Politics always mixes with sports at the Olympics, but as the quadrennial Winter Games open in South Korea, the stakes are as high as they have ever been.
After months in which President Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, have escalated their angry words and the risk of nuclear war, the South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, is using the Olympics to reopen long-dormant contacts with the North and possibly establish a formal channel of communication with Mr. Kim.
Athletes are participating in this diplomatic pas de deux; the South Koreans and North Koreans will be marching side by side in the opening festivities on Friday and playing jointly for the first time on the women’s ice hockey team.