When researching what country I wanted to teach abroad in, I was completely unaware after having already chosen Korea as my destination, that they would be hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I became fully cognizant of this fact until I was already living in Seoul.
Despite this knowledge, it had really yet to fully dawn on me the how lucky I was to have the opportunity to go to the Olympics – I had just moved to a foreign country and the competition was still a year away. But as the months dwindled, turning into weeks, then days, my anticipation for the event in turn grew.
Fast forward to the day of and I was pretty pumped. Even the 5am wake-up call didn’t bother me as much as it would have for practically any other occasion. My boys Connor, KJ and Jared were all taking a bus from Seoul to Gangneung for a day full of international spectacle.
After about a three hour bus ride from Seoul, we arrived to Gangneung, the second province that was hosting the Olympic games which is about another 45 minutes further east of Seoul than Pyeongchang. The four of us had purchased tickets for Curling (multiple teams would be playing at the same time including South Korea and the U.S.) and Finland v. Norway Ice Hockey. Upon our arrival and a bit of head scratching as to where to go, we grabbed a taxi which took us to the Gangneung Olympic Village. The boys went ahead of me since they were smart and printed out their tickets beforehand (as you can see above though, mine look f-f-f-freshhh) while I waited in line for mine before making my way to the first event which had gotten underway – Curling!
Like the vast majority of Americans, the only time I bemusedly watch Curling is during the Winter Olympics. It’s just one of those events that I always found hard to take seriously yet by the same token, would always give some of my attention whenever I saw it on TV.
After watching these guys do their thing live and in person, I’ve definitely come away with a greater appreciation for the sport. The hand-eye coordination that these athletes have is pretty impressive – whether it be the guy releasing the granite stone towards the other side of the rink with just the right amount of power and spin, or the sweepers that are always just ahead of the stone, sweeping furiously at the ice to create less friction and more speed it. There’s also evidently a fair bit of strategy and tactics involved in the sport which is why it is nicknamed “chess on ice”. These guys (and gals) might not be able to hit a front-side-double-quart 1260 ala Shaun White, or a delayed triple-axel jump (I don’t know if that’s honestly a move or not but it sounds like it is one) like Yuzuru Hanyu for Gold, but dammit if they don’t know how to release a stone and sweep the shit out of some ice!
Aaaaand with that being said I still maintain that if the fate of the world relied on a random person having to qualify for an Olympic event, the event you choose every time is unequivocally Curling along with a full-fledged steroid/doping program assisted by the Russians. If that’s not a backhanded compliment (to both Curling and Russia), I don’t know what is.
After Curling, we proceeded to wander around the Olympic Village for a few hours and get a feel for the mood of the large crowds. On an unnaturally warm day for Korea in February and with the sun shining, people of all races and creeds, age and color, were in a jovial and spirited mood as they soaked in the experience and we were no different. As the four of us have all come to know and enjoy Korean food in all its glory, what we saw at the makeshift cafeterias left a lot to be desired, so instead we went with the tried and true golden arches – McDonalds baby.
The beautiful thing about McDonalds is that you can go anywhere in the world and order the same thing and know what you’re going to get. By true Korean standards, the depressingly long line coming through the entrance moved with such speed and efficiency that we were in and out in ten minutes which is decidedly NOT something you can come to expect unless you’re in Korea.
After lunch we went to do a bit of shopping for souvenirs at the gargantuan store that was set up in the middle of the village. Again, long lines were bested by Korean efficiency and we were inside within minutes.
While we were browsing for things to buy, Connor, Jared and I struck up a conversation with two Italian figure skaters, Nicole Della Monica and Valentina Marchei, both of whom had finished their events the day before and were now just spectators like the rest of us. They were both really sweet and seemed genuinely interested in answering our questions.
I was under the impression that we would only see these athletes from afar but honestly they were doing the same thing everyone else was – in line for souvenirs/McDonalds, walking around the Olympic Village and watching other events that they weren’t a part of. Many of them were talking to us normal folk and seemed appreciative of the attention; after all, most of these Olympians are just like everyone else – for the most part they are not big-name celebrities in their own countries let alone the world and the Olympics are a once in a lifetime opportunity for the majority of athletes and spectators alike, so these Olympians were going to savor every one of those 15 minutes of fame! My biggest regret about the Olympics was not making it a weekend event and staying in the areas where everyone else was as it would have been amazing to hear more individual stories from these athletes (oh and party with them of course too which apparently is a common occurrence). I won’t make the same mistake for Tokyo 2020!
As we kept meandering, we saw the iconic Olympic rings and without hesitation got in line for the obligatory photo shoot.
