It wasn't even six months ago that the Rio Olympics opened. Yet here we are, already starting the countdown to the next Olympics. When NBCOlympics.com flipped over on Feb. 1, you knew we were getting close. And now we're only one year away from the start of the next Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Those Winter Olympics really sneak up on you, don't they?
This will be the biggest Winter Olympics in history, with more than 100 events for the first time. Some of the new events include mixed doubles curling, team alpine skiing, a mass start speed skating race that just sounds awesome, and more snowboarding. Although, we still don't know whether Russia will be there or if the NHL will send its players (more on that one in another post).
And with the time difference, people won't be able to complain about NBC showing events on tape. There are a lot of finals planned for the morning local time, which, as we all learned in Beijing, is the night before here. It's the start of the Olympics' Asian swing (I saw that this morning and liked it, so I'm taking it), with three straight scheduled for the Far East, so don't be surprised if we see a similar schedule in 2020 and again in 2022. You can also plan on seeing some overnight hockey on NBCSN. (You can bet NBC would prefer if the NHL goes to PyeongChang so they don't have to figure out working an NHL schedule around their Olympic schedule.)
Speaking of NBC, they're going to be awfully busy next February. It's their Super Bowl year. Which means a good number of their talent and crew will be in Minnesota for the Super Bowl, then have to be in Korea less than a week later for the Olympics. That's a lot of miles to log in a short period. I'll also give NBC credit for something else. It's great that they've been showing regular coverage of winter sports. This way we'll be more familiar with some of the international names before PyeongChang, as will the broadcasters.
NBC will get a few days between the Super Bowl and the Olympics, which still have that dumb Thursday start for some reason (it's actually Wednesday night in the U.S.), even though the Opening Ceremony isn't until Friday. And it's not until the Opening Ceremony that two of the biggest questions leading up to any Olympics are answered. Those, of course, are who will light the cauldron and how? Those are especially interesting questions in South Korea, which doesn't have that decorated a Winter Olympic history.
Short track speed skating is South Korea's national sport, so, naturally, short track speed skaters are some of their biggest Winter Olympic stars. They've won 53 medals in their Winter Olympic history, 42 of them in short track. And of their 26 Winter Olympic golds, all but five have come in the sport.
Kim Ki-hoon was the first Korean ever to win a Winter Olympic gold medal, winning both the 1000 meters and relay in Albertville. He added another two years later in Lillehammer. Then there's Chun Lee-kyung. She won five Olympic medals in her career, including four gold (two each in Lillehammer and Nagano). Jin Sun-yu, meanwhile, was a three-time short track gold medalist in Torino.
One short track speed skater you can likely rule out as a final torchbearer is Ahn Hyun-soo. Ahn won six gold and eight total medals in his Olympic career, but only half of them were for South Korea. He won the last four in Sochi while competing for Russia as Viktor Ahn after controversially being dropped from the Korean national team. He's a Russian citizen now and very happy living in Russia, but it would actually be a very nice gesture if he was offered some sort of role in the Opening Ceremony, recognizing his place in Korean sports history.
South Korea's Winter Olympic success hasn't been limited to short track, though. They've also won nine medals in long track speed skating. If they want to acknowledge one of the long trackers, it very well might be Kim Yoon-man, who became the first Korean ever to win a Winter Olympic medal when he took silver in the 500 meters in 1992. Or Mo Tae-bum, who won a pair of medals in Vancouver, including the first Korean gold in a sport other than short track. Lee Sang-hwa won the women's 500 in Vancouver, then defended her title in Sochi. She'll try to make it three in a row at her home Olympics, so athletes' oath taker could be her role.
The odds-on favorite for the final torchbearer almost from the very beginning, though, has been Kim Yuna, and it's easy to see why. In addition to being easily the most recognizable sports figure in South Korea, she helped PyeongChang land the Games, and has served as an Olympic ambassador from the beginning. She also dominated ladies' figure skating--the marquee event of the Winter Olympics--for a span of about five years, winning two World Championships, Olympic gold and silver, and setting the world record 11 times.
While Kim Yuna seems like the obvious choice, we won't know for sure who it'll be until the Opening Ceremony of the PyeongChang Olympics on Feb. 9, 2018. And this time, it'll actually feel like winter. Unlike in Sochi (where it was in the 50s most days) or even Vancouver (where there were some warm days), the average high temperature in PyeongChang in February is right around freezing.
Won't that be a nice change? The WINTER Olympics actually taking place during the winter! What a concept!
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