The 2018 Winter Olympics kick off this Friday in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Here are some of the top stories you should look out for this year.
Anthem change: Will the athletes remember the words?
The Canadian Olympic Committee has informed the athletes of Team Canada there is a lyric change to “O Canada”.
Bill – C210 passed in the Canadian Senate on Jan. 31, changing the lyrics from “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command” which is gender neutral.
Bobsledders Jesse Lumsden and Justin Kripps said to reporters that the chances of them remembering the change is slim and only a few words are different.
We will have to wait and see if the athletes can remember the change during the hype of standing on the podium with their medal.
The opening ceremonies are to be held Friday in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Canada’s golden flag bearers
Canada’s gold medal figure skating duo Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will carry the flag at the opening ceremonies of the Pyeongchang Winter Games on Friday.
The pair was named by the Canadian Olympic Committee on Tuesday as the first dual flag bearers for Canada.
Virtue and Moir won gold on Canadian soil in the Vancouver Winter games in 2010 and were silver medallists four years ago in Sochi.
The couple was undefeated in their 2016-17 season, where they won their first Grand Prix final title.
Leading up to these games the couple has been almost unbeatable, but had a runner-up finish last month in the Grand Prix final against French duo Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron.
A do-over four years later
Tristan Walker and Justin Snith
Canada’s luge team is looking to put the 2014 Sochi games behind them.
Sam Edney, Alex Gough, Tristan Walker and Justin Snith were told in December that their fourth place finish would be bumped up to a bronze.
This change comes after two lugers out of a group of almost 40 from Russia were stripped of their medals and banned for life from the Olympics after a doping violation in the 2014 games.
But Russian lugers Albert Demchenko and Tatiana Ivanova are among 28 of those athletes that had their banning overruled by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, after indicating there was insufficient evidence. It is unclear whether or not the two will have their medal reinstated.
The question that arises now is, has Canada won their first Olympic luge medal or are they still vying for it in Pyeongchang?
Recovered and ready to compete
Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris is grateful to be at the 2018 Pyeongchang games.
Almost one year ago, McMorris had a freak accident that left him hospitalized for months. The snowboarder collided with a tree in Whistler, fracturing his jaw and leaving him with 17 broken bones.
But he is no stranger to injury.
McMorris competed in the slopestyle event in Sochi 2014, where he won bronze, Canada’s first medal of those games all while competing with a broken rib.
After his brush with death McMorris is a force to be reckoned with. He just finished competing in the Winter X Games where he picked up a bronze for slopestyle, the same event he will be apart of in Pyeongchang.
Men’s slopestyle competition begins Friday.
