PyeongChang Olympics closes full of off-field stories

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea, Feb. 25 (Yonhap) -- The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics came to a dramatic end after a 17-day run. Big-name sports stars like Marcel Hirscher in alpine skiing and Sven Kramer in speed skating have shown their supremacy on snow and ice and new hotshots like Alina Zagitova in figure skating and Yun Sung-bin in skeleton have made their presences felt on the global stage. But those weren't the only stories of the Olympics. Off the field, a lot of buzz and gossip have surrounded the multi-sport festival in South Korea. Before the Feb. 9 opening of the Olympics, the poor working conditions faced by volunteers were in media headlines for weeks. The PyeongChang organizing committee recruited some 15,000 volunteer workers for the first Winter Olympics on South Korean soil. But those working in advance in key Olympic facilities, such as the Main Press Centre and athletes' villages, complained of excessively long commutes and limited access to hot water at several lodging facilities. Some volunteer workers boycotted the rehearsal for the opening ceremony after being stranded at outdoor bus stops for hours due to delayed commuting buses in the region's infamously cold winter weather. The organizing committee released a series of statements promising to provide better accommodations to unpaid volunteers by increasing the numbers of drivers and buses and improving facilities. At the same time, the hygiene issue also bothered the Olympic Games. On Feb. 6, two days before the opening, some 40 security personnel for the event tested positive for norovirus, and the number of total infections increased to 321 as of Friday. The contagious virus causes stomach pain and diarrhea although it is not fatal. Most of the patients were volunteer workers and security guards in the Olympic towns of PyeongChang and Gangneung, but two Swiss athletes were reportedly infected by the virus and isolated from their colleagues. "Wash Your Hands" posters were all over the walls of the Olympic venues, Main Press Centre, media village and athletes' village, while hand sanitizers were recommended at dining halls, cafeterias and restrooms. With the games nearly coming to the finale, fortunately, the spread of the virus slowed down to a large extent as some 300 patients returned to their work. Elsewhere, the PyeongChang Olympics organizing committee has been in trouble with low ticket sales and no-shows. Days before the opening, Lee Hee-beom, the top organizer, asked home fans to buy more tickets, as less than 80 percent of the available tickets were sold as of Feb. 6. He formed a task force team to boost ticket sales. Two weeks later, the percentage went up to nearly 100 percent, as the country heated up with the Olympic fever amid an astonishing winning streak by the red-hot South Korean women's curling team and surprise medals in speed skating, skeleton and snowboarding. Although the organizers said tickets for popular events, like short track speed skating and figure skating, were sold out, complaints of empty seats in the arena have surfaced. Team Korea has been also embroiled in a bullying scandal that broke out after female speed skaters finished last in the women's team pursuit. In the event's quarterfinals, the female team of Noh Seon-yeong, Kim Bo-reum and Park Ji-woo showed an apparent lack of teamwork, leaving Noh far behind as the other two skaters finished. An after-race interview by Kim fueled the scandal that Kim and Park alienated their teammate. More than 560,000 South Koreans signed a petition to the presidential office calling for Kim to be disqualified from the national team. Their teamwork was compared with the men's speed skating trio who won silver in the team pursuit competition thanks to veteran Lee Seung-hoon's leadership and cooperation with his teenage teamates. In figure skating, the South Korean ice dance duo of Min Yu-ra and Alexander Gamelin revised their free dance music in order to avoid political controversy over Japan. The music, "Arirang Alone" by singer Sohyang, is a remix of the Korean traditional folk ballad "Arirang," but its lyrics have several references to the country's eastern islets of Dokdo. The islets have long been a recurring source of tension between the neighbors. At the recommendation of the organizing committee, the Min-Gamelin pair cut the line to avoid offending Japan. Skating to the modified version of the song, Min and Gamelin finished 18th in the figure skating ice dance competition. brk@yna.co.kr (END)