
My favorite moments this year were Shaun White pulling off an inhumanly good halfpipe run to win his 3rd gold medal, Chloe Kim landing back-to-back 1080s in the women’s snowboarding halfpipe-an Olympic first and winning gold.
However, my absolute favorite so far is the U.S. women’s hockey team beating Canada in an overtime shootout, overcoming a 20-year medal drought and an intense rivalry to win gold.
There are, of course, the usual risks for the Olympic Games such as event cancellation, exposure, abandonment, and terrorism. (The risk of a terrorist attack becomes higher with each Olympic Games.)
Cyber insurance deals with some uncharted territory, including clashes between different lines of business, coverage of contingent business interruption, outages of external networks and internet, and security gaps. This year, the need for cyber insurance surfaced quickly, first through Russian hacker interferences as retaliation for that country’s doping ban, and then with the “Olympic Destroyer” malware, which aimed to shut down the Feb. 9, 2018, opening ceremony. It follows that the International Olympic Committee has taken out protection for around $800 million for the Olympic Games, covering the majority of the roughly $1 billion investment that the IOC made in the host city, according to Reuters.
There are monumental risks accompanying the major task of construction and infrastructure development of the Olympic arena. Construction insurance is purchased to guarantee the financing and completion of athletic and non-athletic venues. Construction insurance also is necessary. Almost 3,000 Olympians will be competing in 15 different winter sports, all of which require specific facilities, including the Alpensia Biathlon Centre, the Olympic Sliding Centre, the Phoenix Snow Park, the Jeongseon Alpine Center, and specific arenas for hockey, curling and ice skating. It is necessary to build several non-athletic venues including the Olympic Village, the Olympic Stadium and areas for the press and for international broadcasting. While the types of insurance necessary for the construction of these sites may differ, it’s safe to assume that the coverage is costly.
All that glitters: Olympic medal insurance is also necessary. Historically, several American Olympians have misplaced or lost their medals, or these singular trophies have been stolen. For years, Liberty Mutual has insured each gold, silver and bronze medal won by U.S. athletes, noting how meaningful every medal is to the country and the athlete who earned the right to wear them. The company will continue to provide coverage for all medals through 2020. |
Congratulations to all of the Olympians. I await the Summer Olympics in Japan in 2020.