The 2018 Winter Olympics

The 2018 Winter Olympics

During this Winter of 2018, the Winter Olympics is upon us. It is a showcase of creative talent, international competition, and tons of athletic, talented human beings who desire to express themselves in the highest possible fashion. For long decades, the winter games have brought people together, motivated excellence, and inspired future generations on the importance of mutual teamwork. The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea is being shown by NBC. The coverage has reached tons of people globally. The Motto of the XXIII Olympics Winter Games has the Korean motto of Hanadoen Yeoljeong ( 하나된 열정.). Those 2 Korean words mean Passion and Connected. Lasting from February 9 to February 25, 2018, the games will showcase tons of dedicated performers. The stadium is called Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium. This is South Korea's second Olympic Games and its first Winter Olympic Games. Seoul hosted the Summer Games in 1988. People have prepared for this moment for a long time. Political issues are involved in these affairs too as some North Korean athletes will perform with South Korean athletes as one team. Pence has desire to want to advance future stronger sanctions against North Korea over the nuclear crisis in that region of the world. The 2018 Winter Olympics will have 102 events in 15 sports. This is the first Winter Olympics to have more than 100 medal events. The sports in the Winter Olympics includes the following: Alpine skiing, Biathlon, Bobseligh, Cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, ice hockey, luge, Nordic combined, Short track speed skating, Skelton, Ski jumping, Snowboarding, and Speed skating. The six nations that are making their Winter Olympics debuts are Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Singapore.

The Beginnings



The Winter Olympics has a long history. It started during the early 20th century. It was inspired by the ancient Olympic Games that existed in Olympia, Greece from the 8th century B.C. to the 4th century A.D. Those ancient Olympic games included wrestling, boxing, discus throwing, track and field races, and other sporting events. The ancient Olympics ended by the time of the end of the Roman Empire. One predecessor of the Winter Olympics was the Nordic Games. That was created by General Viktor Gustaf Balck in Stockholm, Sweden in 1901 and 1903 plus in 1905. They were held every fourth year after 1905 until 1926. Balck was a close friend of Olympic founder Pierre de Coubertin. Balck was also a charter member of the IOC or the International Olympic Committee. Winter sports like figure staking were at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. There were plans for winter games in future Summer games. Yet, a separate Winter Olympic Games existed. The 1920 Summer Olympics were held in Antwerp, Belgium and it had a figure skating and ice hockey tournament. Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey were banned form competing in the Games because of World War I. Those nations were part of the Central Powers who were defeated by the Allied Powers during the first world war. The first Winter Olympic Games was done in Chamonix, France in 1924. In 1925, the IOC decided to create a separate, future Olympic Winter Games. The Second Winter Olympic Games took place in St. Moritz, Switzerland. In 1928, Sonja Henie of Norway was the winner of the figure skating competition at the age of 15. She was the youngest Olympic champion in history. The record held for 70 years.


Later, the next Winter Olympics occurred in Lake Placid, New York in 1932. It had 17 nations and 252 athletes participated. No Winter Games existed during World War II because of various invasions and the destructive aspects of that war. St. Moritz hosted its Winter Games in 1948. The Winter Games was in Olso in 1952, and in Austria (in Innsbruck in 1964). The first Olympics that was held in broadcast in color came about in Grenoble, France by 1968. 37 nations existed and 1,158 athletes competed in 35 events.  Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy became only the second person to win all the men's alpine skiing events. The 1972 Olympics took place in Sapporo, Japan, which was the first one held outside of North America or Europe. I remember the 1994 Olympics in Lilehammer, Norway back in 1994 when I was a young child (as I was in the fifth grade as a 10 year old). The women's figure skating competition drew media attention when American skater Nancy Kerrigan was injured on January 6, 1994, in an assault planned by the ex-husband of opponent Tonya Harding. Both skaters competed in the Games, but the gold medal was controversially won by Oksana Baiul. Kerrigan won silver. Baiul became Ukraine's first Olympic champion. The last Winter Olympics was held in Sochi, Russia in 2014. It had a record of 2,800 participants in it from 88 counties.  The Games were the most expensive so far, with a cost of £30 billion (USD 51 billion). Following their disappointing performance at the 2010 Games, and an investment of £600 million in elite sport. Dozens of Russian athletes were stripped of medals because of doping. Doping is evil and wrong period.

