February 27, 2018

Two days ago on Sunday, February 25, the Winter Olympic Games closed in South Korea after featuring more events than any previous winter games—102 to be exact. Four new events were introduced: a mixed team event for alpine skiing, curling mixed doubles, snowboarding’s big air, and a mass start for speed skating. Norwegians showed the rest of the world their prowess with 39 medals, and they tied Germany for the most gold medals (14). Germany had 31 total medals, Canada was third with 29, and the United States was fourth with 23.

U.S. snowboarder Chloe Kim celebrates victory in the women’s snowboard halfpipe at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Credit: © Leonard Zhukovsky, Shutterstock

The United States earned unexpected gold medals in women’s hockey, women’s cross-country skiing, and men’s curling. The women earned Team USA’s first Olympic gold medal in hockey in 20 years by beating the dominant Canadian team in a shoot-out. Cross-country skiers Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall became the first American women to ever medal in their discipline, much less to take home the gold in the team sprint freestyle event. The men’s curling team brought the United States its first curling Olympic gold medal.

Alpine skiing had everyone’s attention with U.S. ladies Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn. Shiffrin won a gold in the women’s giant slalom and took home a silver in the women’s combined. Vonn missed the podium on the Super-G but came back for a bronze in the downhill event, making her the oldest woman (at age 33) to medal in alpine skiing at the winter games. Team USA’s Nick Goepper earned a silver in men’s freestyle skiing in the slopestyle event. In an exciting bobsled final run, the two-woman U.S. team Lauren Gibbs and Elana Meyers Taylor finished second for the silver. John Henry Krueger earned his silver in short-track speed-skating in the men’s 1000-meter race, the first individual U.S. speed skating medal in 8 years. U.S. freestyle skier Brita Sigourney brought home bronze in the women’s halfpipe.

The symbol ‘ㅍ’ represents the first consonant of the first syllable of PyeongChang in the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, and expresses the harmony of Heaven, Earth and Man. ‘ㅊ’ depicts the first Korean consonant of the second syllable of PyeongChang in Hangeul, and represents snow, ice, and winter sports stars (athletes). Credit: © Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018

Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjoergen became the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time at Pyeongchang. Ladies figure skating rivals and teammates Alina Zagitova and Yevgenia Medvedeva battled for the gold. Both skaters are Olympic Athletes from Russia. Medvedeva had been undefeated in competition from November 2015 until January 2018. She broke her own world record with two captivating Olympic performances, only to have it broken minutes later by Zagitova. Medvedeva won the silver, and Zagitova took the gold in a scarlet tutu.

February 22, 2018

The second exciting week at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang has had figure skating fans on the edges of their seats. German pairs team Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot, Japanese men’s skater Yuzuru Hanyu, and Canadian ice dance team Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir all took gold after tough competitions on the ice. During the contests, United States men’s skater Nathan Chen became the first person to land five clean quadruple jumps (four rotations in mid-air) in a single Olympic program (it would have been six, but Chen’s hand touched the ice for balance after one of the jumps).

Canadian ice dancers Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir perform their short program during the ice dancing competition at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games at Gangneung Ice Arena in South Korea on Feb. 19, 2018. Credit: © Valery Sharifulin, Getty Images

To break it down, pairs is an event with a male skater and a female skater. They do jumps, spins, and lifts. Ice dance is an event with a male skater and female skater, too. They do challenging patterns, lifts (with restrictions), and spins. Men and women also do solo performances with jumps, spins, and footwork. Each couple or individual performs two programs (performances), one short and one long—also called a “free” program. The points earned in both programs add up to the total score.

Prior to winning gold in the 2018 Winter Olympics, German skater Savchenko had competed in four Olympics (three for Germany, one for Ukraine), but never won gold. In 2014 (after winning bronze at the Sochi Olympics), she paired with French-born Bruno Massot, who became a German citizen to skate with Savchenko. The pair earned medals at two world championships before taking gold in Pyeongchang. It is the third Olympics for Canadian fan favorites Virtue and Moir. They took gold in Vancouver in 2010 and silver at Sochi in 2014. In 2018, Virtue and Moir earned the highest score ever recorded for a short dance program (beating their own record) as well as another record for overall points.

Soohorang (left), the official mascot of the 2018 Winter Olympics, is a white tiger. Bandabi (right), mascot of the Paralympics, is an Asiatic black bear. Credit: © Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018

Japanese skaters took first and second in the men’s solo event. In winning gold this year, Yuzuru Hanyu repeated his achievement from the 2014 games, becoming the first men’s back-to-back Olympic champion since Team USA’s Dick Button did it in the 1948 and 1952 winter games. Hanyu’s teammate Shoma Uno took second, and Javier Fernandez earned Spain’s first-ever Olympic figure skating medal by winning bronze. U.S. skater Nathan Chen recovered from a rocky short program to dazzle with quadruple jumps in his long program and finish fifth overall.

The popularity of ice dancing in the United States increased after Meryl Davis and Charlie White became the first Americans to win gold in the event in 2014. In 2018, Team USA’s Maia and Alex Shibutani, a brother-sister duo dubbed the “Shib Sibs,” won bronze behind Canada’s Virtue and Moir and silver medalists Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron of France. The first Olympic medals in ice dancing were awarded in 1976 at the winter games in Innsbruck, Austria.

