The 2018 Winter Olympics Thread

Space_Time · Feb 9, 2018

Are you psyched? Are these the 'world's most dangerous Olympics'? Do you have any predictions as to who will or will not medal?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ready-...ens-1518004801?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=1

SPORTS JASON GAY
Ready for Pyeongchang? Bring Your Mittens
It’s time for winter events, sweat, glory, sparkles—and of course, curling!

A family taking pictures during their visit to the ''Snow Land'' ice sculpture park in Pyeongchang, South Korea. PHOTO: TOBIAS HASE/ZUMA PRESS

By Jason Gay
Feb. 7, 2018 7:00 a.m. ET
The Winter Olympics open Friday in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and if you’re feeling behind, I’m here to help. There will be two weeks and two days of events, sweat, glory, sparkles—and, of course, the planet’s greatest sport, curling. Iconic athletes will do iconic things; unknowns will become newly immortal. NBC will try and goose your emotions with its ooey-gooey soap-opera treatment. You know it’s the Olympics when you sob over the accomplishments of people you hadn’t heard of 20 minutes before.

As usual, there’s some geopolitical Olympic weirdness, with these Games happening less than an hour’s drive away from, uh, North Korea. Let’s not act like this is perfectly calm and normal—the world gathered at the doorstep of a dictatorship currently playing nuke chicken with an agitated White House. “The World’s Most Dangerous Olympics,” these Games have been called—try finding that on a T-shirt at the airport. North Korea recently agreed to send athletes, however, so there’s optimism these Games will be peaceful and maybe even relation-repairing. But it will be edgy. And there will probably be tweets.

In other pre-Olympic controversies, there’s also the Russian team, though you’re not supposed to call them that, because the actual Russian team got kicked out of these Games for a state-sponsored doping scandal at the 2014 Winter Olympics (that they hosted!), so you’re supposed to call any Russians sanctioned for Pyeongchang the Olympic Athletes from Russia, or OAR. I’m not making any of this up. It’s super goofy. OAR! The other day, the global Court of Arbitration for Sport let some more Russian athletes in, so they’re actually going to have pretty close to a full squad. If you’re an athlete who’s trying to compete clean, I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to scream into your trapper hat.

But this is what the Olympics are in 2018: messy. You probably saw in the Journal that these Games in Pyeonchang are exactly the kind of Games the International Olympic Committee is wiggling itself out of—faraway, expensive, nonsensical for potential hosts. The Journal’s Eun-Young Jeong has chronicled some of the logistical headaches facing Pyeongchang: its remoteness, transit issues and lack of accommodations. There are worries about ticket sales and quiet arenas, like a Brooklyn Nets home game.

Pyeongchang, a tiny ski resort in a remote corner of South Korea, has transformed itself into the host of the largest-ever Winter Olympics. Here’s how the Games look from a drone’s perspective.
These headaches aren’t new to the Olympics—even London had attendance worries early on—but it’s a problem. It’s to the point where you can’t even give the Winter Olympics away—the next winter host is Beijing, the host of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The IOC sounds eager to get back to the mountain hamlets of Europe, but Europe isn’t so sure—Oslo and Stockholm bailed from the running for 2022, determining it just isn’t worth the hassle.
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Space_Time · Feb 10, 2018

Here's more:

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/warm-hearted-opening-korea-winter-131943885.html

Warm-Hearted Opening Ceremony for South Korea’s Winter Olympic Games
Variety Patrick Frater,Variety 15 hours ago
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Olympics Opening Ceremony, Pyeongchang, South Korea - 09 Feb 2018
Earmuffs, extra thick anoraks, and a stadium where LED lighting appeared to have replaced the spectators were the order of the day at the opening ceremony of the XXII Olympic Winter Games, held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Friday against a backdrop of political and strategic maneuvering between the divided north and south.

National athletes paraded in around a center circle and a ring of energetic dancers, while in the hills nearby there were volleys of fireworks and torch-bearing skiers.

The Pyeongchang Games are already providing a snowy backdrop to something of a thaw in relations between North and South Korea, two nations still technically at war. Earlier in the day, South Korean President Moon Jae-in shook hands and briefly chatted with North Korea’s figurehead leader, Kim Yong-nam. Then, at one point during the opening ceremony, Moon, Kim Yong-nam and Kim Jo-yong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, were clustered together inside the glass box from which VIPs watched the athletes march in. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence sat next to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
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The 2018 Winter Olympics Thread

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The 2018 Winter Olympics Thread

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