Olympics Winter Games are spectacular international events for sports held once every four years or quadrennial for ice and snow competition. The first Winter Olympics held in 1924 at Chamonix. Modern Olympic Games were similar to the ancient Olympics Games during the eighth century B.C. to fourth century A.D. Baron de Coubertin organized the Committee for International Olympics in 1894 that led to the revival of the first modern Summer Olympic Games held in Athens, Greece two years after. He is called the father of the modern Olympics.

Winter Olympics 2018 is an international winter multi-sport event. Held in the county of Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, South Korea from February 9 – 25, 2018, it included 102 events covering fifteen sports. New inclusions are “big air” snowboarding, double mixed curling, mass starts speed skating and mixed team alpine skiing. 92 National Olympic Committees sent a total number of 2,914 athletes that included new teams from Ecuador, Eritrea, Kosovo, Malaysia, Nigeria and Singapore.





Unlucky players in Pyeongchang Olympics

Winter Olympics, like other games, have no exemptions from its own lists of disasters where athletes suffer from hard falls as well as other and personal misfortunes. This is the way that cookie crumbles and the nature of sports that demand physical endurance in performing difficult stunts in figure skating, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, and others. There is only a split-second difference between earning a medal-winning and a hard crash accident on ice or snow. A series of unfortunate incidents marred the 2018 Olympics. They are probably the victims of bad luck destined to hit some players who never expected it.

10. Aleksandr Krushelnitckii

Russia’s Olympic curler and wife/teammate Anastasia Bryzgalova left the Pyeongchang Winter Games after being awarded bronze medal in mixed – doubles curling. This is a double first time: curling to be included in the competition and Russia’s first win in curling. As it was the procedure, Krushelnitckii was tested and found positive of using the drug for the heart but was banned by Anti-Doping World Agency in 2016 because it boosts endurance. It means that the medal won by Krushelnitsky and his wife will be awarded to Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten, Norway pair who finished fourth.

Meldonium is the same substance is the same one that Maria Sharapova, the Russian tennis player, was found positive during 2016 competition. She was penalized a 15-month ban from playing the sport. The drug heightens blood circulation, escalates the capacity to exercise and alleviates athlete’s endurance.



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9. Torin Yater-Wallace

American skier, arrived in the Olympics with heavy heart. He had already faced family tragedy, a rare bacterial infection and suffered devastating injuries. However, he was able to overcome his life-threatening illness and was able to join the competition. His dream of gold shattered as he stumbled and fell smashing into the halfpipe. He already fell once before and he wanted to do a trick during his second run but he misjudged the distance to landing. Yater-Wallace fell down hard on the slope and landed into the middle of the pipe, where he looked felt serious pain. Paramedics descended immediately to assist him but he stood up and made his own way to the finish line.



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8. Billy Morgan

Britain’s snowboarder suffered further bad luck one day in the 2018 on the Winter Olympics when he failed to qualify for the slopestyle final. As Morgan made his initial jump, he fell down. He immediately responded with 82.50 two run and made it 85.50 on end run. Gold medal after scoring 3-2 victory over their closest competitors in the PyeongChang Games.

As soon as a silver medal was awarded to the downhearted Larocque she removed it. Refusing to wear it, she later gave a cringing apology for her refusing to accept Olympic silver medal following losing to veteran opponent from USA. Larocque tore her gong soon after a silver medal was presented to her in a show of frustration during the awarding. Fans on social media queued up to bash her as poor born loser.



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7. Nathan Chen

Figure skater contender, was trying hard to get a gold medal but he fell behind the team during the first run of singles competition. His score quickly descended down the opposite direction. Chen was climbing uphill and finished 17th place overall after. He tried to bounce back, posting the top overall score in the free skate (215.08); however, he was really too far behind to get on the medal podium. He endeavored to recoup some points by performing six quadruple jumps; however, they were inadequate to qualify him for any medal in single event. He failed to get a gold medal after a fifth-place finish in the men’s singles competition in Pyeongchang, South Korea.



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6. Mikaela Pauline Schifrin

American Olympic gold medalist, was determined to compete and earn medals in five disciplines of Alpine skiing but unfortunately ended fourth place. During the final run, Shiffrin didn’t show any enthusiasm. Before she ran, she complained of not feeling so hot. Shiffrin won the giant slalom the day before, was seen by some spectators throwing up before stepping into the starting gate to start her slalom run.

She was not happy working on tightened schedule that was caused by delays on inclement weather. She felt that her workload was becoming more difficult. After she gave a shocking performance, Shiffrin got off the podium and her coach announced that she was dropping out of super-G and downhill to focus only on combined event.



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5. Jocelyne Dawn Marie Larocque

She is a Canadian ice hockey player for the women’s national ice hockey. Last Thursday, U.S. women’s hockey team won the gold medal after scoring 3-2 victory over their closest competitors in the PyeongChang Games. As soon as a silver medal was awarded to the downhearted Larocque she removed it. Refusing to wear it, she later gave a cringing apology for her refusing to accept Olympic silver medal following losing to veteran opponent from USA. Larocque tore her gong soon after a silver medal was presented to her in a show of frustration during the awarding. Fans on social media queued up to bash her as poor born loser.



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4. Lindsey Caroline Vonn

American alpine skier, is considered the greatest United States skier of all-times. At the start, she felt her way to victory after winning three straight downhill. She delivered a solid run in her Super G debut, but she later committed a mistake that placed her sixth in the finish. Some American sports fans were frustrated and hoped that she will not get any medal. Loud cheers were heard when the live NBC broadcast announced that she was not able to overtake Sofia Goggia from Italy during her run. Some Americans were even jubilant that Vonn got third after being overtaken by Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel.



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3. Gabriella Papadakis

A French figure skater, had embarrassing and emotional experience due to a wardrobe malfunction. She had a costume “nip slip” while mixed ice dancing with partner Guillaume Cizeron. The French ice dancers made Winter Olympics headlines for all the wrong reasons like the wardrobe malfunction that overexposed the French ballerina on ice. She was about to panic but she made it through.

The French pair came second in the event. But Gabriella was not the only one to suffer costume disasters at the Winter Olympics. On the third day after the opening, the Yura Min, South Korean skater had a costume malfunction when her back was undone while she was performing in the rink. It was good that the pair managed keep things together in Pyeongchang, producing a score of 81.93 points. They played second to Canada’s Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.



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2. Kevin Rolland

French freestyle skier of France, suffered an especially nasty fall during the halfpipe final of men’s freestyle skiing. He already mentioned on his Instagram that prior to his arrival in PyeongChang, he was experiencing some pain in his left shoulder. Rolland was on his third run, and on his initial; he wanted to do a double switch.

However, he came too close to the edge. His right leg missed the edge, and that caused him to fall after the initial hit. He was screaming due to excruciating pain as he bumped on the lip and tumbled down more than 20 feet to the bottom. Able medical team arrived with a stretcher, but somehow, he miraculously revived and ski off on his own. He failed to complete any of his runs during the final.



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1. Elise Christie

Britain’s speed skater and a triple world champ, was one player to make a devastating Olympic exit. Christie attempted six times to catch an Olympic medal that was within the reach of her ability. However, she crashed in the 500m and 1500m last week. A third crash is her final humiliating and catastrophic failure. Christie was handed a yellow card which meant that she was disqualification from the games for committing two violations. Winter Olympic dream for victory and gold medals had an abruptly finale. Christie came to Pyeongchang as Britain’s hope for top gold.



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Farewell notes after the Winter Olympics 2018: As the saying goes, you win some; you lose some; that is the way of Olympics. According to Vince Lombardi, “Winners never quit and quitters never win”.



