Bay Area figure skaters achieve success in Winter Olympics

The 2018 Winter Olympics will take place from Feb. 9-25 in Pyeongchang County, South Korea.

Ever since the inaugural Winter Olympics held in Chamonix, France, in 1924, many elite athletes have joined together to compete in a worldwide competition and showcase their abilities.

Of the different sports offered, the figure skating and men’s hockey events are the most popular.

Since the first Winter Olympic Games, figure skating has included the men's singles, ladies' singles, and pair skating events. In 1976, ice dancing was added, and in 2014, a team event with teams composed of athletes from all four events, was added. Also, synchronized skating is planned to be incorporated as an event.

The number of entries for each event is set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The U.S. has been allotted three entries for men’s, ladies’ and ice dance events, but only one for the pair event.

In the coming Olympics, many of the selected athletes are from the Bay Area. Karen Chen, from Fremont, will be participating in the ladies’ singles event. Vincent Zhou, from Palo Alto, will be participating in the men’s singles event.

This year’s U.S. Figure Skating Championships was held in the SAP Center in San Jose from Dec. 29-Jan. 7. Although Chen was able to attend, Bay Area skater and Archbishop Mitty High School alumna Polina Edmunds, who was part of the 2014 Olympic team, withdrew from the competition due to a foot injury.

One of the largest and most distinguished skating clubs in the bay is Peninsula Skating Club, the home club of both Chen and Edmunds. The club also holds events, like an annual banquet and a Christmas skating show.

According to sophomore Elizabeth Ding, who has been skating for nine years at Sharks Ice in San Jose, many training facilities in the area are modern, which may be why many talented skaters are from the Bay Area.

“We have internationally ranked coaches, modern training facilities, and Bay Area born Olympians that we can look up to,” she said.

Figure skating is not the only subject of interest in Bay Area athletes. Many practice disciplines in some of the seven sports offered in the Winter Olympics, of which skating, skiing and bobsleigh contain multiple disciplines. Only three of these sports, skiing (nordic skiing), skating (figure skating and speed skating) and ice hockey, have been present in the Winter Olympic Games since the very beginning.

The ticket costs for viewing these extremely competitive sports range from around $20 to $800. The less popular sports, like biathlon and luge, have cheaper tickets to promote attendance. Their well-known counterparts, like figure skating and men’s hockey, have much more expensive tickets. The figure skating and men’s hockey tickets, which carry the highest costs in this year’s Olympics at $776 each.

Of course, the Winter Olympics draws fewer participants than its summer counterpart.

Only 92 countries have entered at least one athlete so far, compared to the 205 competitors in the Summer Olympics.

One major country, Russia, is not counted as a participating nation. This proud nation was exposed for implementing an extensive state-backed doping program. Due to this, the IOC has prohibited the Russian Olympic team from this year’s Olympics.

Some Russian athletes, however, have received a special exemption from this rule. They may participate as individuals under the designation Olympic Athlete from Russia (OAR), but Russia will forever be shown as winning zero medals this year.

Although the country’s pride may be stained, these talented athletes do not have any other restrictions. They can still compete, without any other disadvantage, in all the sports that the Winter Olympics offers.