The sacred Olympic fire, carried by teams of relay runners all the way from Ancient Olympia, Greece, the birthplace of the Olympic games, arrived at Sapporo on January 28 to burn at the main rink during the winter pageantry. A total of 1,200 competitors, accompanied by 500 athletic officials, from 35 countries will participate in six sports, totaling 35 events which include skating (figure and speed), ski (alpine and nordic), ice hockey, biathlon, bobsleigh and luge.

The Republic of Korea has sent a highly selected team of five athletes-one man and three women speed skaters and one woman figure-skater. Accompanied by two sports officials, they, though small in number, are expected to do their utmost in their respective competitions.

In honor of the winter Olympiad, the first such to be held in Asia, and as an expression of the Nation's hope for success of its athletes, the Ministry of Communications is issuing these two stamps.

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The 1972 Sapporo Games in Japan were the first to be held outside Europe or the United States. The subject of amateurism stirred controversy when skier Karl Schranz was banned for receiving payment from ski product manufacturers, but full-time ice hockey players from Communist nations were allowed to compete. Galina Kulakova of the USSR won all three cross-country skiing events for women. Ard Schenk of the Netherlands took three golds in speed skating. In Alpine skiing, little-known Marie-Thérès Nadig of Switzerland won both the downhill and the giant slalom. Norway’s Magnar Solberg won the 20km race to become the first repeat winner in an individual biathlon event. Before the Sapporo Games, Japan had never won a gold medal in the Winter Olympics, but in the normal hill ski jumping event, three Japanese jumpers, led by Yukio Kasaya, swept the medals.