PYEONGCHANG, South Korea—The joy on Jamie Anderson’s face as she celebrated her victory in women’s slopestyle snowboarding is a timeless Olympic moment. The cute little stuffed tiger in her right hand is a new twist.
After winning gold, silver or bronze, medalists at these Winter Games aren’t immediately presented with their hardware. Instead, they get Soohorang, a striped white tiger that is the mascot of the Pyeongchang Olympics and quickly became a ubiquitous sight during many of the games’ joyful moments.
The white tiger is considered South Korea’s guardian animal. Sooho means protection in Korean, while rang is part of the word for “tiger” and the last Korean letter in “Jeongseon Arirang,” which is a popular Korean folk song.
Olympic medalists also receive a wooden gift depicting the mountain setting of Pyeongchang, with “Pyeongchang 2018” spelled out in the Korean alphabet.
Hours later—and in some cases an entire day later—come the actual medals.
In most cases, athletes are transported from the venue to the Pyeongchang Olympic Plaza to receive their medals in an evening ceremony. But some medalists—like in men’s ski jumping—don’t receive theirs until the following day because some competitions last late into the night.
A ROMP FOR CANADIANS
AT mid-ice, the Canadians gathered for a group huddle that turned into a massive hug.
They earned it: Gold for Canada.
While the stars of Monday’s Olympic free skates were a Russian and an American woman, Canada’s deep squad grabbed the team gold medal it so desperately sought.
“We’re born on the ice,” said ice dancer Scott Moir, who with partner Tessa Virtue tied an Olympic figure-skating record with four medals. “We think we’re the best in the world. Winning this is like winning hockey and winning curling.”
The top spot was clinched when Gabrielle Daleman finished third behind Russian Alina Zagitova and American Mirai Nagasu in the women’s event. That gave Canada 63 points to 58 for the Russians with only the ice dance remaining. The Russians could pick up a maximum of four points in that discipline.
The United States repeated its showing in the 2014 Sochi Games with a bronze medal.
Just before Daleman’s clincher, Patrick Chan won the men’s free skate against a weakened field, and with a mediocre performance.
Regardless, Canada’s quest for a medal its skaters said they set about winning ever since they wound up second in Sochi was complete with one program remaining.
“I worked my butt off incredibly hard these past four years to get on this team,” Daleman said. “We have such an incredible, strong team, and I’m proud to say we’ve won and I’m prouder to have been part of it.”
With their team gold medal assured, Virtue and Moir tied the record for most Olympic medals won by figure skaters. Evgeni Plushenko and Gillis Grafstrom also won four apiece.
“Obviously the skaters in generations before us didn’t have the opportunity to win multiple medals at an Olympic Games,” Moir said. “We recognize that. But what we do realize—and I think I learned this from Evgeni Plushenko actually—is a lot of things have to go right. You have to be pretty fortunate to do multiple games and have a shot at medals. When I look at that, I just think of how fortunate we’ve been to compete on the world’s best scale.”
Image credits: AP