Olympians bring character to Winter Games
CHELSEA FELTON
The Olympics are a performance of mind-bending and talented humans who are so good at what they do its dumbfounding to those who set aside the time to watch.
The 2018 Winter Olympics showed its share of unique contenders from around the world, making people wonder how such super humans exist. These events can lead people to question what they have been doing (or rather have not been doing) their entire lives.
People can take some advice from these outstanding professionals.
These athletes are elegant, tough as nails and cunning no matter what event is being performed.
Take the American Women’s Hockey team finally beating the Canadian team for the first time in 20 years, for example.
They proved that if you don’t succeed at once, you have to try, and try and try again. Besides, it is not quite fair that they get a good-looking Prime Minister and a killer women’s hockey team.
Also, ignore the fact that Canada placed third overall, while America trailed in fourth.
More life advice the Olympic pros have shown is that sometimes it’s okay to be average and boring.
Elizabeth Swaney, a Hungarian-American halfpipe skier qualified for the 2018 Olympics, but watching the performance made people scratch their heads.
Despite never falling or missing a step, people watched, hoping that every time she led up the slope she might pull out some awing turns, but nothing really happened.
She is like that one kid in high school who never showed up for class or did any of the homework but somehow managed to graduate.
Although Swaney’s performance was nothing special, Red Gerard sure had the entire world in shock with his men’s slopestyle performance, or maybe it was the expletive that followed his debut as an Olympian.
After oversleeping, borrowing his roommate’s oversized coat and giving a stellar performance, he shouted out some colorful language on live television.
If there is one lesson people can learn from Gerard, it’s to never take life too seriously.
As for his family, they also taught a valuable lesson: life isn’t that fun unless your family is there to support you. Eighteen of his family members flew to Pyeongchang, and we could see them cheering from the stands, partying every chance they could get.
While Gerard shocked the world with his abilities and his personality, the Norwegian curling team took the world by surprise with fashion.
Showing off some bright pink pants covered in hearts for Valentine’s Day, they brought some humor to the Games and showed that anything can look cool in the right outfit—even curling.
These athletes were not the expected figures of elegance and gracefulness commonly attached to the idea of an Olympian, but that didn’t make them any less amazing to watch.
Competition doesn’t make the Olympics great, character and personality do. Being able to see the people behind the sport is the true magic behind the acts of superhuman ability that encompass the Olympics.
Chelsea Felton is a freshman English and journalism major from Riverton, Wyo.
