PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Officials from the Korea Meteorological Administration sat behind microphones in front of an overflow audience of journalists. Interpreters converted the officials’ words through the headsets of those unable to speak Korean.
There was anxiousness. People put their thumbs to their phones, ready to share the news on Twitter immediately. It was as if Punxsutawney Phil were making his Groundhog Day weather prediction in a teeming conference room.
The message was hardly a revelation: It will be cold at the Winter Olympics.
But in this case, it has been bracingly — at times subzero — cold, especially compared with previous Winter Olympics.