Olympic Shorts

Antennas may be popping up on igloos, yurts and even split-level homes worldwide, all for the sake of a glimpse into the Seoul Games. But in the Olympic metropolis itself, some spectators seem to be missing. The evidence: as the Games began, more than a third of the 4 million tickets to Olympic events remained unsold, and hotel occupancy was running 20% below maximum. One reason for the surfeit of tickets is a lack of excitement among Koreans for the myriad preliminaries in some sports (soccer, for example) as well as for some entire events (fencing and the modern pentathlon).

The empty hotel rooms result in part from fears of terrorism. A more important cause, though, is that Seoul's organizers over-estimated the need for accommodations for dignitaries and the media. Consequently, many would-be spectators at the Games were turned away by travel agents months ago because at that time there simply were not sufficient rooms available for booking. Strangely, the same problem, which has enraged South Korean hoteliers, merchants and restaurateurs, was encountered during the Winter Olympics in Calgary, but the lesson evidently went unlearned.

Present in abundance, however, will be one group of foreigners who live in Korea -- American military personnel. There are some 60,000 U.S. troops, dependents and employees in Korea, and by week's end plenty of G.I.s had taken advantage of their tour abroad by snapping up more than 20,000 tickets. "It's here and I'm here -- that doesn't happen a lot," explained Sergeant Janice Haynes, a personnel officer stationed in Seoul. "Six years from now you'd look pretty stupid if you told someone you were in Seoul in '88 and didn't go to the Games."