3000 athletes from 95 nations will march in the presence of several heads of States at the Opening, February 9

By Prabhjot Singh in PyeongChang

PYEONGCHANG (TIP): Nearly 3000 athletes from 95 nations will march in unison in the presence of several heads of States, including the US Vice President Mike Pence, Canada‘s Governor General Julie Payette, Japan‘s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, to give a warm and colorful to the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games on Friday, February 9. Because of the extremely cold weather, perhaps the coldest of the past four editions, the organizers have done everything at their command, including providing blankets, to those who want to be part of the colorful bash that showcases South Korea.

A special stadium erected for only opening and closing ceremonies here in PyeongChang is without a roof and has no physical barriers to prevent strong chilly winds sweeping the venue with the temperature expected to be around seven degrees Fahrenheit.

The previous coldest Winter Olympic Games were in Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994 while the last two editions – Sochi and Vancouver – were clubbed in the warmer winter category.

The 23rd edition of the Winter Olympic Games being held in northeastern South Korea, including the hilly PyeongChang, the coastal area of Gangneung and Jeongseon, have been the biggest ever.

Since the venue of the opening ceremony is at a higher latitude than the other Olympic venue sites, PyeongChang draws severe cold weather. The stadium can seat about 35,000 spectators. There are not   many Koreans keen to attend the opening ceremony. They rather prefer to watch it on Television in little warmer environs.

Looking at past records, PyeongChang has been one of the coldest regions in South Korea as it is located at nearly a half mile above sea level. It is also notorious for its biting winds that come sweeping in from the Manchurian Plain and Siberia.

The Organizing Committee of PyeongChang Olympic Committee spent about $58 million to build the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium without a roof. As a part of cost-cutting, even no central heating has been provided because it would have been too expensive.

To keep the spectators attracted, the organizers provided spectators with heating pads, a blanket, and a raincoat, besides other things. according to the AP. They also put up polycarbonate walls along the highest points of the stadium to block winds and portable gas heaters between rows. People could also buy hot drinks and food to keep themselves warm in the stadium.

The meteorologists predicted that temperature during the Olympic Games would be lower than temperatures recorded during the 1994 Lillehammer Games in Norway, which has the record for the coldest Olympics thus far, at negative 11 degrees Celsius, or about 12 degrees Fahrenheit.

The 2018 Winter Olympics may set several new records, including being the coldest. But it’s not the first recent Winter Olympics to have weather issues — the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2014 Games in Sochi became famous for not being cold enough during their respective games. Temperatures were above freezing during the competitions, causing snow to melt.

Both Canada and the US besides the hosts South Korea with substantial number of athletes would be cynosure of all eyes. Many athletes who had events before or immediately after the ceremony naturally gave a miss to the ceremony.

Tale of two cities

We all know about two Punjabs, two Bengals and two Koreas. Do we know about two Pyeongs?

If you google search “Pyeong”, the expected answer would be “PyeongChang is very different from Pyongyang. Do not confuse, please.”

Intriguingly, the same answer was given by the Governor of South Korea’s Gangwon province, Choi Moon-Soon, when he addressed international media some time ago.

History is full of instances, when cities, provinces and even nations had similar names. There was East Berlin and West Berlin but now one unified Berlin. There was East Germany and West Germany but now a unified Germany.

The German example apart, there are hardly any other instances when cities, provinces or nations with similar names merged.

The case of Koreas is an example.

 It is not an uncommon mistake to confuse PyeongChang and Pyongyang even though the two cities representing South Korea and North Korea have slight variation in their spellings.

Both PyeongChang and Pyongyang have been hawking newspaper headlines for different reasons.

PyeongChang has been in the news as the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. And it will also enter history books as the host of coldest Winter Games in past several decades.

And Pyongyang have been in headlines about a possible nuclear war threatening the world in general and the US in particular.

PyeongChang is a county in South Korea’s Gangwon province in the east of the Korean Peninsula while Pyongyang is the capital city of North Korea in the west of the Korean peninsula.

While the Olympic host county has a small population of 44,000, its North Korean name sake has 2.8 million inhabitants.

While PyeongChang has the slogan of “Happy700 Pyeongchang” referring to the country’s elevation of 700m, the North Korean capital is listed at 38m and has the slogan “Dynamic Labors”.

The South Korean county is the official host of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, the earlier speculation of North Korea sharing hosting duties of some events were rejected due to a lack of time to prepare the possible venue.

Interestingly when South Korea hosted the 1988 summer Olympic Games at Seoul, North Korea boycotted the games.

South Korea’s current Winter Olympic medal count is far more impressive with 26 gold, 17 silver and 10 bronze than North Korea with 0 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze.

As host nation, South Korea is guaranteed entry in all sports on the 2018 Winter Olympic program while North Korea agreed to participate in the PyeongChang 2018 games following negotiations with South Korea. North Korea has sent 22 athletes, including 12 members for a unified Korean women’s hockey team.

Kimchi, a must for all Korean food, is much spicier in South Korea. In addition, South Koreans have access to American fast food giants, that are barred from doing business in the North.  “Cold noodles” or naengmyeon is a classic North Korean dish.

