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Photo Source: NBC Olympic Coverage

While sports and nerds are generally seen at antithetical there is still material one might consider checking out when the games start up on Friday February 9th.

 

The first and most obvious draw for those not immediately interested in sports would be the opening and closing ceremonies. These, by and large, are massive displays of the history and culture of the host nation. This is especially noteworthy as this year’s Olympic host is South Korea. The denizens of South Korea are known for their affection for technology which is already assured to be apart of the presentations as the official English website for the games lists that augmented reality and 5G will be part of the opening ceremonies. So those interested in technology and its usage certainly have something to watch for especially as there is sure to be more than what is advertised. Fans of Korean music are also in luck as several big name stars have already been announced to be performing including Ha Hyun Woo of Guckkasten and Ahn Ji-young of Bolbbalgan4.

The games themselves though are not such a blase experience themselves. While your standard sports, your baseballs, footballs, basketball, are all fairly basic motions (and the summer games even more so with a huge focus there being swimming and running) the Winter Olympics show off some absolutely insane feats such as skeleton racing where racers hurdle down an icy track head first on tiny, breakless sleds at close to 90 miles per hours or the ski-jump where contestants hurdle themselves off jumps several hundred feet high. These also are not sports that are constantly shoved in one’s face year round, even in their supposed off season. The Winter Olympics are the one time for these oft overlooked sporting endeavors to be displayed for the world at large. Though perhaps if curling comes on it might be time to change the channel or maybe pick that book you’ve been meaning to finish back up again.

*A special note should be made that, if possible, you should try to find live streams or international coverage of the games as NBC’s reporting is notoriously bad! Get all your Olympic coverage from the official site HERE!