USOC plan for Winter Olympics unchanged despite ambassador’s doubts

The U.S. Olympic Committee still plans on bringing teams to the Pyeongchang Games in February despite U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley casting doubt on U.S. participation.

In an interview Wednesday with Fox News Channel, Haley was asked if it’s an open question about whether the U.S. team will compete at the Olympics in South Korea, given the tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

“There’s an open question,” she said. “I have not heard anything about that. But I do know that in the talks that we have, whether it’s Jerusalem, whether it’s North Korea, it’s always about, how do we do protect the U.S. citizens in the area.”

USOC spokesman Mark Jones released a statement Thursday in response, saying the committee had not had any discussions, either internally or with government officials, about the possibility of not taking teams to next year’s Olympics.