Every time the Olympics happen, Summer and Winter Games alike, I try to watch as much as possible. It’s fun to learn about sports I don’t regularly get to see as a viewer and cheer for (most of) the participants from my home country.
As an American, I have to admit I was underwhelmed with the USA’s performance at PyeongChang. While some of the American athletes came through as expected in their events – snowboarding and women’s hockey in particular – many others failed to deliver on their sport’s biggest stage. This left me cheering less for certain athletes just for the sake of being American and more for the ones who were captivating on an individual level.
Here are five of my favorite athletes, for one reason or another, from the 2018 Winter Olympics:
Chloe Kim (via NY Daily News)
5. American Snowboarders
This is kind of a cop out, but it’s hard to pick one snowboarder that really stood out over the rest. Unfortunately, Shaun White is perhaps the most notable for the sexual harassment allegations against him (you can read about those here).
When it comes to non-terrible people, Red Gerard was a bit of an upset winner in men’s slopestyle as he won the first gold medal for the United States in PyeongChang. Jamie Anderson took home another gold medal in women’s slopestyle, defending her 2014 win in Sochi, and also added a silver in women’s big air. Chloe Kim won gold in her only event, women’s halfpipe, as the heavy favorite in her Olympic debut. These were all great moments, but Kim’s dominating performance was the best to me.
4. Shani Davis – American Speed Skater
via Yahoo!
What a guy. He started the Olympics off with a bang, implying that the US Winter Sport Federations cheated him by “dishonorably” FLIPPING A COIN when they couldn’t decide who should carry the United States’ flag in the opening ceremony. I generally try to avoid taking a stance on these issues at the risk of sounding horribly ignorant, so I’ll tread lightly here.
The choice was between him and luger Erin Hamlin, both decorated athletes in their respective sports. PyeongChang marked Davis’s fifth Olympic appearance and Hamlin’s fourth. Four of the eight US federations voted for Davis and four voted for Hamlin, with the final decision being left up to fate with the flip of a coin. Mathematically, is there a more even way of breaking a tie?
If Davis wasn’t disputing the objectivity of a coin toss, then it seems he wanted the federations to just gift him the flag bearing opportunity over an equally deserving person. Davis “backed up” his claim by finishing well out of medal contention in his signature event – men’s 1000m long track speed skating. I will never forget the mediocrity that followed such a bold stance. Thank you, Shani.
3. Dorothea Wierer – Italian Biathlete
There is so much biathlon on television throughout the Winter Olympics that it’s hard not to get to know the competitors. Dorothea Wierer is my favorite.
If you aren’t familiar with biathlon, it combines cross country skiing with shooting, and I’ll leave it at that because I don’t understand any of the nuances. Some biathletes are stronger skiers and others are stronger shooters, but having a balance of both is obviously ideal. The more shots you miss, the more time you are penalized, so it’s not uncommon for competitors to take additional time lining up shots in order to cut down on their overall time in the long run.
via imgur
Not Dorothea. She just rifles through her five shots seemingly as fast as possible with surprisingly accurate results. Oh, and she’s rather attractive. The combination of shooting prowess and movie star looks is deadly, both literally and figuratively, and I expect her to crush the box office in action films for years to come (this is complete speculation – I have no basis for this prediction). Wierer won a bronze medal with the Italian team in the PyeongChang mixed relay event and I anxiously await her return in 2022.
2. Matt Hamilton – American Curler
via WUSA9
Hamilton and his mustache stole the show at the 2018 Winter Olympics and could easily be number one on this list. His mustache is now world-renowned and has gotten the attention of celebrities like Mr. T and Aaron Rodgers. But don’t worry, he’s not all just style, he’s also a gold medalist. In a shocking comeback story, the United States men’s curling team ran the table and won its final five matches on the brink of elimination, beating Sweden in the gold medal match. I want Matt carrying the American flag next time around.
1. Ester Ledecka – Czech Snowboarder AND Skier
As much as I love Matt Hamilton, Ester Ledecka is the true star of these Olympics. She’s a world champion snowboarder and won the gold medal in parallel giant slalom snowboarding at PyeongChang. Winning a gold medal in an individual sport is one of the most difficult feats I can fathom. The time spent training for the Olympics essentially requires athletes to not have any sort of a life, and I can only imagine what the payoff of a gold medal would feel like.
However, Ester is not your typical elite level athlete – she prefers to be the best in the world at more than one sport. Prior to competing in (and winning) parallel giant slalom in snowboarding, she decided to come out of nowhere and win the super-G gold medal in skiing while NBC aired figure skating. That’s right, she was such a big underdog that NBC decided to switch its coverage during the final few skiers of super-G because it assumed all real contenders had completed their runs.
She ended up winning super-G by 0.01 seconds, and nobody was more surprised than her. This was her face when seeing her time posted on the scoreboard:
via ABC
In her interview following super-G, a reporter asked her if she could explain what just happened, and she replied, “You tell me … I was riding. I really don’t know what happened. It was great.”
In some of her other interviews, she’s given a hard “no” when asked if she’s the best athlete at the Olympics and said “whatever” when someone told her she’s the only person to win gold medals in two different Winter Olympic sports. Here’s the link to a full story about her on CNN.
She’s only 22 years old, so I’d imagine she’s just getting started. Maybe she’ll add a couple more sports by the time Beijing rolls around.
