It is that time of year again folks, the winter olympics are back!  They have been held in Pyeongchang, North Korea since February 9 and will continue until February 25.  In case you missed any of the excitement over the past 16 days, here are a few highlights to get you in the know about what is going on in the snow.

Norway Gets Medals All Day

As of February 21, 9:52 AM, Norway is the front runner in the medal count against the 91 other countries competing in this year’s winter olympics.  Since February 12, they have climbed their way from third into the hotseat of 1st place for gold medal count.  Norway has a total of 33 medals, 13 of which are gold.  Germany trails uncomfortably close behind with a nail-biting 12 gold medals.  No other country, including the U.S., is even in the discussion at this point, as these are the only two countries with any double digit medal counts.

The United States of Ws

Although the U.S. is at 5th place in medal standings, the medals that have been won have been exciting, to say the least.

Firstly, Red Gerrard, Jamie Anderson and Shaun White must be mentioned in this discussion; both take home a gold medal for the U.S. (White in men’s halfpipe snowboarding, Gerrard in men’s slopestyle snowboarding and Anderson in men’s slopestyle snowboarding.)  This 17 year old Ohio native Gerrard’s first gold medal, and 31 year old California native Shaun White’s third.  

“I was really excited to see Shaun White win another gold medal after a rough year, four years ago at the olympics,” Mount Tabor junior William Scurry said.

More golds were acquired by U.S. cross country skiers Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins as they get the gold in women’s cross country skiing, the first time in history an American has won the event.  The duo edged out runner up Sweden by 0.19 seconds to clinch the victory and history.

Russia Did IT Again

By “IT,” I mean reveal that a Russian athlete was taking performance enhancing drugs while participating in an olympic event (oops.)  

No, this is not the first time this has happened.  Russia’s medal count victory in the 2014 winter olympics has been scrutinized because Russia admitted, after investigation, that they had participated in “doping” their athletes to win medals.  The athlete in question is curler Alexander Krushelnysky.  Russian officials are admitting to the doping, but claiming that Krushelnytsky took the drug once, therefore it did not enhance Krushelnytsky’s curling ability in any significant way.

This has been a jam-packed winter olympics in North Korea.  There is far more to pay attention to than what has been detailed in this article.  Make sure to tune in before February 25 to catch an event, or see a sport that normally is not broadcasted.

“I like watching the figure skating because it’s not something you see on TV every day,” Reagan high school student Claire Aston said.