The Journey – Part 1

With only 162 days to go before the Opening Ceremony of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, Korea, we’ve asked our Australian Olympic Team Physiotherapist, Peter Caine to keep us up to date with the journey many elite Australian athletes are currently undertaking as they bid for glory on the biggest stage their sport has to offer.

Here’s his first installment…

PyeongChang

The XXIII Olympic Winter Games will be held for 17 days from 9 to 25 February 2018 in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, the Republic of Korea.  It will be the first time Korea has hosted a Winter Olympic Games. 

The 2018 Games will see athletes contest 102 events across 15 sports. Four new disciplines in existing sports have been added to the program including big air snowboarding (which will replace the parallel slalom), mixed doubles curling, mass start speed skating, and mixed team alpine skiing.

Australia has been represented at all but four Winter Games in the modern era since 1924, winning a total of 12 Olympic Winter medals. Australia has won a medal at every Winter Olympic Games since 1994 and will be looking to uphold this tradition in Korea.

Australia will be looking to qualify a team of 50-60 athletes across 11 sports.

At the Sochi 2014 Games, Australia won three medals. Torah Bright won silver in the snowboard halfpipe, and closing ceremony flag bearer David Morris won silver in aerials freestyle skiing. Four-time Olympian Lydia Lassila won bronze in the aerials freestyle skiing event.

The most recent Australian gold medals were won at the Vancouver 2010 Games. Opening ceremony flag bearer Torah Bright won gold in snowboard halfpipe, and Closing Ceremony flag bearer Lydia Lassila won gold in the aerials freestyle skiing event.

Athlete Profile – Anton Grimus Ski Cross

Anton Grimus realised a life-long dream when, at the age of 23, he competed at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics in the Freestyle discipline of Ski Cross, finishing 25th.

In 2018, Grimus will hope to return to the Olympic stage for his second Games.

The 26-year-old, who grew up in Mt Buller, finished ninth at the 2016 Olympic Test Event for PyeongChang, his best World Cup result to date.

Anton shot to fame in Sochi when he offered to have his fearsome beard shaved off for charity at the Games. He had been growing his Ned Kelly style beard for two years before he generously volunteered to dispose of it to raise funds for the Rob Kneller Youth Foundation.

Keep your eye on Precision Athletica for my next edition of “The Olympic Journey”.

Cainey

If you’re an athlete, parent or coach interested in knowing more about the High Performance Snowsports program at Precision Athletica, please email the head of the program Peter Caine for more information, or call on 02 9764 5787.