Winter OlympicsNorth and South Korea will march together for the first time during a Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin on Friday, organisers said yesterday. Still technically at war, the two Koreas will enter Turin's Olympic stadium as one team in a move to warm ties further between Seoul and Pyongyang.
"They will march together. They will enter the stadium as one team," a spokesman said yesterday.
They will compete as two separate teams in the Games. Athletes from the two neighbours have marched before under one flag - showing a united Korean peninsula in blue against a white background - at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and in Athens four years later. They then competed for their separate countries.
The two Koreas will enter earlier than in Sydney or Athens because they are spelled with a C in Italian, the spokesman said.
North Korea did not participate at the previous Winter Games in Salt Lake City four years ago.
North and South Korea competed as a single team in an experiment in soccer and table tennis in the early 1990s and have hinted they may consider a joint team for the 2008 summer Games in Beijing.
The two nations have been divided since the 1950-'53 Korean war that ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.
Meanwhile, the Olympic athletes' villages were given a big thumbs down by many leading competitors yesterday. World Cup champion Bode Miller, a favourite in the Alpine ski racing, has opted out of the village in Sestriere, preferring to stay in the camper bus he uses on the World Cup tour.
"The athletes' village is really in a lot of ways for a competition not a healthy living environment. The beds are really small and uncomfortable," the outspoken 28-year-old said. "I have a motor-home here, I have my own food, my own bed, my own pillows. I am pretty much fully self-sufficient. I think in these big events keeping things as consistent as you can is very important."
His team-mate, Daron Rahlves, who won two World Championship medals last year, also has his own mobile home with his wife Michelle and dog for company. "It is really nice to have a comfortable living area," he said.
Austrian skier Rainer Schoenfelder said he intended to spend as little time as possible in Sestriere. "After the combined I will go away, after the giant slalom I will go away," Schoenfelder said.
The technical specialist, who finished fourth in combined at Salt Lake City in 2002, said the Olympic village was not right for his preparation. "During the Olympics people are so emotional - both positively and negatively. It is like you are fighting for your life," he said. "That's great but it is not the right kind of energy and environment to concentrate on the race ahead."
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, however, could not find any fault with the facilities. Rogge, who prefers to stay at athletes' village during the Games instead of far more luxurious official IOC hotels, said it met all requirements for top athletes. "I think that it is very top quality." he said.
Meanwhile, Alberto Tomba, the Italian skier whose flamboyant escapades shot skiing on to the front pages, wants a final dash of Olympic glory by being chosen to light the flame on Friday. Tomba became the most famous skier in the world in the 1980s and 1990s, for bombing down hills by day and for throwing wild parties by night. Asked whether he would light the flame in Turin, Tomba said: "I don't know but I really hope so."
