Alpine skiing: Ligety pleased to see North Koreans compete in
Pyeongchang
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[February 06, 2018]
By Peter Rutherford
PYEONGCHANG (Reuters) - American ski
racer Ted Ligety is all in favor of North Korean athletes competing
at this month's Winter Games in Pyeongchang and says one of the key
goals of the Olympics is to help countries overcome their
differences through sport.
North and South Korea agreed last month to march together under one
flag at the Games, which open on Friday, and will field a combined
women's ice hockey team.
The North is sending a total of 22 athletes to South Korea with the
remainder competing in Alpine and cross-country skiing, figure
skating and speed skating.
Ligety, at his fourth Olympics after Turin, Vancouver and Sochi,
said the inclusion of North Korea at Asia's first Winter Games
outside Japan was a "positive thing".

"I think it's great that the North Koreans are going to be able to
compete at the Games," the 33-year-old added.
"I think that an important part of the mission of the Olympics is
being inclusive and to try to bring the world together."
Double Olympic champion Ligety, who won gold in the combined event
in Turin and in the Sochi giant slalom, said that as a child he
could never have imagined he would have such a long and successful
career.
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Alpine skier Ted Ligety poses for a portrait at the U.S. Olympic
Committee Media Summit in Park City, Utah, U.S. September 26, 2017.
REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

"It's always an honour to be in the Olympics so to be here for the
fourth time is pretty remarkable."
He also said he was lucky that he competed in ski racing where
doping is "not really as big an issue" as in other sports.
"It probably happens but it's not like cross-country skiing or
something like that," he added.
The buildup to the Olympics has been overshadowed by doping
headlines after the International Olympic committee (IOC) banned
Russia from competing in Pyeongchang over "systematic manipulation"
of the anti-doping system in Sochi four years ago.
It later invited 169 Russian athletes with no history of doping to
participate in a team officially known as "Olympic Athletes from
Russia".
(Editing by John O'Brien)
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