Swathes of empty seats have been seen at the Winter Olympics – despite Games officials claiming nearly 90 per cent of tickets have been sold.
Television coverage shows the world’s best winter athletes competing in front of half empty stands at some of the Pyeongchang venues.
Organisers say about a million tickets have been sold – but the uptake has not been reflected in attendance. Fans have been able to show up before the start of most events and simply buy a ticket on the gate.
Officials have resorted to handing out so-called ‘passion tickets’ to Games volunteers who are asked to take off or cover their uniforms in the stands. They have also brought in bus-loads of children to fill seats.
Swathes of empty seats have been seen at the Winter Olympics – despite Games officials claiming nearly 90 per cent of tickets have been sold. Unoccupied seats can be seen as Katharina Gallhuber of Austria competes during the Alpine Skiing Women’s Slalom at Yongpyong Alpine Centre today
Television coverage shows the world’s best winter athletes competing in front of half empty stands at some of the Pyeongchang venues
According to the New York Times, low attendances could in part by put down to South Korea not having a culture of winter sports having only achieved success in two Olympic disciplines, figure skating and speedskating.
While a packed crowd watched short-track speedskater Lim Hyo-jun win gold for South Korea on Sunday, television cameras have picked up blocks of empty seats at other venues.
Another factor – not unique to this Games – is unused seats reserved for sponsors with a Pyeongchang 2018 spokeswoman claiming: ‘We find they are the empty seats.’
Before the Games started, there were fears that fans would be put off by the sub zero conditions.
In the days before the opening ceremony, temperatures dropped as low as -21 Celsius at night.
Organisers say about a million tickets have been sold – but the uptake has not been reflected in attendance. Fans have been able to show up before the start of most events and simply buy a ticket on the gate
Low attendances could in part by put down to South Korea not having a culture of winter sports having only achieved success in two Olympic disciplines, figure skating and speedskating. Pictured: Low attendances during the Men’s Downhill – usually a showpiece Olympics event
The Games has also been played out against the backdrop of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsular and after Donald Trump threatened to unleash ‘fire and fury’ on North Korea in the wake of its repeated rocket tests.
Some may have been put off by the proximity of the heavily armed border between the North and South – just 40 miles from Pyeongchang.
It comes as two Swiss skiers became the first athletes confirmed to have been hit by the highly contagious norovirus at the Winter Olympics.
The freestyle skiers have been taken away from the rest of the Swiss team after they were struck down with the vomiting and diarrhoea virus at the Pyeongchang Games in South Korea.
One of the victims has been named as Fabian Boesch who has become an internet sensation at the Games after posting a video of himself hanging onto the outside rail of an escalator as it climbed upward.
South Korean officials were left scrambling over an outbreak of the virus days before the Games started.
More than 200 people have been confirmed to have contracted the norovirus, most of them security staff and Games personnel, but until Friday the athletic delegations had been unaffected.