The Winter Olympics has been taking place over the month of February as athletes from around the globe compete in different sports to earn the title of number one.
There are 84 different countries competing in the Winter Olympics and there are a variety of categories including ice sports, alpine skiing and snowboarding, and Nordic events. Other specific events are held for each of the three categories.
The event is being held in Beijing, China and has brought in loads of attention and viewers, averaging 12.3 million viewers per day.
Different viewers tune in depending on a specific event that they are interested in. For example, monobob, snowboarding events, figure skating, etc.
“I enjoy watching the Men’s snowboard halfpipe, because I like to watch Shaun White perform as he is very skilled,” said Kal Goff, a senior who watches the Winter Olympics.
Shaun White was unfortunately unable to make it on the podium due to falling on his third and final run. White announced that he is retiring after this year’s Winter Olympics and will no longer be competing. Being seven years older than the second oldest competitor, it was clear that White’s time to retire was coming.
The leaderboard rankings for the Men’s Snowboarding Halfpipe reported Ayumu Hirano from Japan receiving gold, Scotty James from Australia receiving silver, and Jan Scherrer from Switzerland receiving bronze.
“It’s quite sad to see Shaun White go out the way he did, but he still performed very well and has made a huge impact on the snowboarding industry during his career,” said Kolton O’Connor, a senior who watches the Winter Olympics.
During the women’s figure skating competition, 15 year old Kamila Valeiva from France won the gold medal for the competition, however she was stripped of her medal as she tested positive for PEDs. The Russian’s lawyers claimed that she was contaminated by her grandfather’s heart medication. She has thanked her team and kept her head high throughout the scandal, despite the loss of the medal.
The final leaderboard status for the games has Norway in first place with 37 total medals, Germany with 27 total medals, China with 15 total medals, and USA with 25, followed by other countries. J.T Boe, a Norwegian who competed in the biathlon has led the board with 5 medals, 4 of them being gold and the other being bronze.
The next Winter Olympics will be held in Paris, France from July 26 to August 11, and the following Winter Olympics will be hosted in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, in Italy, in 2026.