The past couple weeks I've enjoyed yet another Winter Olympics event this time hosted in Milan-Cortina, Italy. The city of Cortina hosted the events on their own in 1956. It is located in the Dolomtic Alps, which makes it fitting for the mountain ski events. The city of Milan is one of the biggest northernmost Italian cities closest to the Alp mountains. It hosted the opening ceremony in the football stadium, San Siro as well as many of the indoor skating events. It's quite a beautiful historical city, highlighted by their iconic spire-loaded cathedral, the Doumo di Milano. It was also once a part of the Holy Roman Empire, which made for a fitting tie to my ongoing historical study.
Since the games were abroad once again, I had to watch most the coverage during the prime-time window on NBC from 8 to 11pm. This of course is always tricky to block out the news of the results that happened during the daytime. There were a few times where I accidently stumbled upon a result on Instagram or Facebook during the daytime. However for the most part, each night felt like an authentic live viewing of a sport. And with each night I tend to grow more and more invested in the athletes, their stories, and the games in general. I love watching and learning all about these unique sports (except for curling and hockey). I especially love hearing that famous Olympic fanfare anthem come on at 8pm. It's truly an inspiring music, and captures the overall spirit of the glorious Olympic games.
The Opening Ceremony
The Opening Ceremony took place on a Friday night in the San Siro football stadium (home to AC and Inter Milan). It was the usual elaborate dance and musical sequences celebrating Greek and Italian culture. Their was modern performances as well as a heavy dose of classical music which I enjoyed. For me the highlight was when Andrea Bocelli sang a riveting Nessa Dorma. There were also musical performances by Mariah Carey and and Italian singer Laura Pausini (who kinda looked like a witch from Wicked). The parade of athletes was uniquely divided with Milan and Cortina, where each nation sent some athletes to Milan and others to Cortina. The Olympic flame was lit by Italian skiing legends Alberto Tomba, Deborah Compagnoni, and Sofia Goggia. The cauldron was quite impressive like an atom floating in the midst of the beautiful Porta Sempione (Arch of Peace). Meanwhile a second Olympic flame was lit in the central town square of Cortina.
Snowboarding
I watched various snowboarding events from the halfpipe, the freestyle, to the exciting snowboard cross racing. This was actually the first Winter Games in nearly twenty years where the superstar and face of snowboarding, Shaun White was no longer participating. He did however do some commentating which was good to see. The new American face of snowboarding is now Chloe Kim, who won gold in the halfpipe in 2018 and 2022. She came up just shy of three-peating, and finished with a silver. She's a very likable personality and is dating football star Myles Garrets. I watched most of the snowboard cross events live during the weekends which was exciting racing. Japan cleaned house at these games with an impressive 9 total medals in all the snowboarding events (US only had 2).
Cross Country Skiing
An event I gained a new appreciation for this time around was the cross country skiing. It seemed like it was on all the time. I came to really admire the endurance aspect of this event, as a runner myself. While they do occasionally ski down-hill, they are also literally running and climbing hills with their skis. The distances range from sprints, 10k, 20k, 50k, and various relay events. There are a total of 12 events, 6 for the men and 6 for the women. The Norwegians always dominate this event, and they have a true superstar in Johannes Hosflot Klaebo. He went 6 for 6 gold medals at this game, to add to his previous medals he earned in Pyeonchang and Beijing. The way he attacked the hills was not only funny and meme worthy, but also quite inspiring. He now has a total of 11 Olympic gold medals, 1 silver, and 1 bronze. He just needs four more to pass the Norwegian legend Marit Bjorgen as the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time. This is very likely to happen since Klaebo is only 29 years old.
Speedskating
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I surprisingly watched a lot more speedskating then short-track skating this time around. It's funny how some nations excel in a certain discipline then others. The Germans dominate the bobsled races, the Norwegians dominate the ski events, and the Dutch dominate the speedskating events. They won an impressive 13 total medals. The female star and blonde bombshell Jutta Leerdam won gold in the 1000 meters and silver in the 500 meters. A new American superstar, Jordan Stolz emerged in the men's events winning 2 golds and a silver. He's only 21 so he'll surely be the new American face of the Winter Olympics. The mass start event was exciting but also extremely flawed by rules. It's a 6.4km long distance race, where they reward sprint points in the middle phases of the race, but the highest points at the end of the race. So normally the last 3 finishers win the race. The men's race demonstrated the flaw of this structure where two leaders broke free early and were never caught for most the race. Also on the matter of ice speedskating, I can't help but wonder why roller inline speed skating isn't in the summer Olympics. Heck they could probably also include roller figure skating for that matter.
