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In 2026, the Winter Olympics were held at Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. For many at home, this was a very exciting time. Some fans have voiced that the Olympics are the only time that they feel patriotic.
Avonews staff interviewed students around the school about their opinions on the Olympics.
Interestingly, some students and teachers expressed interest in curling, while others thought that it was not worthy of being an Olympic sport. Will Nelson, who did not watch the Olympics, said that if he did, “[he] would watch curling.” Another student, Rory Dinkfelt also liked curling. She said that she “has never really known how it works” and that “it was the first thing on so [she] watched it.” However, Maura Dolan said that “Some sports are not real, like curling, what is that?” When Mr. Nolan was asked about curling, he stated that “I think that people judge it and say that it is not athletic, but I cannot imagine how they balance and sweep on the ice.”
During the curling tournament between Sweden and Canada, Sweden’s curling team accused a Canadian curler, Marc Kennedy, of cheating by “double-touching stones” stones, which is illegally touching the stone after releasing the handle. Mr Nolan responded to this controversy by saying,”If you are not supposed to touch it, then they obviously touched it. He extended his finger. It was not like an accidental touch and it should have some consequences.”
One student, Imogen Boggess, said that her favorite sport was skeleton. She liked it because “it was interesting to see how they stayed on the sleds at the speed they were going.”
The most popular sport was figure skating, and many students were fans of Ilia Malinin. Caroline Boothby said that “I think it was really interesting to see how he has responded to the pressure in his career and how the media has portrayed him after the bad performance.” After not meeting initial expectations set for him and placing 8th in the Olympic free skate as a result of falling twice, many fans feel bad for Ilia. Maura Dolan stated that “I feel so bad about Ilia because I thought he was doing really good, but he ended up placing below what was expected.” Another fan favorite was Alysa Liu, who was described as “cute” by Caroline Boothby.
Additionally, some US fans are upset that US ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates did not win gold. Julia Aiken expressed her opinion on this, saying, “Madison Chock and Evan Bates should have won gold the French judge was biased.” French judge, Jézabel Dabouis, gave the French pair of ice dancers a significantly higher score than the American pair. There was a about a 7.7-point gap between the score Dabouis gave the American pair versus the French pair, which helped the French pair win the gold medal.
