Analysis: Canada finds early success in windy Pyeongchang

Plenty of excitement during first week of Winter Games

By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist

The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games are now under way.

Nearly the entire world is represented in the South Korean mountain village in very chilly temperatures and the athletes that are participating in the games this year are going to showcase the spirit of sport in keeping with the games’ slogan: “Passion. Connected.”

The opening ceremony featured five children representing the colours of the rings in the Olympic logo exploring the history of South Korea and its future. There were various government officials in the ceremony including South Korean President Jae-In Moon, Kim Yo-Jong (Kim Jong-Un’s sister), Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, US Vice President Mike Pence, and Canadian Governor General Julie Payette.

In the Parade of Nations, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir carried the Canadian flag and led the Canadian Olympic team into the stadium. While the parade was happening, various K-Pop songs were played including Twice’s Likey, BTS’s DNA, and the most famous Korean song of all time: Psy’s Gangnam Style. Then, the united Korean Olympic team entered the stadium, the entire audience cheered, and figure skater Yuna Kim lit the Olympic cauldron to begin the games.

It was so windy outside during the first week of the games that it caused a lot of people to fall down in snowboarding and skiing events, and even caused some skiing events to be postponed.

Canada won a lot of medals earlier than one might have thought, with 11 medals in the first few days, making it the best start for Canada in a Winter Olympic games. Canada won three gold medals including a gold medal in team figure skating because of great skates by Gabrielle Daleman, Meagan Duhamel, and Eric Radford. Three days later, Canada also earned a bronze medal in skating pairs.

Canada won a gold medal in mixed doubles curling for Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris and in men’s moguls for Mikael Kingsbury. In women’s moguls, Justine Dufour-Lapointe got a silver medal for Canada.

In snowboarding events, Canada got two medals in men’s slopestyle—a silver medal and a bronze medal for Max Parrot and Mark McMorris respectively—and a silver medal in women’s slopestyle for Laurie Blouin.

Ted-Jan Bloemen, who moved to Canada from the Netherlands, won a silver medal in speed skating in the 5,000 metre. Canada also received bronze medals in women’s luge for Alex Gough, which is the first time that Canada has earned a medal in luge.

Kim Boutin won bronze in women’s short track speed skating 500 metre after Korean speed skater Minjeong Choi was disqualified.

The host country, South Korea, is not doing great so far in the games, earning only two medals so far, including a gold medal in short track speed skating in the men’s 1500 metre for Hyojun Lim.

The first week of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games was historically exciting and it is expected to only get more exciting in week two.