Winter Olympics - who to watch
The Winter Olympics get under way in Pyeongchang, South Korea, this week with 21 Kiwi athletes in serious contention for New Zealand’s second ever medal.
It has been 25 years since New Zealand won its first and only Winter Olympics medal when alpine skier Annelise Coberger claimed silver at the 1992 Games in Albertville, France.
The New Zealand Olympic Committee has sent its biggest ever contingent of 21 athletes in search of that precious second medal.
The Kiwi medal haul will be met with stiff competition from some of the world’s best snow sports athletes for the two-week competition running from February 9-25.
Ice Hockey - North and South Korea teaming up
Perhaps one of the biggest stories of all before the Games had began, with both North Korea and South Korea coming together to form a women’s ice hockey team.
Despite their history of political differences, North Korea reached an agreement with South Korea to allow their ice hockey teams to join up.
The deal was 12 players from North Korea and 23 players from South Korea to team up to create a unified women’s team.
The host South Korean coach will take charge and at least three players from North Korea must be selected as part of the package.
North Korea has only 22 athletes competing at the Games in total.
The country also has athletes in alpine skiing, figure skating, short track speed skating and cross country skiing.
Chloe Kim - halfpipe snowboarder
American snowboarder Chloe Kim is only 17 and has fast become the the United States darling of the snow. Quietly spoken off the slopes, but dominant on them, Kim is one of the favourites to win gold in the halfpipe event. After winning the halfpipe and slopestyle gold medals in the 2016 Winter Youth Games this will be her first Winter Olympics. Kim qualified for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, but at only 13 she was too young to compete. She went on to clean up at the X Games in the following years and is an obvious contender for gold.
In 2016, she became the first woman to land a back-to-back 1080 spin (six full turns). Although competing for the US, she will boast a somewhat home advantage as both her parents were born in South Korea.
Nigerian women’s bobsled team
They’re not Jamaican, but these girls could become the new pinups of the sport made world famous in the 1993 movie Cool Runnings.
Known to always be smiling these Nigerian women Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga are going to get more attention than they have had in their entire lives over the next two weeks.
They became the world’s first all-African bobsleigh team in 2015 and have qualified for their first ever Winter Olympics – making them Nigeria’s first Winter Olympic athletes.
Adigun is the bobsled driver and Onwumere and Omeoga are in charge of the brakes.
Coming from a warmer climate they each come from a background in athletics. Adigun even competed for Nigeria in the 2012 London Olympic Games as a 100m hurdler.
Skeleton: Akwasi Frimpong and Anthony Watson
The Nigerian bobsleigh team are not the only stars making history at the Games; these two skeleton racers are the first to compete for their countries.
Akwasi will be Ghana’s second ever winter Olympian and the only African man competing in the Winter Olympics.
Watson will be Jamaica’s first ever Olympic skeleton slider. Both men started off by trying bobsleighing, but decided to stick with skeleton instead.
Watson has never raced in a World Cup event but finished 38th at last year’s world championships.
Lindsey Vonn - alpine skier
For years Vonn has been the poster girl of alpine skiing. Despite being plagued with injury through her career, Vonn has won countless medals and World Cups.
She has won four World Cup titles – one of only two female skiers to do so, and gold in the downhill at the 2010 Winter Olympics. She has also won a record eight World Cup downhill titles, five titles in super-G and three consecutive titles in the combined. In 2016, she won her 20th World Cup crystal globe title, an all-time record among men or women.
It’s an impressive looking CV, and at 33 this could be the last Winter Olympics we see the American compete at.
It takes discipline and bravery to race at speeds of around 115kmh and Vonn is the favourite in the women’s downhill, super-G and super combined for the gold medal.
Yuzuru Hanyu - figure skating
While there are no Kiwis competing on the rink, Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu is the reigning men’s Olympic figure skating champion and perhaps the greatest skater of any era.
He has been hailed as ‘‘the Michael Jackson of ice’’ and is a strong chance of becoming the first repeat men’s champion since Dick Button of the United States in 1948 and 1952.
At the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics he became the first Japanese figure skater in history to win gold at the Winter Olympics and the youngest to do so in over 66 years.
He fell twice during his free skate at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. He said he wanted to deliver an unblemished, more inspired performance at the 2018 Winter Games.
Yuzuru also became the first figure skater to pass the 100-point mark, with a world record score of 101.45.