Pyeongchang bundles up for deep freeze during Winter Olympics' opening ceremony

SEOUL - A windbreaker, a lap blanket, knit caps, a heated seat cushion and hand and feet warmers.

Spectators attending the Feb 9 opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics will each be given these six items to combat the sub-zero temperatures and stay warm through the three-hour-long extravaganza, according to the official website of the Games.

Around 43,000 people are expected to attend the opening ceremony which will be held at the Pyeongchang Olympic Main Stadium. The ceremony is scheduled to begin at 7pm (local time).

Although tensions with North Korea seem to have ebbed in recent week and ticket sales have picked up, organisers are still worried the cold weather could put a damper on the event.

This year's Winter Olympic games may set a record for being the coldest since the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, with temperatures in the alpine county of Pyeongchang forecast to drop to minus 13.5 deg C in Gangwon province, one of the coldest places in South Korea. That is lower than the minus 11 deg C recorded at the 1994 Lillehammer Games, whose stadium also lacked a roof and is so far the coldest Olympics based on available data.

The roofless Olympic Main Stadium will offer little protection from the biting winds barrelling down from Siberia and the Manchurian Plain.

"Pyeongchang's night temperature drops to -13 deg C and I am worried that guests at the opening ceremony might all be very cold," an official at presidential office Cheong Wa Dae told Korea Times.

On Jan 26, the Gangwon Province city's mercury dropped to minus23 deg C.

"The lower the temperatures and the higher the wind speed, the colder spectators can feel," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Sung Hyun Do.

Because PyeongChang is in the mountains, it will be cold regardless of wind direction; however, it may feel colder when the north wind blows, he explained.

About 160 VIPs who seats are on the higher levels and face the northwest will take the full brunt of the bone-chilling winds. President Moon Jae In will be hosting high-levels guests including Japanese premier Shinzo Abe and US Vice President Mike Pence.

"VIP seats are located high facing northwest, where cold winds can gust during the night," an Olympics committee official said.

"There will be heaters in corridors leading to the seats where shivery VIPs will want to warm up. But because the opening ceremony will be broadcast worldwide, it will be difficult for them to vacate their seats often. We are thinking maybe we should get them earmuffs."

Organisers have installed patio heaters around the aisles and polycarbonate wind shields to block the wind.

There are also 16 rooms with wind screens for spectators seeking refugee from the cold.

Six people were treated for hypothermia at a recent pop concert held at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium.

South Korea, which built Pyeongchang's US$58 million stadium without a roof to save time and money, plans a range of measures at opening and closing ceremonies to prevent people suffering hypothermia - from distributing hot packs and blankets to speeding up security checks, according to an internal document seen by Reuters.

There is no central heating in the stadium, which is to be torn down after the Games end on Feb 25.

There will also be vendors selling hot coffee and tea, fish sticks and buns during the ceremonies.

Organisers have also increased the number of medical stations from four to five and the number of medical personnel from 52 to 165.

Worried Chong Wa Dae officials visited the stadium on Jan 11 to conduct an experiment on how cold they would feel between 7 pm and 10 pm.

Presidential secretaries Kim Soo Hyun and Kim Hong Soo and lawmaker Sim Ki Joon of the ruling Minjoo Party put on items from "keep warm" packages and sat out in the cold.

"We checked our body temperatures and luckily found no one who suffered from hypothermia," said Sim.

Spectators are advised to bundle up, use mufflers, wear thick socks and bring along heat packs.