Winter. Ice age. The coldest of the cold. The time of the year I question mother nature and her creation of freezing temperatures and ungodly amounts of snow. Every winter we hibernate to our homes and “Netflix and Chill”, but winter 2018 is no ordinary winter. Winter 2018 is home to the Olympic Games! So get ready to Olympics and Chill as I give you the low-down on everything you need to know about the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
Where is Pyeongchang?
Pronounced PYUNG-CHUNG, Pyeongchang is a town about 100 miles from Seoul. The city has an average elevation of 700 meters which makes it perfect for health, wellness and sports. (p.s. The US stylized the city name with a capital “P” and “C” but the city itself only capitalizes the “P”. So basically every logo you’ve seen has misspelled the city name (yikes). Below is a YouTube video walking you through the pronunciation:
How to Watch?
NBC, NBCSN, CNBC and USA Network will have live streaming, including prime-time coverage. Coverage can also be seen at NBCOlympics.com, on the NBC Sports app.
Russia banned?
Russia has been “barred” from earning any recognition at the 2018 Olympic games. Which means no Olympic medals will be awarded to Russian athletes HOWEVER many are still competing in “neutral colors”. So basically the Russian Olympics all used sports enhancing drugs but still get to compete at the Olympics if they don’t wear Russian colors.
Nigerian Women’s Bobsled Team become first African team to qualify for the olympics.. EVER.
Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga are all apart of the Nigerian Women’s Bobsled team! All women are previous sprinters (previous Olympic sprinters at that), have been training for the past year to get to the Olympics and did it.
NHL Players Won’t be in Attendance
You heard that right, the NHL is prohibiting it’s players to compete in the Olympic games this year. This is caused by the majority of NHL clubs opposing the “disrupt” of the regular season games. This will end the 5th consecutive Olympic games where NHL Players have been competing in the games.
US Team Members to Watch
Shaun White: Snowboarder, A two-time gold-medal winner.
Lindsey Vonn: Alpine Skiing, The best female at her sport of all time, she’s trying to win again at 33.
Mikaela Shiffrin: Alpine Skiing, she became the youngest slalom champion in Olympic history in 2014.
Maame Biney: Speed Skating, she’s only 17 and is the second person born in Ghana to ever represent Team USA.
Chloe Kim: Snowboarder, Winter X Games star, she’s only 17 and looking for her first Olympic medal.
Brian Gionta: Men’s Hockey, former NHL veteran, he headlines the NHL-less team.
Ted Ligety: Alpine Skiing, big talent back in 2006, he’s trying for a third gold.
The games start Thursday, February 8th in South Korea and to say the excitement is real would be an understatement.