White House says U.S. might not participate in Winter Olympics

The 2018 Winter Olympics are just a few months away, but there’s a chance there won’t be a Team USA to root on when they take place.

It’s never fun when sports and politics collide, and despite their status as a showcase for sports for the entire world, the Olympics have not been immune to those kinds of intersections over the years. They’ve even involved the United States on occasion, and another one might be stirring for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Despite rising tensions in the Korean peninsula reaching arguably their highest point yet thanks to a recent North Korean missile test, there has been little talk of Team USA skipping the 2018 Winter Games. That changed suddenly and stunningly on Thursday.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders dropped the bombshell during a press briefing, suggesting that the U.S. might still pull out of Pyeongchang.

This admission came on the heels of US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley calling U.S. participation in the Winter Olympics an “open question” the night before. Haley framed it as a question of athlete safety, citing relations with North Korea that are “changing by the day.”

The United States has never missed the Winter Olympics, and has sent a team of athletes to every modern edition of the Olympic Games except for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, which it boycotted for political reasons. If Team USA skips Pyeongchang and uses safety as its justification, it would be an unprecedented move.

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It would also leave the Games without two of its largest delegations of athletes, as Russia was banned from Pyeongchang earlier this week for extensive doping allegations. Some Russian athletes are still expected to compete, but they will do so in neutral uniforms and their country will officially not be participating.

Could some American athletes be forced to consider similar arrangements? It’s not a scenario anyone could have envisioned even a few weeks ago, but it’s one that has now been thrust right to the forefront.