The Opening Ceremonies of the 2018 Winter Olympics aired in the United States on Friday night at 8 pm est. As always, the ceremony was filled with an elaborate lightshow, a firework display, and, as always, the procession of athletes. I watched the ceremony as it primered and for those of you that missed it, these are what I saw as the two most important things to take from it.
First, North Korea and South Korea have come together in peace to be known as the team for “Korea”. This is huge. The countries have not competed together in years. This Korean team even has a women’s hockey team made up of citizens from both North and South Korea. The NBC hosts highlighted that the biggest struggle this team is facing is the language barrier. Two members of the women’s hockey team, one from each country, even ran the torch. The coming together of these two teams is definitely a move towards peace among the nations.
Second, the U.S. team is going for gold. Every U.S. team member that was interviewed during the opening ceremonies was ready to win big. Team USA’s outfits at the opening ceremonies were once again designed by Ralph Lauren. As always, they were red, white, and blue, but this Olympics, there was a twist. The Americans were sporting gold gloves. A bold move, but the gold gloves set the tone for the American team. They are going for gold and are not stopping until they get it. Shawn White is back for his last Olympics. After an upsetting performance in Sochi, White is going for the gold in his event in 2018. We here at HC Marywood are rooting for White and all of Team USA.
All eyes will be on Pyeongchang for the next two weeks. We are wishing the best of luck to all athletes and coaches over these next two weeks. Go TEAM U.S.A.!