Olympia 2018: German athletes concerned about North Korea

After the recent nuclear weapons test by North Korea’s dictator Kim, the debate on the meaning of Olympia in Pyeongchang has also reached the German camp.

There is a growing concern, but German winter sports enthusiasts still believe strongly in the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang in February.However, after the internationally condemned test of a hydrogen bomb by North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-un, the prospects for carefree games are extremely slim.

“It worries me as a human being, not as a sportsman.It’s dramatic, the escalation level is really high,”said President Franz Reindl of the German Ice Hockey Association (DEB),”We talk about it internally, everyone thinks about it,”says Thomas Schwab, board member of the Bobsleigh and Sled Federation for Germany (BSD).

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The discussion in the German athlete camp is also alive and kicking “The threat can be taken very seriously.You have to keep an eye on developments.Also regarding the role of the USA,”said DOSB athlete spokesman Max Hartung.In the end, the federal government would have to decide “whether it could send a team to such a danger zone.”

Pyeongchang is only 80 kilometres from the border of the divided country.At Olympia, the unpredictable Kim would have the western world on his doorstep for further provocations if conditions had not changed by the intervention of the USA, for example.Either way, the prospects of untroubled competition are not the best.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) continues to focus on diplomacy and observes the situation:”We are in exchange with all the countries concerned,” said an IOC spokesman to the SID on Monday.We are working well with the organizing committee in Pyeongchang,”they said.

The representatives of German sports still firmly believe that the games can take place in South Korea.As DSV Alpine Director Wolfgang Maier put it:”We don’t want to set off a wave in this direction.I’m sure we’ll discuss it in November or December.”

Last year, we also quickly withdrew our athletes from the European Youth Games in Turkey when they were due to take place in a strained situation on the Iranian border,”explained the official.

We will soon be going to South Korea for training, and we will register at the embassy to do so.So that they know that we are there, and so that in case of doubt we can get away with it,”Schwab explained.

Hartung believes that the umbrella organization DOSB has the topic on screen and will also help athletes who are afraid of a trip to the crisis area.It is also good that officials such as IOC President Thomas Bach or the German delegation leader Dirk Schimmelpfennig are going to Pyeongchang for the Olympics.Hartung:”You will then decide on your own behalf whether or not a trip there is dangerous.”