Students enjoy winter Vancouver Olympics live

Senior Nik Kunkel (left) poses with mens mogul bronze medalist Bryon Wilson after his race. Nik traveled to Vancouver to watch the games.

It is only every two years that the iconic fanfare of trumpets blares from the televisions, signature five overlapping rings mark every corner on screen and every flag in the world is crammed into one giant stadium.

This year the Olympics have been geographically closer than in years past, and students were able to enjoy it both on the television screen and especially live in Vancouver.

For many students, the excitement for the Vancouver games comes from the American dominance in certain events.
Sophomore Matt Orton enjoyed snowboarder Shaun White’s gold medal finish.

“Shaun White is fun to watch because he is just so much better than the other snowboarders,” Matt said. “Also, [the halfpipe move] the Double McTwist [1260] seemed like an impossible task before he did it.”

However, for others, like junior Chrissy Lum, the thrill of the games comes from the sports themselves.

Chrissy, whose favorite sport is womens figure skating, enjoyed watching the skaters perform their triple axels.

For others, the highlights came from the strange mistakes medal-contending athletes made.

Sophomore Jacqueline Chu found Dutch speed skater Sven Kramer’s disqualification to be ridiculous.

“He could have gotten a gold medal, but his coach told him switch to the inside lane on his last lap [when Kramer was supposed to remain on the outside lane],” Jacqueline said. “He was so pissed when he got disqualified. It was funny.”

While a majority of students watched the Olympics from within the confines of their own homes, students like senior Nik Kunkel hopped on the two-hour flight to Vancouver to root for their favorite countries in person.

Nik, a German native, was able to watch the mens moguls, mens ski jumping, mens bobsledding and the quarterfinals of the mens aerials, describes the experience as simply “amazing overall.”

“The atmosphere in the city is incredible when everyone is wearing their country’s colors,” Nik said. “You can just tell everyone is pumped up for the games.” Nik supported the German team, even joining in with the athletes’ Olympic fervor by interacting with the German bobsled teams.

“We were sitting right at the start and basically got the [German teams] pumped up before their race,” Nik said.

However, in events that lacked a German competitor or German favorites, Nik switched to cheer for the American team.

“In the moguls events there weren’t any Germans, so I was cheering for Bryon Wilson and Dean Patrick,” Nik said.

For Nik, the mens mogul event was special because after Wilson’s run, the bronze medalist took a picture with him.

Senior Sarah Warmoth, who flew to Vancouver to watch the United States versus Switzerland hockey game, described her front row seat experience as “crazy, loud and exhilarating.”

“I was literally three feet away from all of the players and action which was really cool,” Sarah said. “The atmosphere was really fun, especially when everyone was cheering.”

According to Nik, the main difference between the televised version of the games and watching the events live is that people do not cheer “like they’re insane” the entire time. People only “go crazy” when they are on camera.

“It’s still amazing when they cheer for the athletes,” Nik said. “But it is a lot more segregated depending on what country is going and who has the most fans in the stands.

For Sarah, the overall atmosphere in Vancouver was filled with pride.

“If you go to watch the Olympics, it’s because you are really proud of your country and are rooting for [your country’s] victory,” Sarah said. “It’s really cool to see people from countries all over the world joined for this event and [how] everyone was just really excited about their countries.”

However, there is nothing comparable to winning. Nik describes the experience of watching athletes from his country place as medalist as “just really mind-blowing.”

“You have to be there to feel the moment,” Nik said. “From then on you can carry your flag, flag-cape, hat, face paint, banner or whatever you have with the pride of knowing that your country is the best at something in the world.”