By Aminah Khan, Isabella Purdy & Jennifer Trend, Staff Writers
For the past two weeks, Olympians from all over the world went to Pyeongchang to compete for the gold in various sports ranging from figure skating and snowboarding to curling. Students from Fountain Valley have witnessed these Olympians fiercely competing and share their thoughts on the Winter Olympics.
“I liked supporting team USA and I liked watching the artistic aspect of figure skating. Nathan Chen (Team USA) fell a lot and he’s never done that in competitions before and it made me aware of how big pressure is, ” said junior Juhaina Habeebulla. Photo by Aminah Khan.
“My favorite event is ice skating. That is my main event (that I watch). I did watch the half pipe for Chloe Kim when she got her gold, so, that was pretty interesting. But my interests are more towards ice skating.This year I really like Ashley Wagner (Team US) and I also like the (ShibSibs) Shibutani siblings which are Maia and Alex Shibutani (Team USA) and they’re a really good sibling team for ice skating. I just really like how close they are and how they’re able to portray a story through their skating. I haven’t watched much in the past years, but I did watch when Johnny Weir was ice skating, it was a really big thing. And, I would say a lot of things have changed. They use more modern music now instead of the traditional classical, like it was a rule where you can’t use songs with lyrics. But now that they’re able to have songs with lyrics now and its more fun. These skaters are able to show their personality more which is really great, because a lot of times you’re used to them doing classical ice skating where its very ballet and to gentle music.I would hope to see my favorite athletes again, of course. I’m always rooting for Team USA. I would love to see maybe some new innovations in ice skating. I know there’s the new quad jumps by Nathan Chen, so that was pretty cool. Hopefully I’ll be able to see more new tricks,” said senior Tammy Tran. Photo by Aminah Khan.
“So far I’ve seen the biathlon, speed skating, luge, skeleton, figure skating, snowboarding. So my favorite event would have to be figure skating- I know all the Olympians worked hard to be where they are today, but I feel like figure skating will always have that special place in my heart. And I also have to give credit to Nathan Chen too, because he was able to bounce back from his free skate, and he was able to land five out of his six quads during his program. I feel like this year’s Winter Olympics was as exciting as the last. Every Olympics there’s twists and turns, and I really loved that aspect of it. But it was really fun for me to watch it, and I’m glad I’m able to share my enthusiasm about the games with my friends and family,” said sophomore Jocelyn Nguyen. Photo by Aminah Khan
“[I like] Hockey because it’s fast. I like the speed, the intensity, the suspense of it. Like last night’s game was very intense between women’s USA hockey and Canada. But they won, so I was like ‘Yes!’ I feel like everyone doesn’t watch it, like [the] Summer Olympics, but it’s really nice. It’s very cool,” said sophomore Alyssa Moreno. Photo by Aminah Khan
“Figure skating is preferably nice to watch. It’s nice to watch because I feel very inspired and enlightened when I see them jump and skate around and I feel at peace with myself.My thoughts on the Winter Olympics is that it’s a beautiful time where all the nations come together in peace to celebrate one thing that they have in common, which is doing sports. And it’s nice to see everyone together in kumbaya and not fighting,” said sophomore Jasmine Nguyen. Photo by Aminah Khan
