Olympics, the biggest sporting event, sieve out the best. Many new champions emerge surpassing the best of their opponents. At times they rewrite new records. But are there many events in Winter Olympic Games where new records could be rewritten.

There are some events, especially in speed skating, where speed and time are measurable. And in figure skating points awarded are counted towards deciding winners. But unlike summer Games, Olympic or World Records equaled or surpassed during Winter Olympic Games are far and few.

It would be no exaggeration to say that Winter Olympic Games are still more natural and human controlled than the technology driven summer Olympic Games. While summer Olympics besides moving indoors into air-conditioned halls, with synthetic surfaces and high tech measuring gadgets have become highly competitive with minutest details taken to choose the best, it is still, in many cases in Winter Olympic Games, judging is left to human eye and adjudication.

Competitions, especially snow events are held in the open natural environs though most of the events on ice have already moved  indoors.

The current Winter Olympic Games are the first that are governed or covered by 5G tech environs but still the playing or competition conditions are all natural where human intervention is minimal.

The Games may be the coldest ever with temperatures running as low as minus 12 degrees Celsius with strong chilly winds, and yet the Koreans have demonstrated their tremendous technological advancement, both in the conduct of the opening ceremony and the competitions thereafter.

Each Olympic throws up new heroes and heroines.

Here in PyeongChang, of six new nations making debut, four are from tropical world.

And the Nigerians are making the cut with the first ever women’s Bobsleigh team for a tropical country.

Participation of tropical countries in Winter Olympic Games has been rising. India, for example, has been participating for last six editions, thanks to its sole Luge player, Shiva Keshavan.

At Sochi in the last edition of Winter Olympic Games, Jennifer Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jill Officer, and Dawn McEwen comprised a female Team Canada that made curling history, methodically marching to gold with nary a blemish on their resume: 11- 0 and the second Canadian female team to ever win gold in the event.

Meet Noriaki Kasai (Japan), who was placed eighth in men’s normal hill ski jumping, hopes to win a medal here in his eighth Olympic Games. He does not want to give up and hopes to be there when the Olympic Games return to Japan in 2026, his 10th. For India’s Shiva Keshavan, PyeongChang has been his sixth in a row.

Another unique record was set at Sochi. A change in name did not mean a change in result for Russia‘s Viktor Ahn, formerly Ahn Hyun-soo of South Korea. Racing for his new national flag, Ahn won three golds and a bronze in short track. That gave him eight career medals in the sport, matching the record held by Apolo Ohno (USA). It did, however, also give him six career golds, the most ever for a short track skater.

At Sochi, with a bronze in the men’s luge singles, Armin “Il Cannibale” Zoeggeler (Italy) had won a medal in every men’s singles luge even since Lillehammer 1994. The six medals havebeen the longest individual winning streak at the Olympics.