Going for the Gold

The winter Olympics are being held in Beijing this year. Some of the top sports in the Olympics this year include figure skating and freestyle skiing. Some of those top athletes in those events are Nathan Chen who is an American Figure skater and Kamial Valieva who is a Russian Figure skater. Some other athletes who are sticking out this year are David Wise and Mikaël Kingsbury both of who are freestyle skiers.

Nathan Chen, an American figure skater is a three-time world champion in 2018, 2019, and 2021. In 2018 she won as a bronze medalist in a team event. So far this year, she has one as a silver medalist. Chen is the first figure skater to land five types of quadruple jump in a competition. A toe loop, salchow, loop, flip, and lutz all of which are very impressive jumps. In 2022 he has the world record for the short program, free skate, and the combined score.

Kamial Valieva is another figure skater, a 15-year old competing for the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee). She has the world record for the most points accumulated in a competition. As a representative of Russia, she is looking to win the women’s competition for the third consecutive Olympics. Valieva has been training with Anna Shcherbalova who is the reigning world champion. She is also competing against Alexandra Trusova who is looking to challenge her for silver and bronze medals.

David Wise is a freestyle skier who has also been successful in the Olympics. He has won back-to-back gold medals in half-pipe freestyle skiing. If he pulls off the threepeat in freestyle skiing then he will be the first U.S. man to win three consecutive gold medals in the same event at the winter Olympic games and only the sixth from any nation to do so in any individual event. David is the most decorated member of the freestyle team.

Mikaël Kingsbury is also a freestyle skier. He is part of the Canadian team. He has won gold for men’s mogul in 2018. He has the most medals for any male participant at the freestyle world championships. He recently won silver in men’s moguls. He is known to be the most accomplished skier of all time. He ended up becoming famous early in his career after winning the 2009-10 World Cup rookie of the year award.

When we talked to some fellow Pennridge students who watch the Olympics Paige Mclean’s favorite athlete is Nathan Chen the figure skater. She likes to watch him “break the world record.” and hopes, “American athletes can do well and win more gold medals.” Watching figure skaters is fun for her because “It looks really difficult and is beautiful to watch.” Paige watches Nathen because he is very talented which many can tell from all the medals he has and all he has accomplished. We also talked to Devin McOwen who actually does some of the events held at the Olympics. She is an ice skater and skiier. She says, “It is cool to see how good the athletes are when you have experienced doing the sport.” The athletes at the Olympics are able to accomplish a lot with all the time and hard work they put into their sport. That can be appreciated by all who are watching but even more by those who have participated in the sport before.

https://www.teamusa.org/us-figure-skating/athletes/nathan-chen
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/15/sports/figure-skating-womens
https://www.nbcolympics.com/athletes/mikaela-shiffrin-920906
https://www.gbnews.uk/news/kamila-valieva-attention-shifts-to-team-behind-15-year-old-figure-skater-following-failed-drug-test/224815