Alpine Skiing
While Norway dominates the cross country skiing, usually it's Austria and Switzerland that dominate the alpine skiing. However this time around the Italians made a very impressive showing. Their superstar Federica Brignone, became the Italian hero of the games winning two gold medals in Super G and Giant slalom. I watched both her gold medals run and this was exciting to watch. Meanwhile the pressure was once again heavy on American superstar Mikala Shiffrin (all the more after Lindsay Vonn crashed out once again). After winning gold in Sochi and Pyeongchang, she came up short last games in Beijing 2022. This time however she delivered in the Slalom event to win her third gold medal, the first American skier to do so.
Figure Skating
For me the main marquee event of these games is always the figure skating especially the women's event. It's quite an exciting event that mixes athleticism with artistry, but also extreme mental pressure. These athletic dancers need to perform on the highest of stages, and quite often they just get this one chance to compete at the Olympic games. This of course heightens the pressure. It was sadly the case for many of the favorites in these games, most of all the American skater Ilia Malinin (also referred to as the quad-god). At first I did not care for this guy, but the more I watched him skate and perform the incredible quad spin (four complete rotations) I felt he was the best in the field. He helped America secure the team gold medal, however he completely blew it in the individual event and finished 8th overall. It was sad to see such an American superstar who was without question the best out there to lose his one chance to become a true skating legend.
Meanwhile in the women's event the story was quite similar for American Amber Glenn. She was also one of the favorites, but completely blew it in her short program event. It was difficult to see her emotional reaction to this, in which the cameras showed her no mercy with their close-ups. She did however respond with a solid second performance but it was still too little too late. However the spotlight then turned to a new American superstar, Alysa Liu who won everyone's heart with her natural personality and smile. Her story was such an inspiring one, as someone who left the sport and later returned to it, out of passion instead of competition. I've never seen someone skate so free and relaxed with a constant smile on her face. She was a true joy to watch and rightfully won the gold medal (the first American female gold since 2002). The Japanese skaters also put on a solid show and went on to win silver and bronze. They also won gold in the pair event which was an impressive performance to witness. I will say as exciting as the event was, I greatly missed the Russian skaters who are always the best of the best.
Other Events and Closing Ceremony
Unfortunately I didn't watch much of the short-track racing which is normally one of my favorite (maybe because NBC didn't air it as much). I think I saw one relay race and came to the conclusion that as exciting as the race is, it is extremely flawed with the crashes. I saw some of the sledding events and further came to admire the courage of the skeleton riders. Germany dominated the bobsled, skeleton, and luge events winning 19 total medals. However American star Elana Meyers Taylor added a gold medal to her impressive bobsled resume making her the most decorated American bobsledder with a total of 6 medals. In the freestyle skiing event, the superstar/model Eileen Gu had another solid performance with 2 silvers and a gold. Meanwhile the men's hockey team won gold against Canada for the first time since their famous Miracle on Ice victory over the Soviets in 1980.
The closing ceremony was held in the ancient Roman stadium known as the Arena di Verona. This is one of the best preserved Roman amphitheaters, even older then the Colosseum and held an impressive 20,000 in the audience. The ceremony included more Italian musical performances by artists such as Joan Thiele, Achille Lauro, Meduza, and Major Lazer. Then came the final parade of athletes in unison. Then the handover to France who will host the Olympics in the French Alps of Nice in 2030. It's always quite bittersweet to watch the games come to a close, cause it's just such a positive celebration of culture and global unity. I just love world competitions like this, and really wish we had more events to match the spirit of the Olympics and the World Cup.
Final Medal Count
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Norway
United States
Netherlands
Italy*
Germany
France
Sweden
Switzerland
Austria
Japan
Canada
China
South Korea
Australia
Great Britain
Czech Republic
Slovenia
Spain
Brazil
Kazakhstan
Poland
New Zealand
Finland
Latvia
Denmark
Estonia
Georgia
Individual Neutral Athletes[A][B]
Bulgaria
Belgium
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