The Greatest Show on Earth

February 9th, 2018

Olympics start tonight – Get set for two weeks of awesome action.


Britt Cox has been one of the dominate mogul skiers of the past three years and goes into her fourth Olympics as one of the favourites

Mountainwatch | Reggae Elliss
The PyeongChang Olympics get under way today with mogul qualifying rounds followed by the opening ceremony tonight, due to start at 10pm AEDT. If you didn’t already know, the Olympics are being broadcast free-to-air on the Seven Network, through Channel 7 and 7 Mate. There is also an app (Olympicson7) and you can also watch it online at seven.com.au/olympics.

So, for the next 16 days you’ll have the opportunity to watch plenty of snow and ice action and the favourable time zone means you’ll be able to watch your favourite events and athletes at a reasonable hour.

Australia has a solid team of 51 athletes competing in a big range of sports: bobsled, skeleton, figure skating, biathlon, speed skating, cross country, alpine racing, ski cross, snowboard cross, aerial skiing, snowboard and ski slopestyle, snowboard halfpipe, snowboard big air, and moguls.


Scotty James has been on fire this year and his consistency makes him the man to beat in the halfpipe. This shot from pre-season training at the Stomping Grounds in Sass Fee says it all. Photo Boen Ferguson.

Across those sports we have a number of medal contenders who are at the top of their sport after strong results in the current World Cup season. Those with realistic medal chances include Scotty James (snowboard halfpipe), Britt Cox and Matt Graham(moguls), Lydia Lassila, Danni Scott and David Morris (aerials) and Alex “Chumpy” Pullin (snowboard cross).

It is great to see Russ Henshaw confirmed as a starter for his second Olympics after an injury he sustained to his knee in the Grand Prix in Mammoth last month created uncertainty around his fitness to compete. The initial thought after diagnosis in LA was that Russ may have done his ACL, but after consultations with his Sydney surgeon (not the first knee injury for Russ!) it turns out his ACL is fine. Russ has since passed a “return to snow” test and is on his way to South Korea.


World champ, X Games medallist and one of the first skiers to land a triple cork – Russ Henshaw has been at the top for a while. Can he add an Olympic medal to his impressive resume? Photo Boen Ferguson

Russ has been at the top of the slopestyle game for a decade now and if he skis at his best will be a medal chance. Other athletes to watch are Jess Rich and Tess Coady in snowboard slopestyle and big air, Sami Kennedy-Sim and Anton Grimus in ski cross, Belle Brockoff in snowboard cross and Greta Small, our leading alpine skier, who is competing in all five alpine events – slalom, GS, Super G, combined and downhill.

While we all want to watch the Australians, the events you don’t want to miss are the men’s and women’s downhill and Super G, the ice hockey finals, all of the sliding events, ski jumping, figure skating, all halfpipe, slopestyle and big air events and curling. Yes, curling.

Anyway, get set for two weeks of great viewing and the greatest sporting event there is. As someone once said to me, “Yeah, the summer Olympics are all right if you like watching running races, but the winter Olympics are sports of consequence. These athletes put it all on the line.”