Two Executives of the United States Figure Skating (USFS) have warned against a potential America boycott of the Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The USFS President, Sam Auxier, in reference to Senator Lindsey Graham’s comments that if North Korea is competing in next month’s games the U.S. should boycott, says Graham and others “need to be careful” about the American team not participating, adding that “They shouldn’t be playing politics with this.”
The USFS Executive Director, David Raith, reacting to political intervention in the Olympic process said: “It doesn’t help anybody. We’ll be there.”
Spokesman for the United States Olympic Committee, (USOC), Mark Jones, reiterated the governing body’s long-held position, saying: “We intend to bring full delegations to the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
On Monday, Senator Graham said the United States now has a reason to stay away from the Olympics, which begin on February 9.
“Allowing Kim Jong Un’s North Korea to participate in Winter Olympics would give legitimacy to the most illegitimate regime on the planet. I’m confident South Korea will reject this absurd overture and fully believe that if North Korea goes to the Winter Olympics, we do not.”
The last thing American figure skaters want is to be drawn into any such debate as the National championships, which serve as the Olympic Trials, began Wednesday. The athletes are evasive about the topic, trying to avoid the distraction.
Auxier and Raith met it head on, however, expressing concerns about political interference while being confident U.S athletes want to attend the Pyeonchang Games.
“The USOC is planning to go. We’re planning to go. We’re planning to field a team, our athletes are training and there is nothing today that says we’re not going to compete,” Raith said.
In 1980 athletes US athletes did not participate in the Summer Games in Moscow because of a U.S.-led boycott, “ And I’d hate to see that just because Trump and Kim Jong-un are trying to see which button’s bigger,” Auxier added.
Auxier admits it is USOC’s responsibility to make the call on going to South Korea, but that USOC CEO Scott Blackmun has affirmed that the America team will go, unless it becomes physically or legally impossible through some type of war action.
“That would change things dramatically,” Auxier added. “But I don’t think our athletes would boycott. They’ve been working all their lives for this. Who knows what Trump will tweet out, but if he were to say to boycott it, unless there was a very clear reason why to do it, I don’t think our athletes would boycott it. They want to compete.”
France has also threatened not to compete in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang if safety cannot be guaranteed and the state of North Korea’s atomic weapons program worsens, Laura Flessel, the Country’s sports prime minister, said.
“If this gets worse and we do not have our security assured, then our French team will stay here, we will not put our team in danger.”
An International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesman dismissed safety concerns, adding that: “Athletes’ safety and security are of course a primary concern for the IOC.”
IOC executive board member and International Ski Federation President Gian Franco Kasper has said there is no “plan B” to hold the Games elsewhere.
