Women Owned the Olympics

Jacqueline Newell

As you may remember from a previous blog post, the Olympic Games take up about 40% of my daily thoughts. The other 60% is made up of whether or not I should mail clothes home, upcoming travel plans, officer meetings, and how to avoid hills on my run.

If you’ve been watching the 2014 Sochi Olympics, you would know that women have been crushing records and overall making Sochi their sporting playground. Although they lost 2-1 to Russia, the Japanese women’s ice hockey team broke a 16-yearlong goal-less spell. The USA women’s ice hockey team made history by winning 9-0 versus Switzerland. The referee and linesmen for the game were also all women. [Update: Shout out to Julie Chu, ice hockey, for being elected flag bearer for Team USA in the closing ceremonies!]

Erin Hamlin won a bronze medal in the women’s luge singles. She is the first American, male or female, to ever medal in this event. Natalie Geisenberger, Germany, earned gold in the singles luge with over a 2 second margin – the largest gap in three decades and the fifth consecutive win for Germany.

South Korean figure skater, 2010 gold medalist and record breaker, Yuna Kim, is a superstar in her home country, affectionately called “Queen Yuna.” Creeping up behind Kim this year is 15-year-old Julia Lipnitskaia, hailed as Russia’s “tiny genius” who pushed Russia to gold in the team events. To everyone’s surprise, a different Russian became the first Russian woman to win gold in women’s figure skating. 17-year-old Adelina Sotnikova came in under the radar and bettered her personal best by 18 points, stealing the gold. Kim came in second and Carolina Kostern of Italy came in third.

I also wanted to include a video of Surya Bonaly, a 1998 Olympian, who wowed the world by being the person to do a back flip and land on one blade. To this day, she is still the only person, male or female, to complete this move. Talk about being a rock star.

Some say you have the same number of hours in a day as Beyonce, meaning you too can accomplish great things. I say you have the same number of hours in a day as these Olympians – so let’s hit the slopes!

Personal Best

Jacqueline Newell

One of the best pieces of advice I have received since hitting the road is to have a go-to movie with you at all times, one you could never get tired of. For me, that movie is Miracle, the story of the 1980s USA Olympic hockey team that took home the gold.

I’m not sure what it is but I am absolutely obsessed with the Olympics and everything related to them. While writing this post, I realized that the new Olympic uniforms for Team USA were revealed this morning, and I immediately contacted my parents to express my excitement. Nothing has me more revved about 2014 than the Sochi Winter Olympics. Tuesday, Oct. 28 marked the beginning of the 100-day countdown!

Olympic athletes have always inspired me by setting personal and world records and uniting nations. Now I’m going to be honest with you, the only world record I have a shot at setting is most SnapChats sent in a single day. But, I did run my fastest 10K the other day while in Texas! Unfortunately, I didn’t do it because I felt particularly motivated but, rather, because the women of Zeta Nu told me that coyotes frequent the path that I had been running on all week.

It doesn’t matter how you do it, but remember to give your personal best at whatever it is you choose to do. Always try your hardest because the legs feed the wolf.

Jacqueline Newell

Need some inspiration?