Nuclear war a new risk, even for experienced Olympians

Canadian moguls starMikael Kingsbury isn't naive.

He reads the news and is very aware of thesecurity concerns ahead of February's Winter Olympics in South Korea. He knows about the increased tensions between the United Statesand North Korea, South Korea's notoriously unpredictable neighbour.

At the same time, he isn't spending much time worrying.

"For sure I'm concerned," said Kingsbury, the all-time leader in men's World Cup moguls wins and an Olympic silver medallist in Sochi. "At the same time I'm thinking about skiing, I'm not thinking about anything [else], and I believe the Olympics will make it safe and I'm not very worried. It's the Olympic Games, we're not going to war, so I feel pretty safe."

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Fellow Olympian Ivanie Blondin, a speed skater, feels the same way.

"I haven't really paid too much attention to it," Blondin said. "Right now leading up to the Games all I'm really focused on is my preparation physically, mentally going into Pyeongchang."

Athletes might be focused on their preparation, but others are paying lots of attention to ensuring these Games are safe amidst a volatile, evolving and unprecedented set of security concerns.

Olympics under a nuclear shadow

7 years ago

Duration 2:46

Amid heightened tensions between North Korea and the U.S., the National's Sasa Petricic finds Olympic athletes are thinking less about fire and fury and more about ice head of February's Games in South Korea.

The Olympics will take place in the resort town of Pyeongchang, just 80 km from the highly militarized border with North Korea.

Tension along the Korean peninsula is always high, but has reached new levels in recent months.

North Korea has repeatedly defied international sanctions and protocols by continuing to expand and test its missile program, including claims it can now reach the U.S. mainland with missiles potentially armed with nuclear warheads.

And the leaders of the two nations, U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un, have traded increasingly personal insults, each side threatening to destroy the other.

Officials have worked to placate concerns about how this all may affect the Olympics, which are about 130 days away.

"We see the deliberations of the U.N. Security Council, which are about diplomacy and diplomatic measures and sanctions to resolve this situation," IOC president Thomas Bach told reporters earlier this month.

The host nation is leaving nothing to chance.Reuters reported Thursday the organizing committee has added an extra layer of security as tensions ramp up.The measures include 5,000 armed troops at the Games, double the number on duty when the nation hosted the 2002 soccer World Cup.The committee is also hiring a crack cyber defence team to help guard against hacking attacks from the North.Additional x-ray screeners are also being hired.

"We will search Olympic venues to check for bombs, protect athletes and visitors, and guard against any attempts to assassinate key figures," Jin Jeong-hyeon, a police inspector from the SWAT team, told Reuters.

The looming threat of war isn'ta traditional Olympic security issue.

"Often when we think about the risk to athletes or teams it's more of an individual risk," said David Roberts, an urban affairs professor at the University of Toronto.

"At the [2016] Games in Rio for instance, the types of concerns were about individual safety, be it around a disease like Zika [virus] or violence and those things we can address through precautions, policing and security details.

"But it's much harder to figure out how to not be victim of nuclear war.If you are there you are there, and if something happens the consequences will be dire."

Nations threatening to stay home

It's no wonder some nations are already threatening to stay home.

Last week,France's sports minister, Laura Flessel, said if the crisis deepened and "our security cannot be assured, the French Olympics team will stay at home." But she added: "We're not there yet."

The U.S Olympic Committee's security chief, Nicole Deal, recently sent a letter to potential Olympians, saying provocations between the U.S. and the North Korea are likely to continue and "should not be dismissed as insignificant nor feared as precursors of an inevitable conflict."

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The letter didn't indicate whether the U.S. was considering skipping the Winter Games.

Canadian Olympic officials have said very little about potential security issues.

In a statement released last week, the Canadian Olympic Committee said: "The safety of our entire Canadian Olympic team is always our main priority, no matter where the Games are held. The COC and the RCMP have representatives in South Korea and have routinely done site visits to the country. The government of Canada does not currently have travel advisories in place for South Korea and recommends that Canadians exercise normal security precautions, which is the lowest of four risk levels."

It's believed the COC will provide athletes with more information in November.

"The COC is on top of everything for us and I trust in their decisionin what they're going to be deciding for us," Blondin said. "I'm going to be in Pyeongchang unless I'm told otherwise by the COC and the Canadian government."

Kingsbury also said he will take the COC's lead.

"I know kind of where the Olympic Village will be and where my family will stay, but for me that's all the information I need and I'm sure the COC will give us more information about security stuff," he said.

For most nations planning on participating, Roberts said the real question will be is it worth it?

"Have we done enough of an assessment to believe the risk that war will break out is low enough that we will take the risk of sending our teams to participate this event," Roberts said."The question is really do you get on the plane rather than what to do when you are there.And that really comes down to do you believe war is going to break out, then it's a pretty easy answer not to go."

Canadian Olympians who have spent years preparing for these Games hope it never gets to that point.

"Until the Canadian government and the COC tells us otherwiseI think we're going," Blondin said.

"If they were to tell us we're not going it would be extremely, extremely disappointing, but I trust in the decision so I'm going to do whatever they tell us to do."