For the past two weeks I have been captivated by the Winter Olympics – cancelling all coffees, avoiding incoming calls and have even dodged a birthday dinner to watch the men’s slopestyle.
Am I crazy? No. The Winter Olympics has provided me and my glass of Blossom Hill White Zinfandel with plans of our own.
We’ve been crushing on Australian snowboarders, consoling injured skiers and singing along to national anthems. It’s been rather fun, really.
Team GB have had their best Winter Olympics yet, with Lizzy Yarnold’s skeleton gold, a men’s curling silver and a bronze for Jenny Jones in snowboard slopestyle.
But most importantly, I am watching the Winter Olympics as it is a rare event of human capability in tough and unpredictable conditions. The real test is strength, endurance, courage and teamwork, all whilst balancing on a blade or jumping off a 120 metre hill into thin air.
It’s had me weeping, cheering, cursing and nail biting. One of my favourite moments has been in the men’s cross country skiing sprint, when Russian athlete, Anton Gafarov, took a crash and tried to finish the race with a broken ski, only to find Justin Wadsworth, a Canadian coach, running to replace his ski with a new one. An example of true sportsmanship.
There’s been controversy too. But who doesn’t like a little bit of Olympic drama? As with the Eurovision Song contest, political judging has always been a problem at world events like this. The favourite to win Women’s Figure Skating was 2010 Olympic gold medalist Yuna Kim, a faultless and spectacular South Korean skater. Surely she would win?
But on came Russia’s Adelina Sotnikova, a 17-year-old shadowed and under-hyped by the media. She earned an outstanding combined total of 149.95, five points above Yuna Kim, and consequently won the gold, without being nearly as enchanting as her rival. Many say it was unethical judging, but I don’t think it helped that one of the judges was married to the head of the Russian Figure Skating Federation.
So, the Sochi games had all the ingredients of a thrilling show and I couldn’t be happier that it’s back on our screens in 1434 days time.
Edited by Caroline Chan