olympics – The Prospector

A Recap of the Winter Olympics 2018

The Winter Olympics have been packed with action since the opening ceremony. For the U.S, the medals have been coming in since the first day of the games after an unexpected win by Red Gerard on the men’s snowboard slopestyle. The favorite of this event was eliminated early in the event and didn’t even make it close to the finals. Next up was Chloe Kim, who won the women’s halfpipe–winning by a sweeping ten points. The next big win–and probably the one that got the most attention–was Shaun White’s gold medal finish in the men’s halfpipe. This most likely being his last winter Olympics for Shaun, he needed to go out with a bang and take gold home for the U.S.–which he was successful in doing.

Next up is the women’s hockey team, who took the gold against the Canadians in an intense finish. It was a 2-2 game at the end of regulation, and then nobody scored in overtime. This forced the teams to go into a penalty shootout where they traded shots left and right. It then came to Lamoureux-Davidson, who used some elegant stick work to maneuver the puck around the Canadian goalie. The most shocking medal won by the U.S was the cross country skiing. This sport is usually won by the Norwegians or the Swedes, but a woman named Jessie Diggins decided they wouldn’t be winning it this year. It came down to the final stretch with Diggins fighting for it back and forth, where she eventually ended up on top. This is the first time in Olympic history an American has won this event.

These medals contribute to the U.S’s major success in the Olympics medal count, but we’re not quite on top. Norway finished on top with 39 medals, Germany took second with 31 medals, Canada finished in the bronze position in the medal count with 29 medals. The United States finished off the podium close behind Canada with 23 medals. The next winter Olympics, will be taking place in Beijing in 2022.

Russia: The Place of Potatoes, Vodka, and Doping Olympians

On December 5th of 2017, the IOC (International Olympics Committee) ruled that Russia cannot participate in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. This is a result of rumors that Russia has been involved in doping some of their athletes to help them perform better in the games. The IOC decided to not let Russia compete after 17 months of extensive research and collecting information, hearings, and evidence from all of the main athletes in Russia, according to the Olympic Games.

This is not the first time Russia has been involved in rumors regarding their athletes taking performance enhancing drugs to try and win as many gold medals as possible. Russia has had 42 medals (10 winter, 32 summer) stripped because of violations involving doping, according to The Guardian.

However, instead of banning all Russian athletes, the IOC has agreed to let the Russian athletes not involved in the doping rumors compete once evidence has been provided that they did not use performance enhancing drugs. There are going to be at least 169 Russian athletes participating in the games this year, however, instead of competing under the Russian flag, they will compete under a neutral flag under the title of “Olympic Athletes From Russia”.

As CKM is home to many different sports, the Prospector wanted to find out what our own student athletes thought about the the recent controversy surrounding doping and Team Russia.

Freshman soccer player Neveah Newman stated, “I mean, that’s terrible. I think they shouldn’t have to take drugs to be a better athlete.”

Christopher Christmas, a freshman who plays basketball, also commented, “I think Russia has to stop doing that because it’s not fair to the other athletes that are not doped up on drugs. It makes the competition unfair and unfun.”