From blades on ice to skis on snow, the Olympic Winter games is more entertaining to me than the Summer Olympics. It could be because of my emotional attachment to them and the nostalgic value they hold, but they will always melt my cold and frozen heart every time I have a chance to watch them.
Athletic representatives from all around the world gather in one central spot, all vying for the same goal: get as many gold medals as possible. Every two years after the Summer Olympic Games, the Winter Olympic Games come around the time to for the men and women who are athletically capable of doing stunts in ice and snow.
The Winter Olympics has always had a special place in my heart. As a little girl and figure skater at the time, the first Winter Olympics I witnessed and remember were the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.
The cold events can warm the hearts of many as they play out over a two week period with sports like slalom skiing, bobsleigh, ice hockey, and figure skating. I personally find them more interesting than the Summer Olympic games, and I couldn’t be more excited to see what the athletes have in store for their judges and audiences in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018.
The nostalgia factor is what hits me the most when it comes to the Winter Olympics. When I watched the 2010 games in Vancouver, I was still figure skating, so they always had it on in the lobby of the rink and I would watch them while my dad played hockey, or in the sparing moments I had before I had to get on the ice.
That was also the year that Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the Wii came out as the counterpart to the video game for the Summer 2008 Beijing Olympics, and I was playing it constantly. I get this wave of nostalgia when I know that the Winter Olympics are coming up, and I feel like a little kid again watching them through rose colored glasses.
I may be a little biased when it comes to which games I prefer, but I honestly find the Winter Olympics more entertaining than the summer games. Figure skating was and is my favorite event.
The practice needed to be graceful on the ice and knowing full well that a jump may go wrong and they can ruin their very livelihood makes me feel like I need to get out there and do something with my life.
Other events, like speed skating and skiing, mainly involve how fast you can go on ice or snow without wiping out, and I think the pseudo-adrenaline rush I get from watching ski-jumpers launch themselves into the air and hold it out for as long as they can is what gets me so excited to watch
Some might say that the Summer Olympics are more interesting because the events are more varied than just being snow and ice based with swimming, track and field, and even normal sports events that the everyday person knows and loves.
But the Winter Olympics are cooler (pun intended) because they’re set in such a cold environment and athletes have to adapt to that in order to participate, along with the fact that they revolve around one time of year. You could put the regular Olympics in just about any other season, but the Winter Olympics are unique in that someone was bored enough to make up sports revolving around snow and ice when there was nothing better to do, which then led them to becoming Olympic sports. That’s got to count for something.
Make sure to tune in to NBC for the opening ceremony on February 9, and watch until February 25 for some winter fun.
