Wesley's Tool-Box

I had been thinking for quite some time that the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games would provide a great and rare opportunity for my kids to see a variety of winter sports in person all at once, without going overseas. But driving to Pyeongchang is a 4 to 5-hour affair from Naju. To make things efficient, I decided to make the trip during this year's Lunar New Year holidays. Before visiting my parents in my home town as per tradition, the family would visit Seoul and Pyeongchang first.


Why Seoul? When I booked the tickets online, there were options to print out the tickets or load them on the smartphone. But I wanted to have the "official" tickets on hand, which could be picked up at the Main Ticket Center. One of such places were set up in the Seoul City Hall, so I drove there early in the morning to get the tickets, then spend a day in Seoul at an amusement park before heading to Pyeongchang. The kids certainly liked this arrangement.

After spending a night at a hotel in Wonju, which was midway between Seoul and Pyeongchang, we headed out early next morning. The 3rd and 4th heats of the Men's Skeleton event were to start at 9:30AM and we didn't want to miss anything. The road signs kindly directed us to the Daegwallyeong Transport Mall, where a huge parking lot and several shuttle bus stops for spectators visiting the Pyeongchang Mountain Cluster area were set up.


Once I parked the car, we prepared everyone for the ridiculously frigid weather. They weren't joking when this Winter Olympic Games is one of the coldest in history.


A shuttle service that directly goes to the Olympic Sliding Centre was ready for boarding as soon as we got to the bus stop. We wasted no time in getting to the venue.










It took us 70 minutes to go from the parking lot to the track, arriving moments after the start of the event. Just as we stepped into the finishing zone, the first racer, Yun Sungbin, appeared in front of us completing his third run. As we found a spot to watch the event unfold, the second racer, Martins Dukurs, started his run. There were so many spectators - the seats had been sold out weeks before, and the standing area was getting crowded.










As we watched all 30 competitors' 3rd run, we could slowly tell apart the faster racers from the slower ones. The top competitors would zoom past us literally in a blink of an eye, but the slower ones were easier to track. Of course, the raw speed and courage on display were impressive regardless of their standings.


The entire 3rd heat of the race finished in just an hour. But the ice on the track had to be resurfaced, so there was a 45-minute break time. It was probably the most boring and shivery time we had to endure. We had hoped that it was worth the wait.