Olympics-Team USA talks up Pyeongchang over threats, distractions

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So far next year's Winter Olympic Games have kicked up more buzz about the threat of flying missiles than athletic excellence and US Olympic officials sought to put the focus back on the sport at a 100-day countdown in Times Square on Wednesday.

Hours after the Olympic flame arrived in South Korea on its way to Pyeongchang, around 40 past and prospective Olympians - including gold medal-winning downhill skier Lindsey Vonn - were on hand to mingle with fans and the media.

Security was understandably high only a day after a 29-year-old Uzbek immigrant drove a truck to mow down pedestrians on a bike path in Manhattan, killing eight people and injuring more than a dozen others.

US athletes during the 100-day countdown to the start of the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games in South Korea, in Times Square in New York, US, November 1, 2017. /Reuters Photo

United State Olympic Committee Chief Executive Scott Blackmun and the athletes, though, were more concerned with downplaying the risks of Games that will take place roughly 70 miles (84 km) from the border with the DPRK.

"The opportunities like this to hang out with these men and women more than offsets all the logistical challenges," Blackmun said.

"Sochi had challenges. Rio had challenges. London had challenges. Whether Pyeongchang is more or less (of a challenge) is really not the question for us. It's 'Are we preparing our athletes to the greatest extent possible?'."

Threats and insults exchanged between US President Donald Trump and the DPRK leader Kim Jong Un in recent months have heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula but the US team had received no new guidance on security or travel restrictions from the US State Department, Blackmun said.

United State Olympic Committee Chief Executive Scott Blackmun /Reuters Photo

Blackmun also said that Pyeongchang-bound US athletes would face no new guidance on what they could do when not competing, despite embarrassing behavior by swimmer Ryan Lochte and some of his teammates at the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil.

Although Team USA would always prefer athletes remained inside the secure areas of the venues and Olympic Athlete Village as much as possible, Blackmun accepted that there would be times when they would "leave the system".

"We just ask that they carry their cell phones and stay in touch and make sure their team knows where they're going to be if they get outside of the system," he said.

Blackmun declined to say whether he expected to top the 28 medals, including nine golds, captured by US athletes in 2014 in Sochi.

"We have athletes that we think can do pretty well ... but we don't talk about medal count," he added.

(Cover photo: Olympian figure skater Ashley Wagner speaks during an event in Times Square to celebrate 100 days from the start of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games in South Korea, in New York, US, November 1, 2017. /Reuters Photo)

Source(s): Reuters