disappeared into in the icy air of Pyeongchang yesterday – one by her presence; the other in absentia.
Watched by Donald Trump’s vice-president, and in a gesture as unexpected as it was unparalleled, the sister of North Korea’s leader Kim Jongun shook hands with the South Korean president.
Kim Yo Jong, the first member of the ruling Kim dynasty to set foot in the South since the end of the Korean War, took her place with officials of both countries, side-by-side, at the ceremonial start of the 16 days of sport the world hopes might cool the nuclear brinkmanship that has characterised that part of the world.
Katie Ormerod watched it on TV. The 20-year-old snowboarder from Brighouse had been due on the slopes tomorrow. Instead, she could only share a picture of herself going into surgery for a fractured heel bone.
There were other absentees – the appeals of 47 Russian athletes and coaches, banned in the doping scandal which blighted the 2014 games, had been thrown out by the arbitration court only nine hours earlier.
“You can only really enjoy the Olympic experience if you respect the rules and stay clean,” said Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee.
But it was hope, not retribution, that set the tone. Flanked by 200 hand-picked cheerleaders, the two Korean teams marched in side-by-side under one flag. They had done it nine times before since 2000, but Mr Trump was not then firing tweets at North Korea. His deputy, Mike Pence, in a Team USA Ralph Lauren ski jacket, was one row ahead of the Koreans yesterday. The symbolism prompted Bach to observe that “united in our diversity, we are stronger than all the forces that want to divide us.”
Mr Pence was more appropriately turned out than some of the athletes, as the formalities progressed as briskly as the minus-two temperature permitted. The three-strong Bermuda delegation must have thought – briefly – that their shorts were a brave choice. And the Tongan Pita Taufatofua, whose appearance at the summer Olympics wearing only his country’s flag made him a pinup, attempted a reprise.
“I won’t freeze,” said Taufatofua, now reinvented as a cross-country skier. “I’m from Tonga. We sailed across the Pacific. This is nothing.”
The flame was lit by Kim YuNa, darling of the South Korean figure skating circuit, who had enthralled the crowds in Vancouver eight years ago. She did so again yesterday as they handed her the torch at the top of an ice chute.
It fell to South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, to declare the games open. “Athletes from the two Koreas will work together for victory, and that will resonate with and be remembered in the hearts of people around the world as a sign of peace,” he had said at a reception beforehand.
Pyeongchang is an isolated, rugged mountain town, one of the poorest, coldest and most disenfranchised parts of an otherwise prosperous South Korea. The border to North Korea is less than 50 miles away, but yesterday it seemed closer still.
I won’t freeze. We sailed across the Pacific. This is nothing. Tongan flag bearer Pita Taufatofua.
UNLIKE PREVIOUS Winter Olympics when British hopes have been skating on very thin ice from day one, hopes for the Games now under way in Pyeongchang have never been higher in spite of Brighouse freestyle skier Katie Ormerod being ruled out because of a cruelly timed injury. Nevertheless, the Yorkshire contingent is still six strong – further testament to this region’s strength in depth when it comes to Olympic disciplines – and the white rose county will be flying the flag for Team GB.
Yet, while Britain’s ambitious medal target reflects the increased investment in winter sports, these Games will be defined by international events. Not only must the IOC demonstrate that there’s no place for drug cheats following industrial-scale cheating by Russia in Sochi four years ago, but sport’s role as a force for good in a troubled world could be reinforced if there’s a thawing of relations between South and North Korea. The stakes – or should that be skates? – are that high.