It has been a month since Nikki Haley, United States ambassador to the United Nations, suggested it was still an "open question" if Team USA would participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics thanks to concerns with PyeongChang's neighbor, North Korea.
Since then, U.S. athletes have prepared as if they will, in fact, go to South Korea. Some, like Lindsey Vonn, have faced backlash for proclaiming they will represent the American people but not America's president, Donald Trump. And yet most have competed in regional qualifiers like they've got a February date with the Winter Games.
If U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham is to be believed, however, there's still a chance Team USA will boycott the Olympics altogether.
Russia won't be there except in the form of a select few without official representation for their country, and Graham posted on Twitter this week that the United States probably won't be there as well if North Korea ends up attending.
"I'm confident South Korea will reject this absurd overture," Graham said of North Korea's bid to compete in the Games, "and fully believe that if North Korea goes to the Winter Olympics, we do not."
Allowing Kim Jong Un’s North Korea to participate in #WinterOlympics would give legitimacy to the most illegitimate regime on the planet.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 1, 2018
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.
U.S. Figure Skating executives have since chided Graham for dragging "politics" into Olympic planning, cautioning him not to use Team USA as leverage for something unrelated to the Winter Games. South Korea, however, has also already welcomed its infamous neighbor to attend the 2018 Olympics. And talk of a boycott is nothing new surrounding the PyeongChang Games, which have reportedly suffered from "stagnant" ticket sales and "very low" fan interest due to geo-political tensions in the region.