On the snow, Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen, took two golds to bring his total tally of Olympic medals to 13, overtaking his compatriot Bjørn Dæhlie to become the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time. Another Norwegian, cross-country skier Marit Bjørgen took three golds: her total of ten Olympic medals tied her as the female Winter Olympian with most medals, alongside Raisa Smetanina and Stefania Belmondo. Snowboarder Ayumu Hiranobecame the youngest medalist on snow at the Winter Games when he took a silver in the halfpipe competition at the age of 15. On ice, the Dutch dominated the speed skating events, taking 23 medals, four clean sweeps of the podium places and at least one medal in each of the 12 medal events. Ireen Wüst was their most successful competitor, taking two golds and three silvers. In figure skating, Yuzuru Hanyu became the first skater to break the 100-point barrier in the short program on the way to winning the gold medal. Among the sledding disciplines, luger Armin Zöggeler took a bronze, becoming the first Winter Olympian to secure a medal in six consecutive Games. There are Winter Paralympic Games too during February and we honor and respect athletes who participate in the Paralympic Games as well.

Legendary Athletes

There were many Winter Olympic legends who inspired the lives of many worldwide. The 1980 USA Men's hockey team made a miracle to defeat the Soviet team. Their team included Mike Erusione, Jim Craig, Mark Johnson, and others. Sonja Henie of Norway won 3 gold medals as figure skater. She was 16 when she run her first Olympic gold. She innovated skating choreography. Eric Heiden of America won 5 gold medals in speed staking. America's Apollo Anton Ohno is one of the most decorated American Winter Olympic Athlete of all time. He competed in 3 Olympic games. He won eight medals. He was a known great ice tracker. He was born in Seattle. He won 2 gold medals. Apollo Ohno was involved in short track speed skating. Bonnie Blair from America is a great speed skate sprinter She won 3 consecutive gold medals in the 500 metter between 1988 and 1993. She won 6 medals. Bjorn Daehlie of Norway won 8 gold medals and 12 total medals. Jazmine Fenlator, Elana Meyers Taylor, Lauryn Williams, P.K. Subban, Maé-Bérénice Méité , and other black people performed greatly in winter games as well. Vonetta Flowers is a Sister who won a gold medal during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Debi Morgan was a medal winning figure skater of the Winter Olympics and she is part of the Figure Skating Hall of Fame in the year of 2000.

New History being Made


There are tons of history being made during the 2018 Winter Olympics. There are tons of black people and people of color who are participating in the Winter Olympics. This Olympics has the largest continent of black athletes and coaches in Winter Games history. This event totally destroys the false stereotype that we (who are black) don't like sports relating to the winter weather. There are 10 black American and 11 Asian American athletes in the record 242 member U.S. team. There are 3 Caribbean and Sub-Saharan African nations in the parade too. Jamaica will be represented with its first women's bobsled team and its first skeleton athlete. Many news talk about the Nigerian first women's bobsled team. The Sisters on the team are gorgeous, humble, and willing to compete to victory. Their names are Akouma Omeoga, Seun Adigun (who is the captain of Team Nigeria. She was a track and field star), and Ngozi Onwumere. Adigun said that Nigerians are excited about their country being represented and she wanted to fill void for Nigeria, for people from the great continent of Africa, and for women in general. All three women worked hard. The team raised more than $75,000 in a GoFund Me campaign to fund for helmets, uniforms, travel, and their first sled (called the Maeflower). Serena Williams and others have praised them. Elena Myers Taylor and Lolo Jones are women of color on the U.S. bobsled team.

This history is not new. 16 years ago, Vonetta Flowers was the first African American athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in the Winter Olympics when her two person bobsled team finished first at the Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. Figure skater Debi Thomas won a bronze medal at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. Shani Davis won gold medals at the 2006 and 2010 Winter Games in Turin, Italy ,and Vancouver, Canada. Today, Maame Biney is a Sister who is a star in the speedskating world (she is the first black woman Olympic short track speedskater. She is 18 years old). Erin Jackson is the first black American woman long track Olympic speedskater. Imani Griffin, 28-year-old long track skater from Winston Salem, N.C., makes his Olympic debut. Anthony Barthell, from High Point, N.C., coaches the U.S. short track team.

