Will there be a terrorist attack at the Winter Games?
It’s a fair question, one that has undoubtedly kept event planners up at night. North Korea, after all, is a mere 100 miles from host South Korea, and tensions between the North and the rest of the world is at an all time high.
There is precedent for concern. A terrorist attack at the Munich Games in 1972 left 11 Israeli coaches and athletes dead; at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, a pipe bomb exploded in Centennial Olympic Park, killing 1 and injuring over 100. In the winter preceding the 1988 Seoul Games, North Korea bombed a South Korean airline, sending a tacit message about the potential for harm at the upcoming event.
The Seoul games proceeded without incident. Will there be similar results in 2018? It’s too late to move the Games, of course, so the International Olympic Committee is busy coordinating with agencies to enhance safety measures. Time will tell if their efforts pay off.