This year’s Winter Olympics will take place in Pyeongchang, South Korea for the first time. The event will take place from Feb. 9 to the 25. Many notable American athletes will be competing, such as; snowboarder Shaun White, hockey player Kali Flanagan and freestyle skier Ashley Caldwell.
Because this year’s Olympics are being held on the most populous continent, many are excited to see a new talent that will be showcased. China will send 82 athletes to Pyeongchang, who will compete in 55 different events. Mongolia will send only two athletes, one male and female cross-country skier. Australia will send 51, including snowboarder Scotty James. Prominent snowboarder Shaun White will compete against rival James.
James was the youngest athlete at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, competing at only 15. He’s currently the World Snowboarding’s number one ranked halfpipe shredder and has beaten White at several contests. Right now, James, White and Ayumu Hirano form the “Big Three” of halfpipe snowboarding. Even though James is the youngest of the three, he plans to win gold by unveiling his signature trick, the switch backside double cork 1260. The length of the name does no justice to how difficult this trick is. Switch Backside, refers to the direction the board rotates. 1260 in the name refers to the amount of times the board will spin in a complete circle, being 3.5 times. White had a rebuttal when asked if he will attempt this trick, and gave his input to NBCsports.com
“No dissing to Scotty or anybody, but Scotty won those events with the run I did at Vancouver in 2010,” White said. “That’s awesome, he’s kind of doing it his own way and he’s doing it big and confident and smooth.”
The two will compete in the Qualifiers Feb. 12 and the final on Feb. 13. Tune into http://www.nbcolympics.com/ to watch live events.
