I have never been a huge fan of the Winter Olympics, mostly because we don’t experience winter and don’t have access to those events. The only time I watch winter related sports is if it’s featured in a movie and most of these have involved skiing or bobsled (thanks to Cool Runnings). I’ve also watched I, Tonya mostly because it was about a scandal.

However, for the last couple of days I’ve been glued to the TV (Olympics YouTube channel) watching some of the Winter Olympics events, specifically Figure Skating. This led me to YouTube where I got to learn more about the Figure Skating event. It’s quite interesting. The reason it’s called figure skating is because when it started, the athletes used to draw figures on the ice.

The Story of Surya Bonaly – Backflip on One Leg

In the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Surya Bonaly did the unthinkable. During her free staking session, she did a backflip and landed on one leg. In her previous sessions, she didn’t do well so she decided to sign off in style. And sure she did. If you talk about the Nagano Winter Olympics, few medalists come to mind but certainly everybody remembers Surya Bonaly.

Sometimes winning isn’t everything. We do stuff simply because we love doing them.

Curling

Curling is also another event that I found interesting. To a casual observer, you might think that it’s a lazy person’s sport and anyone can do it. I got to find out that it’s a game of strategy and quite thrilling. The curling stones (granite) for the MilanoCortina Winter Olympics are all procured from a small factory in Scotland.