Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Update (Day 7)
The Olympics often inspire a sense of pride and nationality for the countries participating as it is far more than just a favourite team playing.
Fans of the Olympics are cheering for their countries and the athletes in the games are flying their flags proudly.
The teams in the Olympics are based purely on the allegiance to one country whether the athlete was born there or has strong connections that allow them to participate for another country.
That is what makes the fan bases of these Olympics so great as entire countries are watching their athletes cheering them on.
Sometimes it works out and an entire country is sent into celebration at the same time but others times it ends in disappointment.
The athletes and the fans have that sense of nationality when it comes to the games but the reality of sports the way it is right now is that countries mean very little.
In reality, these athletes will do anything in their power that is legal to get a step up on the competition.
That often means stepping out of your country’s border and travelling to an entirely different part of the world to try to find the best trainers and coaches.
The winter Olympics enhance that need to seek out the best as the Winter Games are not the most accessible in the world.
The sports in the Winter Games require a certain set of facilities to train and those facilities are not prevalent throughout the world.
Often athletes are left having to travel and follow the winter in order to train throughout the year.
Their own countries might not lend themselves to a winter climate and therefore the facilities they need are not available.
Think about any of the sliding sports that require track time to be great yet the number of legitimate tracks is few.
Only places that have formerly hosted the games and have kept up their tracks can provide that track time.
With that comes the fact that more people in those areas of the world know the sport because of their relationship to the tracks.
That makes those places hot spots for the sport and if anyone wants to be at the top of the heap when it comes to the Olympics they need to go to those areas.
Otherwise, they are starting the Olympics from behind and although it is an accomplishment to make the Olympics nobody wants to lose at the biggest stage.
Some might not stand much of a chance against the best athletes but they are all going to win regardless of how well they have done in the past.
Getting to those facilities is so important but the biggest thing might be the coaching as was seen in figure skating this year.
The men’s competition began on Day 7 and in the end, two skaters seemed to stand out from the rest of the competition.
Defending Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and Javier Fernandez of Spain finished first and second after the short program.
They will head into the final part of the competition as favourites to take medals and although both are far different and from far apart countries they have one important connection.
Both are coached by former Canadian Olympian and Olympics silver medalist, Brian Orser who operates out of Toronto.
It is no secret that in Canada there is no shortage of ice with rinks constantly in high demand and that has brought a lot of expertise to the country.
With a wealth of ice around the country hockey and figure skating are two massive sports throughout the country.
It has led to coaches like Orser and so many more having the expertise needed and the facilities needed to compete.
Many figure skaters come to Canada or mine the minds of Canadians to get that extra age as Fernandez and Hanyu have done.
This is true in every sport across the board as there are always places that are better at a sport than anywhere else.
People travel to Austria for skiing, Germany for ski-jumping, Netherlands for speed skating, Canada for curling and figure skating and so many more.
That is the nature of the winter Olympics as these sports are so specialized that getting the right coaching and facilities is always challenging.
The Canadian Story:
Falling Behind
The Canadian Women’s Curling team is having a historically bad start to the Olympics falling to 0-3 to start. They have struggled in every game and the possibility of them winning a gold is looking a lot less likely this year. Their most recent loss on Day 7 was filled with controversy putting even more focus on them after skip Rachel Homan decided to remove a burned rock rather than the usual practice of placing the rock where it would have ended up.
Staying Perfect
On the other side of the Curling, coin has been Kevin Koe and his Canadian rink as they have come out as expected. The Canadians are undefeated so far this tournament and are looking like the best team in the world. If they can keep it up they will be on their way to the second Curling gold this year.
The Sport Addiction 