Popular destinations in PyeongChang include Woljeongsa Temple, the exciting Ocean 700 Water Park or the Korea Botanic Garden. while in Pyongyang popular tourist destinations are the State Circus, the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum or The Metro and all tours in Pyongyang must be guided and officially sanctioned.

Six nations – Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore – are making their debut at PyeongChang 2018.  They will be mostly represented by their expatriate athletes in speed skating, cross country skiing, alpine skiing, figure skating and two-woman bobsleigh.

Klaus Jungbluth Rodriguez, 38, will represent Ecuador at its first Winter Games. He is known as the “Tarmac Skier”, given his training on roller skis in the city of Guayaquil and now in Australia.

A PhD student in sports sciences at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, Rodriguez began by creating an Ecuadorian Ski Federation from scratch with the help of his National Olympic Committee (NOC), in order to be able to compete in cross country skiing events under the aegis of the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Canadian-Eritrean Shannon-Ogbani Abeda will not be the first African to take to the Alpine skiing slopes at the Olympic Winter Games, but he opens the way for Eritrea, the East African country where his parents are from. Born in Alberta on 15 May 1996 and having grown up and studied IT sciences in the Olympic city of Calgary, Abeba began his trailblazing career by competing at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck in 2012which, he says, opened his eyes to the top international level. He did not manage to qualify for the Sochi Games in 2014, but several top 20 places on the FIS circuit over the past couple of years have helped him earn a place at PyeongChang 2018, in the slalom and giant slalom events.

Kosovo made a magnificent Olympic Summer Games debut with a gold medal won by judoka Majlinda Kelmendi in the -52kg category in Rio in 2016. Now it is the turn of Alpine skier Albin Tahiri to gift his country with its first participation in the Winter Games.

Indeed, he is going to compete in all of the Alpine skiing disciplines, even if he is in fact more of a specialist in the speed events. Albin has skied since he was a child in Slovenia, the country in which he grew up, and where Alpine skiing is very popular. His presence in PyeongChang represents more for him and his country as he becomes the first athlete from Kosovo to compete in Winter Olympics.

The tropical State of Malaysia is making its Winter Games debut with not one, but two competitors. Chronologically, it was young skier Jeffrey Webb, 18, who secured the first ticket to PyeongChang, in the slalom and giant slalom events.

Very much inspired by his idol, Marcel Hirscher, he was also the first Malaysian to compete at the Asian Winter Games, in Sapporo in 2017. Based in the US, he has skied from a young age. His two races in YongPyong have given him experience at the highest international level.

At the end of September 2017, skater Julian Yee posted on social media a photo of himself in front of the Olympic rings at Gangneung Olympic Park, where he will perform his short and freestyle programs in the men’s figure skating events at the PyeongChang Games on 16 and 17 February. The photo was posted with this comment: “It has been a long, tiring, and meaningful journey. The milestone has been achieved and Malaysia will for sure be at the 2018 Winter Olympics! I’ve finally made it! Thank you to everyone who has supported me and given me the strength. Without you guys, it would be impossible.”

Julian qualified on 29 September when he finished in 6th place in the 49th Nebelhorn Trophy, an international competition that is part of the “ISU Challenger Series” staged in Oberhof, Germany. He is also a four-time Malaysian champion, and winner in August 2017 at the South East Asian Games, organized at the national skating rink in Kuala Lumpur.

Pilot Seun Adigun and her team-mates Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga grew up and studied in the US and are all former high-level sprinters. Under the Nigerian flag, Adigun competed in the 100m hurdles at London 2012. Onwumere won medals at the African Games in 2015 in the 200m and 4x100m relay. Omeoga, meanwhile, competed for the University of Minnesota in the 100m and 200m.

In 2014, Adigun turned to bobsleigh with the aim of reaching the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. She recruited Onwumere and Omeoga, and the pioneering African women trained in Houston, Texas, in a wooden luge that they nicknamed “The Mayflower”. They then launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise the finances needed for their participation in the World Cup (equipment, accommodation, travel expenses), and also attracted the attention of Worldwide Olympic Partner Visa, which lent its support and made them members of “Team Visa”. Their journey on toboggans on ice at the IBSF World Cup 2017-18 led to the first Olympic qualification of an African bobsleigh team.

At 18, Cheyenne Goh becomes the first Singaporean athlete to compete at the Winter Games. Based in Canada since the age of 4, she began practicing ice hockey, then turned to speed skating. A fruitful decision as now, having competed in four ISU World Cup events with a best result of 20th place in the 1500m in Shanghai, Goh clocked up enough points to allow her to write this page in her country’s history.

Besides these expatriates, mostly Americans or Canadians, the United States has the biggest contingent of overseas athletes here.  Needless to say, that the hosts South Korea (Korea) will have the biggest contingent. The US squad has 240 athletes, including 107 women. Canada follows next with 227 competitors, including 103 women.

Among Asian countries, Japan is sending 124 athletes (72 women) while China has 81 (46 women) in their contingents. Coming to Europeans, Germany’s contingent will have 157 athletes (61 women) while Switzerland will have 169 (71 women). There will be 23 women athletes in the Australian squad of 51.

Both India and Pakistan are sending two men athletes each.

 

(Article /Courtesy PTC News)