More on the 2018 Winter Olympics

The area of Pyeongchang having the Olympics consists of many developments. The Winter Olympics has shown much excitement. We have massive tensions between North Korea and South Korea. Mike Pence (or the Vice President of America) said that he wants to tell the truth about North Korea to every location where he is at overseas. Yet, Pence omits the brutal police brutality, discrimination, economic deprivation, sexism, xenophobia, and other evils in America. When North Korea has violations of human rights with its Stalinism (which is not representative of true socialism which is progressive), then that is wrong. Also, it is wrong for the current occupant in the White House to advocate for Muslim bans and for him to call for a nonsensical border wall across the southern U.S./Mexico border. This is the same male (Trump) who called those in Congress who won't clap for him (during his 2018 State of the Union address) un-American and treasonous. Trump is totally wrong for that statement. That shows Trump's extremism and disgraceful mentality. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent his sister as a delegate to the South Korean Winter Olympics. This will be the first member of the Kim dynasty to travel to South Korea since the end of the Korean War (which was a very destructive war filled with firebombings of Korean cities and other atrocities) back in 1953. Trump's advocacy for possible nuclear strikes against North Korea is ruthlessly wrong. The only solution to resolve the Korean peninsula foreign policy crisis is a political solution (in the form of a progressive negotiated settlement) so the peoples of the Korean peninsula can have true peace without war. Mike Pence sat close to Kim Jung Un's sister. They didn't speak or looked at each other. Kim Jung Un's sister shook hands with the leader of South Korea. Kim Yo-jong is the name of Kim Jung Un's sister. Many volunteers have helped the American athletes to wear their Olympic coats plus other clothing to deal with the cold weather.

The opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics was spectacular. There were thousands of athletes including the USA Team and the unified historic Korean team. There were fireworks and the celebration of Korean culture.

During the early part of the Winter Games, Switzerland (with Alina Muller and other players) beat the unified Korean team 5-0. Carlijn Achtereekte won 3000m women's gold in speed skating. It's a Dutch one-two-three in the speed skating. Ireen Wust takes silver while Antoinette De Jong lands a bronze medal. Hyojun Lim of South Korea wins 1,500m men's gold in speed skating. The South Korean prompts brilliant scenes inside the Gangneung Ice Arena. The host country’s first medal comes in its best sport: in the men’s 1,500m short-track speed skating. Meanwhile, the first medal to an “Olympic Athlete from Russia” was given to Semen Elistratov who landed bronze. Laura Dahlmeier won Biathlon gold. Germany’s Dahlmeier cruises to victory in the 7.5km sprint, sauntering to land gold after racking up a time of just over 21.06.02 mins. Norway’s Marte Olsbu takes silver while Czech Republic’s Veronika Vitkova takes bronze. Team USA has its first gold medal by the 17-year-old snowboarder Redmond “Red” Gerard. He is  the youngest American man to win an Olympic winter gold medal since 1928. He won the Men's slopestyle event in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games. Chris Mazdzer wins the first men’s singles luge medal in U.S. history.

About the Winter Olympics, Shaun White wins USA's 100th all-time Winter Olympic gold medal. On February 14, he won his third olympic gold medal for the Men's Halfpipe event with a score of 97.75, with Ayumu Hirano of Japan taking the silver medal and Scott James of Australia taking the bronze. Eric Frenzel of Germany won back-to-back gold medals in the normal hill Nordic combined event. Stina Nilsson of Sweden won the women’s cross country sprint race. An American, Jessica Diggins, made the six-woman final. Mikaela Shiffrin (a 22 year old American) won Olympic gold medal in women's giant slalom. Shiffrin’s combined time of 2:20.41 over both runs was 0.39 seconds better than Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel, who took the silver. Federica Brignone finished 0.46 off the pace to win bronze, becoming the first Italian woman in 16 years to win an alpine skiing medal in a race initially scheduled for Monday but twice postponed due to extreme weather conditions. “There were moments when I thought, ‘I don’t know if I’m good enough to do this’, and then there were moments when I thought ‘Who cares? You gotta try. You’re here’,” Shiffrin said. “It’s an incredible feeling to know that my best effort is good enough.”

Conclusion


For almost one century, the Winter Olympics has inspired many people all across the globe. There have been excellence shown, international competition, and global respect. Since the 1920's, athletes and others have shown their greatness. The winter weather can never strife sports excellence. Records have been enacted and more and more black people (including people of color) have been apart of Winter Olympic games too. The excitement of skating, bobsled, and other sports definitely inspire us imagination. Legendary athletes don't just exist during the past. They exist in the present too and they will continue to flourish throughout the future as well. Human beings will shine without question filled with enthusiasm, resolve, and inescapable dexterity. Also, it is very important to acknowledge those in the Paralympics as being monumental in their talent too.



By Timothy