Ligety confident US-North Korea tension won’t stop Games
France’s 2018 Games flag bearer calm over security
PARK CITY, United States, Sept 27, (AFP): Two-time Olympic Alpine ski champion and five-time world champion Ted Ligety expects cooler heads to prevail in US-North Korea tensions and February’s Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to be staged as planned.
The 33-year-old American, speaking Tuesday in his hometown at a preview event for the 2018 Winter Games, said the risk to South Korea and other nations in a conflict between North Korean and American forces was simply too great to let it happen.
“There have been North Korean tensions for decades. It has been talked about as a security issue for years and years,” Ligety said.
“If something happened, it would be a lot worse than me not getting to go to the Olympics. We’re talking about millions of people dying.”
Ligety is confident enough that he
Ligety
is planning for wife Mia and threemonth-old son Jax to be with him in South Korea.
“I don’t see it as an issue because the consequences of something happening are pretty scary way beyond the Olympics,” Ligety said.
“I don’t think either side would like to see it get that far so I don’t think it will happen.”
The Pyeongchang Winter Olympics run from February 9-25 in South Korea but will be staged only 80km (50 miles) from a heavily guarded border with North Korea.
US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged insults amid raised tensions in recent days.
But Pyeongchang organizing committee spokesman Kim Jaeyoul sees the Olympics as having a special ability to overcome differences between countries.
“Sport has a unique power,” he said. “Sport transcends politics and political differences.”
US Olympic Committee chief executive Scott Blackmun says he is confident based on talks with US government officials that the Games will be safe and secure.
Meanwhile, double Olympic biathlon champion Martin Fourcade said on Wednesday security was the furthest thing from his mind as he fine tuned his training for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Chosen to carry the French flag at the opening ceremony, Fourcade said he trusted in the authorities to take all the measures necessary over concerns at North Korea’s nuclear missile testing. “I’m totally concentrated on my physical preparation. We athletes are only concerned by that. We trust in the institutions concerned to take the necessary measures.
“I’m certainly not worried about it,” said Fourcade, whose comments were at odds with those made last week by French sports minister and former Olympic fencing champion Laura Flessel.
“If this gets worse and we do not have our security assured, then our French team will stay here,” Flessel told RTL radio.