February 15, 2018

Last Friday, February 9, the Winter Olympic Games opened in the town of Pyeongchang (sometimes written as PyeongChang) in northeastern South Korea. Pyeongchang sits among the Taebaek Mountains of Gangwon Province southeast of Seoul, the South Korean capital. The first week of the Winter Olympic Games saw outstanding performances on the ice and snow, but perhaps the most dramatic event occurred during the opening ceremonies when the North and South Korean teams marched together under a flag representing a unified Korea. The two nations, created in 1948, were embittered by the brutal Korean War (1950-1953), and they have been at odds ever since.

The North Korea and South Korea Olympic teams march together under the Korean Unification Flag during the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games at Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium on Feb. 9, 2018. Credit: © Matthias Hangst, Getty Images

At Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium, ornate performances and light shows punctuated international team arrivals, but the most dazzling—and historical—moment was when members of the North and South Korean teams marched into the stadium side-by-side. In the stands, South Korean president Moon Jae-in shook hands with Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. Kim Yo-jong’s visit to South Korea is the first by a member of the North Korean ruling family since Kim Il-sung established North Korea as a Communist state in 1948. A combined North and South Korean women’s hockey team later competed in the games, but all other Korean athletes competed under their nation’s individual flag.

In the official Olympic emblem, the symbol ㅍ represents the first consonant of the first syllable of Pyeongchang in the Korean alphabet, (known as Hangeul), and expresses the “harmony of heaven, Earth, and man.” ㅊ depicts the first consonant of the second syllable of Pyeongchang, and represents “snow, ice, and winter sports stars (athletes).” Credit: © Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018

On the snow and ice, athletes from Norway, Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany jumped out to early medals in such cold-weather competitions as cross-country skiing, curling, speed skating, and ski jumping. United States snowboarders dominated as Redmond Gerard, Jamie Anderson, rising star Chloe Kim, and veteran boarder Shaun White won the first U.S. gold medals. U.S. alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin added a gold in the ladies’ giant slalom. Chris Mazder became the first U.S. athlete to medal in the luge, winning a surprising silver behind Austria’s David Gleirscher. In the team figure skating competition, the U.S. won bronze as Mirai Nagasu became the first American woman to land a triple axel jump (3 1/2 spins in mid-air) at the Olympics. The feat was accomplished previously by Japanese Olympians Midori Ito and Mao Asada. (Nagasu’s parents are also from Japan.) Canada won gold in the figure skating team competition, and the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) took silver. The International Olympic Committee banned Russia from competing as a team because of performance-enhancing drug use, but individual Russian athletes—cleared by drug tests—have been allowed to compete under the OAR banner.

High winds delayed or postponed many events, but the weather calmed to allow Austrian skiing great Marcel Hirscher to win a long-awaited first Olympic gold medal. Skiers from France and Sweden also picked up gold medals in the first week, and short-track speed skater Lim Hyo-jun earned the host country’s first gold medal.

February 18, 2014

Despite fierce competition from Canadian and Russian figure skaters, Meryl Davis and Charlie White became the first Americans to win a gold medal in ice dancing. Ice dancing combines skating with ballroom dancing. The two University of Michigan students captured the top prize at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, with their energetic and fluid performance to the music Scheherazade (1888) by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Davis and White had led going into the free dance part of the competition, after the compulsory dance and original dance segments. In all, White and Davis earned the highest point total ever in ice dancing. The two have been skating together for 17 years.

The official flag of the International Olympic Committee displays the Olympic symbol. The symbol consists of five interlocking rings that represent Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. (World Book illustration)

December 30, 2013

A massive suicide-bomb explosion ripped through a packed trolleybus in Volgograd, Russia, this morning. The attack came less than 24 hours after a suicide bombing in the city’s main train station left 17 people dead. Today’s blast at the height of the morning rush hour killed 14 people and seriously injured some 20 others. Among the injured are a pregnant woman, two teenagers, and a six-month-old baby whose parents are assumed dead.

The twin attacks raise the specter that militant groups may be ramping up violence to mar the 2014 winter Olympic Games in the resort city of Sochi in February. The Olympics venue is close to Russia’s volatile north Caucasus region. Experts on the domestic situation in Russia have pointed out that it was highly risky to stage the games so near to the troubled republics of Chechnya and Dagestan. A leader of the Islamist insurgency in the two Caucasus republics, Doku Umarov, has called on his supporters to use “maximum force” to disrupt the “satanic” Olympic Games. Islamic separatists have carried many terrorist attacks in their attempt to establish Islamic states in the Caucasus region. Hundreds of people were killed, including many children, in attacks on a Moscow theater in 2002 and a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan in 2004.

In the Soviet Union, winter weather and the determination of the army and the people stopped the German advance at Stalingrad (now Volgograd) during World War II. (AP/Wide World)

The experts also suggest that the terrorists chose Volgograd for a reason. The city, which is about 560 miles (900 kilometers) south of Moscow and 435 miles (700 kilometers) northeast of Sochi, is of huge symbolic importance to most Russians. Volgograd (then the Soviet city of Stalingrad) was the scene of one of the most strategically important battles of  World War II (1939-1945). The Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted from Aug. 23, 1942, until Feb. 2, 1943, was the first time in the war that an attacking German army, which many believed invincible, was forced to turn back.

Additional World Book articles:

• World War II (1942) (a Back in Time article)
• Europe (1943) (a Back in Time article)
• Russia (1994) (a Back in Time article)
• Russia (2002) (a Back in Time article)
• Russia (2003) (a Back in Time article)
• Russia (2004) (a Back in Time article)