So the Winter Olympics are kicking off in Pyeongchang, South Korea on the 9th February 2018 and we cannot wait! Some people long for football world cups, others love it when the 6 nations come back around, but I think it is hard to beat the complete craziness and, frankly, balls it takes to perform in the Winter Olympics!
Great Britain is sending its largest ever team to the games this year; a testament to the strength that British winter sports is seeing at the moment. From freestyle skiing to speed skating, we have legitimate medal contenders in many sports, and I am so excited to see what we might achieve this year. Four years ago in Sochi we managed 4 medals with Lizzy Yarnold winning gold in the skeleton, the curling teams taking silver and bronze and Jenny Jones securing an epic bronze in the snowboard slopestyle (our first medal in skiing or snowboarding!).
The Ones To Watch…
So firstly, who do we have competing? Well Lizzy is back to defend her title in the women’s skeleton, we have three teams in the bobsleigh and the men’s and women’s curling teams are always a force to be reckoned with.
Lizzy Yarnold with her gold medal from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Triple World Champion Elise Christie has had some very strong results this season and should be hard to beat in the speed skating. We also have Nick Buckland and Penny Coombes competing in the ice dancing competition, and Olympic veteran Adam Rosen going again in the luge.
Potentially the most interesting is the sheer volume of talented skiers and snowboarders we have competing this year, many of whom are going into it with X Games and World Cup wins! We have never been in such a strong position before!
Dave Ryding has been on fire this season on the alpine skiing circuit, with ten top 10 finishes this season including a 2nd place in the Kitzbühel slalom. Woodsy just came 4th in the X Games slopestyle and has been consistently up there with the best in the World for a couple of years now. He works so hard and it would be incredible if he could get a medal! He is alongside a young and super-talented squad of freestyle skiers including sisters Molly and Katie Summerhayes, Tyler Harding, and Izzy Atkin who just came 2nd in the X Games slopestyle.
@izzyatkin at the X Games this week
The Team GB snowboarders are a bit more familiar, with four athletes returning for their second Olympics. Aimee Fuller, Billy Morgan, Jamie Nicholls and Zoe Gillings-Brier are all back to try and improve on their Sochi performances in the freestyle events. They are joined by my complete idol Katie Ormerod who could be one of our best chances for a medal in Pyeongchang.
@ormerodkatie killing it in Laax
I’m hoping Aimee will join the commentary box again this year as that was a highlight of Sochi for me, hearing her passion and excitement when watching Jenny Jones clinch her bronze medal!
BBC/ Twitter @Mattloughlin
And finally, we are so proud of our Ticket To Ride friend and coach on our Girls Ski Week in Meribel, Emily Sarsfield for being selected for her first Olympic Games! Em has been training so hard for the ski cross, one of the most intense sports ever!
The Sports To Watch…
Although I am a very keen skier and snowboarder myself, so I have a passion for those sports, they are only a small reason why I love the Winter Olympics. I love all the crazy winter sports which in this country only get a small spotlight every 4 years. They are all so dangerous, with so little margin for error compared to a lot of other sports. Winter sports athletes are some of the most all round fittest athletes: cross country skiers often have the highest VO2max, alpine skiers have an ultimate combination of strength, anaerobic and aerobic endurance, skeleton and bobsleigh athletes are faster over 10m than most 100m sprinters and have you seen the size of speed skaters’ leg muscles?!
Ski Jumping
Made famous by Eddie The Eagle (great film if you haven’t seen it), who would be crazy enough to make a sport out of flying off a HUGE jump with only some tiny skis for support?! High risk and a great one to watch with your jaw on the floor. How do they do it?
Luge
The feet-first one, not to be confused with the head-first one, skeleton. My personal favourite aspect of this sport is the double luge. Two men, one sled. Cool.
Ice Hockey
I was in Canada last year and got to see a live ice hockey game. It was so cool. I love the fast pace and frenetic skill involved and it always throws up intense rivalries such as USA v Canada.
Boarder-cross/ Skier-cross
Coolest sports ever! Take four people on skis or a snowboard. Get them to race down a narrow track with banked turns, jumps and slalom poles to navigate and top one or two win through to the next round to do it all over again. It is basically Mario Kart on snow.
Freestyle Moguls
AKA the knee-breaker. Athletes ski down the most horrendous mogul field you’ve ever seen, one that would make you cry if you find yourself at the top of in a ski resort. They then perform beautiful aerial tricks on two jumps, each a third of the way down the course. A crazy blend of fitness, strength and gymnastic ability which few possess!
So good luck to all the Team GB athletes competing in Pyeongchang! It is amazing that a country with very little in the way of mountains, snow and ice can compete among the best!
And if you want to ski or snowboard with an Olympian, it isn’t too late to join our Girls Ski Camp with Emily Sarsfield or our Girls Snowboard Camp with Jenny Jones, both in Meribel in April!
