Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Begin

Written By: guyjin on February 14, 2010 No Comment

The Winter Olympics in Vancouver got underway yesterday, with 94 Japanese athletes to compete in 14 different sports (all except ice hockey).

The Japanese team have limited expectations for medals, having won just 32 medals in Winter Olympic history, ten of which were claimed during their hosting of the Nagano Olympics in 1998.

Having been born in Australia, the Winter Olympics were never front and center for me growing up. In fact, Australia didn’t win their first winter olympic medal (a bronze) until 1994, and the only other 5 medals won by Australians have come while I’ve been living in Japan… With few opportunities for winter sports in most of Australia, I was never really that interested in the winter games.

Since moving to Japan however, the Winter Olympics have taken on more meaning. Especially given that I was living so close to the Nagano games, in Niigata, in 1998 (although I wasn’t able to make it down to any events). Most of my memories of winter olympics involve Japanese athletes, and I find myself barracking for them more than any Australians that may be competing…

As I said, the best games that Japan has experienced were the Nagano games, where they captured 10 medals, including 5 gold. They have a total of 9 gold medals, the first of which was won by Kasaya Yukio, a ski jumper, at the other winter games held in Japan, in Sapporo in 1972. This led to a strong showing by the Japanese ski jumping team in recent years, where they are always a chance of a medal. Funaki Kazuyoshi, another jumper, became the third dual winter games gold medalist for Japan when he won the Large Hill gold, followed by the team Large Hill gold (along with Okabe Takanobu, Saito Hiroya, and Harada Masahiko) at Nagano. The first and second dual gold medalists in winter olympics for Japan were Kono Takanori and Ogiwara Kenji, who took out the team gold for Nordic combined at both the 1992 and 1994 olympics.

The most recent winter olympic gold medalist was Arakawa Shizuka, who claimed gold in the women’s singles figure skating at Torino in 2006.

This time, medal hopes for Japan again rest in the areas of ski jumping, nordic combined, mogul, speed skating and figure skating.