Out-of-this-World Olympics!!! | Daniel Yachi

The Winter Olympics have never really gained as much viewership as its summer counterpart, mostly due to its typically less interesting sports and more inconvenient time of the year. However, this does not mean that there is absolutely no reason to watch this underrated program. Here are a few reasons why you may want to keep up with this year's Winter Olympics:

Figure Skating Face Off:

Likely to be the most watched sport of the Winter Olympics, figure skating takes the cake for most action-packed, drama-filled sport of the winter program. Specifically, this competition will see the face off between two well known figure skating idols: Yuzuru Hanyu representing Japan and Nathan Chen representing the United States. The two have a recent history of going head to head in competitions, with the resulting winner flipping often. Figure skating fanatics generally tend to agree that the two share the title of being fan favorites. With Hanyu being considered an “Olympic All-Star” and Chen the “King of World Championships,” the clash between the two is sure to be an interesting and intense showdown. Seeing as Hanyu has recently been suffering multiple skating injuries causing some disappearances and Chen having a “disastrous” performance in the previous Pyeongchang Olympics, the two have a lot to prove this year.

Politics:

For those who find little interest in watching sports, this year's Olympics also provide a uniquely political aspect to it because of its location this year: Beijing. In response to human rights abuses against Uyghur populations in China, the United States, among a number of other countries, has decided to enact a diplomatic boycott of the event. This means that, although athletes will still play, no high ranking government officials will be attending the event as they traditionally do. On the other hand, however, Vladimir Putin himself has personally attended the games and had meetings with China's President, Xi Jinping. This comes at a time when Russia has been making increasingly aggressive actions on the borders of Ukraine through deploying troops, seemingly in preparation for an invasion. While the UN Security Council, for the most part, denounced Russia's aggression, China’s representatives stood by their Russian counterparts’ side, going to show how close Russia and China have grown during this tense time.

Ski Jumping:

Another popular winter Olympic Sport is ski jumping. This sport takes Olympians through the air, aiming to reach the farthest point possible. Despite many people not knowing of this sport until watching it for the first time, the thrill of each jump keeps viewers glued to their screens. Although the sport may not have as much drama as figure skating, it did have an incident of five female Olympians being disqualified for their outfits being “too baggy.” The Olympic Officials claim that the extra fabric gave competitors an unfair amount of “lift” while the Olympians claim that this was an unfair switch up of the rules with some of them being returning winners.

Overall, the Winter Olympics will be a great program to keep you entertained this time of year.