1) Elise Christie
Four years have passed since Elise Christie had an Olympic silver medal ripped from her in Sochi, and for far too many sleepless nights it remained an open sore. But three world titles last year finally extinguished that pain and the brilliant Scottish short-track speed skater goes into Pyeongchang with strong chances of a medal in the 500m and 1000m. Even a podium place in the 1500m may not be beyond her.
There would be barely a dry eye among the British team if Christie were to win for another reason: when the 27-year-old lost her 500m short-track medal in Sochi – after it was ruled she was responsible for a crash – she was deluged with thousands of hateful tweets from Park Seung-hi’s fans, who blamed the Briton for the South Korean finishing only third. It reminded Christie of being bullied as a kid. She fought back then. And she intends to fight back now. SI
2) Nigerian bobsleigh heroes
Every Olympics has its unlikely heroes, those athletes who are suddenly and spectacularly catapulted into international sensations. Think Eddie “the Eagle” Edwards. The Jamaican bobsleigh. And, almost certainly in Pyeongchang, the Nigerian women’s bobsleigh team.
The idea was a brainchild of Seun Adigun, who ran in the 100m hurdles at the London 2012 Olympics. She had assumed her athletics career was over but one day she decided to build a makeshift wooden sleigh in a Texas garage, affectionately named it the Maeflower, and then raised $75,000 on a GoFundMe page to build a state-of-the-art machine.
Adigun also convinced her fellow former runners Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga to join the team as brake women and they began practising in Houston, without snow. Now, incredibly, they will become the first African bobleigh team to compete in a Winter Olympics. Ironically they have their first run on 20 February – exactly 30 years to the day after the Jamaican bobsleigh captured everyone’s hearts in Calgary. SI
3) Shaun White
The inimitable Flying Tomato soared to Olympic golds in his signature halfpipe event in 2006 and 2010 and landed on the covers of magazines from Sports Illustrated to Rolling Stone, but a shocking fourth-place finish four years ago in Sochi compelled him to take aim at Pyeongchang for a chance to regain his title at 31. He parted ways with his long-time coach and confidant Bud Keene and largely took off the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons before an October crash in New Zealand that required 62 stitches in his face and five days in intensive care. He has since reaffirmed his place at the top of his class with a perfect 100% halfpipe run at the US Grand Prix in Snowmass last month that qualified him for the Olympics, but the emergence of Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, who won the X Games last month in White’s absence with back-to-back double cork 1440s, will demand White’s very best in South Korea if he intends to pen a fairytale ending. BAG
4) Unified Korean hockey team
The Olympics are put forth as an opportunity for the world to come together in the spirit of peaceful competition, but for a while it seemed the tensions that have split the Korean peninsula for more than six decades would prevail over a chance to bridge the divide. That was before last month’s 11th-hour talks between the neighbours resulted in agreement that will see them field a joint women’s ice hockey team with 12 North Korean athletes joining up with 23 players from the South. They will dress in uniforms with the single word Korea set over a map of the entire peninsula, and the traditional folk song Arirang will play in lieu of either national anthem. Challenges abound for the team with less than three weeks to practise together and a linguistic barrier formed by generations of division, but the celebratory atmosphere surrounding their lone pre-Olympics friendly last week is proof the team will be winners simply by taking to the ice. BAG
5) Mikaela Shiffrin
Few have an opportunity to make a more enduring mark on these Games as the 22-year-old sensation from Colorado, who became the youngest Olympic slalom champion as a precocious teenager four years ago in Sochi. She has since doubled down on her dominance in the sport’s most technical discipline by winning all three slalom world championships she has competed in but, in branching out into the speed events, has blossomed from specialist into quite possibly the world’s best all-around skier. The reigning overall World Cup champion is a prime contender for a record-tying three golds in the slalom, giant slalom and alpine combined – and possible medals in the super-G and downhill would push her past the all-time record of four, set by Croatia’s Janica Kostelic in 2002. Shiffrin enters Pyeongchang on a head of steam, with 10 victories and 15 podiums in the 23 World Cup races she has entered this season, and is poised to leave it as a household name. BAG
6) Nathan Chen
The 18-year-old prodigy from Salt Lake City has emerged as a prime contender for gold in the men’s figure skating competition while Japan’s Yuzuru Hanyu, the sport’s biggest star and presumptive favourite, battles back from a right foot injury. At last month’s US nationals Chen landed five clean quadruple jumps – toe loop, salchow, loop, flip and lutz – clearing the field by more than 40 points, larger than the margin between second and seventh. The outrageously difficult jumps have become the teenager’s calling card: Chen, who defeated Hanyu at last year’s Four Continents championships at the Gangneung Ice Arena – where this month’s figure skating events will take place – became the first ever skater to land five of them in a programme last year. He has won every competition he has entered this season and his meteoric rise in the sport appears to be peaking at the right time. BAG