There was no better example of global warming and it’s detriment to our planet than this ghastly scene of two polar bears melting before our very eyes. Clearly Mama Bear and her cub were not prepared for just how warm Korea would be on this day and unfortunately, they met a fate not so dissimilar to frozen ice sculptures hit with intense sunlight. Let this be a lesson to you all and do your part for the good of humanity….and polar bears!
The most exciting part of the day came from a piece of incredibly good fortune earlier in the week during an Anti-Vday pub crawl of sorts that a bunch of friends and myself attended. Laying on the ground in one of the bars, Connor spotted something on the ground which he had mistaken for a flyer but turned out to be three Olympic tickets for an Ice Hockey game between Russia and Slovakia. As luck would have it, the game just so happened to be for the same day that we were going in between the Curling and Ice Hockey events we were already going to. After asking around, either everyone was too drunk or didn’t care about the tickets (including the Irish bartender) and so Connor continued his trend of getting things for free in Korea and this was definitely the pick of the bunch! The Olympic Gods were truly looking out for us.
Not only were these tickets for a popular Olympic event, but the seats we got were ridiculously good – so good that whoever drunkenly lost these tickets basically threw away $450. Honestly I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present so shout out to whoever you are guy….and shout out to Connor for always looking down at his feet when he talks to strangers (jkjkjk)!
And boy oh boy what a spectacle it was. I’d been to a few hockey games before, but never to one where the seats were this close to the players and rink. It was great being able to watch how these players utilized a rare combination of speed, skill, strength and aggression to play at an incredibly high and exhilarating tempo from the get-go, (particularly from the Russian players who ended up demolishing Slovakia to the tune of 8-nil). Here’s a few videos that I took from the game:
Video #1: Slovakia playing with four men for two minutes due to a high-sticking penalty
Video #2: The WAAAAAAVVE
Video #3: Gooooaaaaallll for ze Motherland Russia…..errrr team United Nations
In case some of you have been living under a rock recently and weren’t aware, Russian athletes were banned from playing under their countries flag for the Olympics and instead had to play under the UN flag. The film that won this years Oscar for best Documentary, Icarus, is an absorbing, provocative film that starts off as a documentary about an avid amateur cyclist before taking a life of its own and delving into the dark recesses of Olympic sport and steroids in Russia. But don’t take my word for it on how good this documentary is, just ask The Academy. If you’d like to learn more about the Russian doping scandal, I’d highly recommend watching this film.
Despite the allegations and banning of Russian athletes from playing under their flag, this did not stop their fans from coming out in full force to support their team. There must have been a few hundred of them packed together on the opposite side of the arena chanting, singing and dancing throughout the game and their enthusiasm was infectious. Even the Koreans, Americans and other foreigners in attendance were pulling for Russia and at halftime, Connor, KJ and myself took the opportunity to go talk to and take some pictures with the passionate fans.
After the game, we met up with Jared for round 2 at McDonalds and then headed to the cafeteria where some of our other friends were hanging out drinking some brews. I curse myself now for not working up the courage to go talk to some of the Finnish Olympians so I could say something stupid about how I’m a quarter Finnish and my last name is Saari, but at that point I was going into a McDonalds coma and the beer wasn’t giving me any courage as it simply got soaked up by the burgers and fries I had been eating all day.
After a while, we all went off to the Finland v Norway Ice Hockey event. While it was pretty cool to watch team Finland do their thang, the seats were, as you can see below, not nearly as good as the ones we had earlier and most of us weren’t sitting near each other (although KJ and Connor somehow managed to sneak down and sit right behind the Finland bench THOSE LUCKY VERMIN). We couldn’t even Finnish (hehe, see what I did there?) the game as we all had to catch the last bus back to Seoul but nevertheless, it made for a good way to end the epic day.
I often bristle at the idea of nationalism and ethnocentrism, or the basic premise that just because you are of a certain nationality, race or creed, that you somehow hold some sort of God-given “moral superiority” over others that are not like you. While I was of the notion that this sort of close-mindedness permeates every society both on a micro and macro level, living abroad and going to the Olympics has made me realize that many people (and hopefully most) are not of this mindset. Here I was, an American, cheering on the USA and Korean Curling teams and Russian/Finnish Ice Hockey teams, in Korea. I saw people of every nationality eating, kimbap, tteokbokki, ramen and of course McDonalds while speaking in Korean, Chinese, English, Russian and French. I saw opposing fans cheering their heart out for their respective teams, while also good-naturedly bantering with the opposition and sharing beers as well.
International sporting events like the Olympics and World Cup bring people together from all over the world. It opens your eyes to new foods, cultures and perspectives. It becomes a melting pot that allows us to experience new things while also realizing that perhaps, we are all more alike than we are different and that, if we just took a bit more time to listen, we’d understand more than we already do and be more accepting of those who are not “us”.