The Olympic Games of 2014 started last friday and last until today the 23rd of February. I am Dutch so I supported my orange winter heroes!
Hereby the standings and my review about this year Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
While I am finishing this piece, I am also watching the Closing Ceremony. I have seen several competitions on television and enjoyed watching it. The world has many top athletes who can maken dangerous tricks, gain incredible speed or show the beauty of dancing on ice. I believe that for every sport on this Olympic Games, the keyword was ‘Balance’. Balance needed to stay and move on ice, to stay and slide on snow and of course also balance in the air.
The disciplines and things I noticed:
- Speedskating: I am surprised how good our Dutch athletes were on the low iceskating rink. Incredible times, good material but above of all: good teamwork! I am very proud of them!
- Short track: What an amazing sport! About speed, a short distance, skating that quick in rounds and rounds and rounds. So you have to stay focused all the time about many things. I believe that at this level on the Olympic Games, this was the sport were most athletes fell during the game. Amazing but it is such a hard competition! Luckily there is a jury and not only a time.
- Ice Hockey: I am a hockeyplayer myself. Though not on the ice but on the field haha. But this ice version of hockey is very complicated. With many rules, little space, a high speed game and definitely a tough puck! When I saw the helmet of the goalie of the USA I thought: And a puck really does not go through the bars? Is it really tested by the fastest hit ever or something? I am still wondering if the goalie felt really safe in that helmet, but I have been a field goalie, no icehockey goalie so I am not the one to judge it.
- Figure skating: I am mostly amazed by the tricks of the youngest participants. Figure skating is a beautiful sport and I liked it that it was not only pairs or a single competition, but also the team competition. And the different categories like ballroom dancing and the free dance. I have seen some dances of (inter alia…) Yulia Lipnitskaya, I believe she is the youngest participant and won Gold! And a dance that I also remembered is performed by Gracie Gold, she got Bronze but she did very well!
- Curling: I didn’t see much about that so got not much to tell about it.
- Biathlon & Cross Country: When I was watching a game of it, I realized when someone finished: They ‘walk/skate/langlauf’ as quick as a marathonrunner runs. Wow! And they also have to do a shooting round of 5 shots and a big distance while standing or laying. Every fault means an extra few meters you ‘ve got to make before you are allowed to finish.
- Skeleton & Luge: I had never heard of it before and when I saw it on the television I thougt: what’s that for a new sport! I can only think about one thing when I see it. A single named ‘Keep Your Head Up’.
- Ski: I am not a fan of great hights so Ski Jumping I always watch amazed by: wow you fly through the air and land on those long long ski’s! But I like the quickness of the Alpine Skiing sport.
- Snowboard: I have seen beautiful tricks, turns, grabs and railslides. And also by this sport I prefer the snowboard slalom for quickness and the halfpipe for tricks.
So after all these days of sports and meanwhile it is still 7 degrees in The Netherlands without any snow, I got the feeling I already had my winter days of 2013-2014 together with these Olympic Games!
The next Olympic Games, 2018, will take place in South Korea.
The results of The Netherlands, Olympic Games, Sochi 2014:
Postion of The Netherlands: 5th with….(behind Canada)
Gold: 8 | Silver: 7 | Bronze: 9 | Total count of medals = 24
Disciplines and the athletes:
- Speedskating: Sven Kramer (m) Gold 2x & Silver, Ireen Wüst (f) Gold 2x & Silver 3x, Marit Leenstra (f) Gold, Stefan Groothuis (m) Gold, Michel Mulder (m) Gold & Bronze, Jorrit Bergsma (m) Gold & Bronze, Jorien ter Mors (f) Gold 2x, Jan Blokhuijsen (m) Gold & Silver, Jan Smeekens (m) Silver, Koen Verweij (m) Gold & Silver, Ronald Mulder (m) Bronze, Margot Boer (f) Bronze 2x, Bob de Jong (m) Bronze, Carien Kleibeuker (f) Bronze, Lotte van Beek (f) Gold & Bronze
- Short Track: Sjinkie Knegt (m) Bronze
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