Local stars shine as Winter Games begin
Bay Area athletes get a chance to compete for the gold in chilly Korea
PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA » The sporting world has gathered in chilled-to-the-bone Korea for the Winter Games that officially open Friday night in the outdoor Olympic Stadium where temperatures are forecast for single digits.
Bay Area winter sports fans probably will need to rummage through their closets to inspect unused cold-weather gear to get in
the mood for what has the promise of an exhilarating 17 days of snow and ice action.
Over the next two-plus weeks, attention turns to 102 events in 15 disciplines as previously unknown athletes get a chance to break into a spotlight usually reserved for a couple of figure skaters, hockey players and that red-headed snowboarder whose name is as White as snow.
With NBC Sports offering 2 million ways to tune in, it can feel overwhelming to determine when to watch and what is worthy, particularly with Korea being 17 hours ahead of everyone back home.
We’ve created a guide for Northern California fans to plot their Olympic viewing without the guesswork.
Local stars
For the first time in 30 years, the Bay Area has two Olympians competing in figure skating. The last time was as big a deal as it gets for a local audience. Brian Boitano of Sunnyvale won the gold medal and Debi Thomas of San Jose the bronze at Calgary.
This time, we have much less buzz for Karen Chen of Fremont and Vincent Zhou of Palo Alto. They each finished third at the U. S. championships last month in San Jose to earn their first Olympic berths despite rugged seasons. Neither is considered a medal contender but both have the talent to finish among the top 10 in women’s andmen’s singles.
Don’t forget, Chen, 18, was fourth at the 2017 World Championships.
On the other hand, Northern California has a strong tradition of supplyingU.S. rosters in the action sports that are newcomers to the Winter Games. None are bigger than Mammoth Mountain’s Shaun White, a two- time gold medalist in the halfpipe, and fellow Eastern Sierra shredder Chloe Kim, an Orange County transplant. The Korean-American has dominated the snowboard halfpipe since she was 13, too young to compete in Sochi.
“It would have been too much at that age,” said Ben Wisner, Mammoth’s snowboard and Freeski team director. “You learn to compete on the big stage. Now she can handle the Olympics.”
Another Mammoth halfpipe star is Kelly White, who is competing in her fifth Winter Games. She has threemedals and counting.
David Wise of Reno/ Tahoe andMaddie Bowman of South Lake Tahoe return to defend their Olympic titles in the freeskiing halfpipe, while Carmel’s Brita Sigourney hopes to medal in the same event.
Snowboard whiz Jamie Anderson of South Lake Tahoe also the reigning gold medalist in the slopestyle halfpipe.
With the NHL taking a pass, perhaps women’s hockey will get more deserved recognition this go around. Hilary Knight, who was born at Stanford Hospital and lived inWoodside her first five years, is one of the stars of the vaunted American team.
Olympic alpine star Julia Mancuso retired lastmonth after being unable to overcome her latest of a series of injuries. But Bryce Bennett, 25, grew up on the same Squaw Valley slopes as Mancuso and so many other great Tahoe alpine skiers. He finished seventh in a training run Thursday at the Jeongseon Alpine Center.
At 6-feet-7, Bennett is a novelty as the tallest of the 242 American athletes. Some analysts suggested the Pyeongchang course suits him.
“It’s a fairly moderate downhill for the men,” he said. “I wouldn’t say it’s flat but it’s on the flatter side. Maintaining speed throughout the course is important.”
Best of the U.S.
Continuing an Olympic trend, American women should demand the spotlight even as gender equity within specific sports remains a festering issue.
Downhill skier Lindsey Vonn enters the Winter Games hoping to cement her Olympic legacy after already becoming the greatest woman skier in World Cup history. She is expected to share podium celebrations with Mikaela Shiffrin, the world’s best slalom skier.
Chicago’s Bradie Tennell isn’t well-known yet, but the reigning U. S. champion could catapult into history with a medal-winning performance in women’s figure skating. The Illinois teenager had a plan well before others knew she would burst onto the scene this season. Tennell’s short program is performed to “Taegukgi,” a popular Korean War film.
“I’m hoping it’s received well,” she said of playing to a SouthKorean audience. “I certainly love themusic and I hope to do it justice.”
Cross- country skier Kikkan Randall of Alaska is the first U. S. woman to compete in five Winter Olympics. The women’s crosscountry team is looking to make even bigger history with its first medal.
“This is the strongestU.S. women’s team to ever compete at an Olympics,” said Peggy Shinn, author of the just-released book, “World Class — The Making of the U. S. Women’s Cross- Country Team.”
“I’d give them a 90 percent chance of winning a medal — with 10 percent chance of bad luck.”
Katie Uhlaender (skeleton) and Summer Britcher (luge) also have a chance to enjoy 15-minutes of fame.
But we’re excited about Maame Biney and Erin Jackson, the first AfricanAmerican women Olympic speedskaters. Biney, a Ghana- born high school student from Reston, Virginia, has taken one of the more unusual paths to the Gangneung Ice Arena with hermother and brother still living in Accra, Ghana. Let’s not forget the men. Jordan Greenway is the first African-American on the U.S. hockey team. It has been awhile since Chicago’s Shani Davis enjoyed that status in long track speedskating. Now he’s the first U.S. speedskater to compete in five Olympics.
Nathan Chen, who has two sisters living in the Bay Area, is a serious contender in men’s figure skating. The Quad King, who is not related to Karen Chen, has the best chance of the United States continuing a tradition of winning a gold medal in the sport at every Olympics that falls on the year 8 since Dick Button started this in 1948.
The others: Peggy Fleming of San Jose in 1968, Boitano in ’ 88 and Tara Lipinski in ’98.
Finally, the Pyeongchang Games boast the first two openly gay male athletes in freeskier Gus Kenworthy and figure skater Adam Rippon.
Global watch
The $ 13 billion Pyeongchang Games have more than their share of towering talent beyond U.S. borders.
Russians again should dominate women’s figure skating with two-time world champion Evgenia Medvedeva a favorite — if healthy. If not, training partner Alina Zagitova, 15, is capable of winning for Olympic Athletes fromRussia (OAR).
Men’s figure skating could be one of the Winter Games’ highlightswith Japanese stars Yuzuru Hanyu and Shoma Uno and Spain’s Javier Fernandez battling Nathan Chen.
Japan’s men also are strong at the halfpipe, where White will need to be otherworldly to regain his Olympic title. Ayumu Hirano and Yuto Totsuka are today’s pipe kings.
In alpine skiing, Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal and Kjetil Jansrud have been the stars.
Local fans are expected to get up for short-track speedskating, the one winter sport that South Korea has mastered. The Korean stars on ice are Dee Heon Hwang, Hyo Jun Lim and Min Jeong Choi.
Odds and ends
The Winter Games will introduce new events that started Thursday, local time, with mixed doubles curling. Others: big air snowboarding and freestyle skiing andmass start speedskating.
Canadian alpine skier Shannon- Ogbani Abeda will represent Eritrea. His parents settled in Alberta in the 1980s as refugees.
The first Jamaican women’ s bobsled team features Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and CarrieR ussell. They nicknamed their sled Mr. Cool Bolt in honor of the Jamaican Summer Olympic legend Usain Bolt.
A white tiger named Soohorang is the Games’ mascot. A white tiger is considered a guardian in Korean history and culture.
After the massive drug scandal and hand-wringing, 169 Russian athletes are competing here despite the International Olympic Committee banning the country from the Winter Games.