Although the U.S.A. did not have the most successful year at the 2018 Winter Olympics, they still did fairly well. Team U.S.A. ended up receiving the fourth most metals, with a total of 23, right behind Norway, Germany, and Canada. Categories in which the U.S.A. succeeded in winning gold were curling, snowboarding, alpine skiing, Ice hockey, freestyle skiing, and cross-country skiing.

Sophomore Liliana Youkhana annually tunes into the ice skating portion of the Winter Olympics with her family.

“Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve really liked to watch the figure skating part of the Olympics. Even though I don’t ice skate, seeing them perform is pretty inspiring. The figure skaters look really cool when they do their tricks and watching it with my family is always great bonding time,” Youkhana said. “I don’t really watch any other sports besides figure skating, but I do wish the Winter Olympics were more popular, so I had people to talk about it with.”

Senior Julia Gladysz often goes skiing during the winter time, so it is inevitable that she’d want to watch the Olympics for inspiration.

“I am a skier, so of course I love to watch the skiing and snowboarding parts of the Olympics. It’s really cool to see how fast they are able to go,” Gladysz said. “It kinda amazes me because I would never be able to do that. Even though my family comes from Poland, and I obviously live in America, I rooted for Canada. They were super good this year, and I was impressed.”

For senior Gianni Lohan, watching the Olympics is something he likes to do when he has time because getting to see one of his favorite sports played competitively is refreshing to him.

“I’m not a huge fan of the Olympics, but I occasionally watched the snowboarding parts when I had time. I go snowboarding with my family and friends a lot, so I love to see how the sport is competitively and just when it’s for fun,” Lohan said.

Although fewer and fewer people are now watching the Olympics, many students at West managed to tune in for some of their favorite sports and to support their country.