Women Of the Winter Battle
Women are Bringing the Heat To This Year’s Winter Olympics
By Nelia Dashiell
Estrogen levels will be almost as high as the snow caps in PyeongChang, South Korea for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. And make no mistake, they are not spectators and hotel receptionists. They are winter warriors aiming to make history.
The Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics will introduce hundreds of women competitors to the world.
Of the 244 American athletes, 109 of them are women. Overall, women are close to 50% (40.3%) of all athletes in the Olympics according to the official Olympics website. Historically, the Olympics usually feature a majority of men, but women are now pulling up close in numbers.
Things have changed.
It was not til 2012, with the addition of women’s boxing, that women were finally able to participate in all of Olympic competition. Now, every Olympic game must contain a women’s counterpart. Not only will there be more female athletes this year, but the International and National Olympic Committees are making efforts to have women in more decision-making roles as well (as coaches, trainers, doctors and more).
In today’s atmosphere, as the nation copes with the horrors of the case of Olympic Doctor Larry Nassar (sentenced to 175 years for molesting hundreds of young women athletes in his care) and people question Olympic institutions for not catching such predatory behavior over several years, the growing number of women in world competition will be more significant than ever.
Some of the key female American athletes to keep an eye out for are Mikaela Shiffrin for alpine skiing, Chloe Kim for snowboarding, Mirai Nagasu for figure skating and fellow DMV resident Maame Biney for speed skating. We have to add Erin Jackson who is the first African-American women to join the USA’s Olympic long-track speedskating team after just four months of training.
All these women - and more - are exceptionally strong athletes who are sure to bring home the gold. Tune into NBC online for the live stream and schedule or catch the TV broadcast on NBC.
Source - Olympic.org
