The Olympic Games are coming back, starting Friday — and so are the rampant fears about their safety. “South Korea Prepares for the World’s Most Dangerous Olympics” said a headline in the Wall Street Journal. A story on Bustle asked “Are the Winter Olympics in Danger?”
People are losing their minds over the Winter Games, taking place in PyeongChang, South Korea. But is their worry justifiable? Every two years, it seems, a new city is dubbed the most dangerous Olympics host yet. And then — ta-da! — nothing happens.
Violent incidents at the Olympics are rare — and, in fact, two of the most notable took place in innocuous cities, where no one foresaw any risk: the 1996 Atlanta bombing that killed one person, and the 1972 Munich massacre, in which 11 Israeli athletes and one German police officer were taken hostage and killed by Palestinian terrorists.
This time around, there are major concerns about possible violence from neighboring North Korea, which is planning a military parade of long-range missiles on Thursday, just one day before the Olympics’ opening ceremony. The nervous jitters have led to lousy sales: Just 75 percent of tickets have been sold so far.
Hopefully, on Feb. 25, the final day of the games, we’ll learn that the festering fears were unfounded.
For more than a century the Olympics has proved to be a reliably safe event, despite the potential troubles many of the host cities have presented.
Here are some of the modern Olympics’ most dangerous settings . . . that turned out to be not so dangerous after all.
Sochi, Russia
While the Sochi Winter Games are now best remembered for disgusting hotels with yellow tap water, dead bees in bowls of honey and the occasional missing doorknob, officials’ main concern in the lead-up was imminent peril.
Terrorism was on many people’s minds. First in June 2013, a Chechen terrorist leader, Doku Umarov, told his followers to attack Olympic venues, and OK’d the killing of civilians.
Then on Dec. 29 and 30, there were two bombings in two days in the nearby city of Volgograd that killed 34 people. Islamic extremists claimed responsibility.
A Fox headline said, “Russian terror attacks could be chilling prelude to Olympic violence.”
Adding to that, a 22-year-old female suicide bomber, Ruzanna Ibragimova, was on the loose, and many feared she was hiding out in the Russian town. She was known as a “black widow,” one of many women who were married to killed Islamist militants and out to avenge their deaths.
Still, the biggest inconvenience gamesgoers had to contend with turned out to be subpar hotel rooms.
Rio de Janiero
Instead of the iconic torch, attendees at the 2016 Summer Olympics wanted a giant mosquito-repellant candle.
Brazil was the country hardest hit by Zika, a virus linked to microcephaly and other neurological complications in newborns, which is transmitted by the buzzing bugs. More than 1,500 Brazilian babies were born with microcephaly, which is caused by Zika.
But despite the paranoia, not a single foreign visitor or athlete reported a case of the virus.
Rio’s other challenge was its notorious reputation for unsavory activities. A fear-stoking headline in the Telegraph said, “Why the Rio Olympics is on course to be most crime-ridden games.”
And, to be sure, there were many reported instances of robberies and muggings. Ironically, the Olympics chief of security was nearly mugged.
However, the most infamous crime during the Rio’s games didn’t actually happen.
American swimmer Ryan Lochte told Billy Bush on “Today” that he and three of his teammates had been robbed at gunpoint after leaving a party. The 12-time medalist’s tale turned out to be fake, and he received a 10-month suspension.
Beijing
Security guards don’t help with all aspects of safety. For the Beijing Games, the biggest worries were in the kitchen.
After reports suggested that the food and water supplies in the city were contaminated, the US team went so far as to ship its own meals to China — including 12 tons of protein.
Reports said Beijing’s pork and shellfish were tainted with chemicals, and that tap water contained coliform bacteria and sewage. There was even concern that bottled water was actually repackaged tap water.
For athletes and coaches, the biggest worry was that contaminated grub could lead to false doping results.
“The standards in Chinese meat generally fall way short of what is needed or is realistic to try to ensure food safety in avoiding false drug tests during the Games,” a food adviser told Reuters at the time.
There were no major reported food-related incidents that year.
Seoul, South Korea
Thirty years ago, the Summer Olympics were held in South Korea for the first time ever. They took place in Seoul rather than PyeongChang, but the exact same nagging fears were on everyone’s minds.
Declassified CIA documents show that, at the time, the US government was terrified of a North Korean attack on the games.
“We believe that violence perpetrated by North Korea is the highest security threat to the games,” the documents said.
In November 1987, North Korea sabotaged a South Korean commercial jet over the Adaman Sea. The expressed motivation behind the deadly act: Disrupting the Olympic Games.
Americans were worried that more airline attacks could be planned, or that North Korean agents would infiltrate South Korea by sea.
None of that happened — and the Olympics provided beneficial exposure for a country that needed it.
Athens, Greece
The first modern Olympics was held in Athens in 1896. So, when the city was again selected by the International Olympic Committee in 1997 to host the 2004 Summer Games, the move was thought of as a momentous homecoming.
Instead, it became the first Olympic Games since September 11, 2001.
Officials did all they could to calm fears of violent extremism occurring at the event, but just 100 days before the games were set to begin, far-left terrorists detonated three bombs outside a police station in the city. There were no casualties, but the damage was done.
Newspapers ran reports of security being so lax at major stadiums in the weeks leading up to the games that anybody could just stroll in.
Greece doubled down on safety measures. Days before the opening ceremony, 70,000 officers patrolled the city and NATO jets kept watch from the sky. Security costs were six times as much as the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney — but the hefty price tag paid off.