The Sports Examiner

The Olympic Winter Games is worth $1,420,000,000

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TSX HEADLINES – for Jan. 15, 2018: Back in 1924, the “Chamonix Winter Sport Week” was simply an attachment to the Olympic Games coming later that year in Paris. From that small seed, a behemoth has grown.

The Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang will have – for the first time – more than 100 events and about 3,000 athletes from around 90 countries. That’s a far cry from the 16 events and athletes from 16 countries who showed up 94 years ago.

Thanks to new numbers in the International Olympic Committee’s recently-released Marketing Fact File, the one-time winter afterthought to the summer Games is now a billion-dollar property in its own right.

That number isn’t shown anywhere; you have to assemble it and we did, in detail. The elements of a $1.42 billion event are broken down in our Lane One commentary, plus a sensational weekend for U.S. athletes:

(1) SNOWBOARD: Shaun White scored a perfect 100.0 to come from behind and win the Toyota Grand Prix Halfpipe at Snowmass and put himself on his fourth Olympic team. We take you through the action-packed final round to set up White’s face-off with history.

(2) ICE HOCKEY: Never mind what the U.S. women’s team does in PyeongChang; the future is bright. The U.S. U-18 women just won their fourth IIHF World U-18 Championship in spectacular fashion. You’ve got to read how they got past Canada after being down 3-1 in the second period!

(3) BOBSLED: World Champion Elana Meyers Taylor wins her first World Cup race of the year, but then is “gutted” when her teammate fails to make it to PyeongChang. Plus, her brakeman for the win in St. Moritz is left off the U.S. team! What?

(4) FREESTYLE SKI: Sochi gold medalist David Wise has come all the way back and clinched his place in PyeongChang by leading a U.S. sweep at the Toyota Grand Prix Halfpipe at Snowmass.

(5) SWIMMING: American distance swimmer Zane Grothe set two U.S. short-course records at the Winter Nationals and now won three races at the Tyr Pro Swim Series opener in Austin. Double World Champion Chase Kalisz won three also, and double sprint winner Nathan Adrian explains why he swims at this event … in January!

This issue includes THE BIG PICTURE, a rapid-read status report on Olympic sport; SCOREBOARD reports on Alpine Skiing ~ Biathlon ~ Bobsleigh & Skeleton ~ Cross Country skiing ~ Fencing ~ Freestyle Skiing ~ Ice Hockey ~ Luge ~ Nordic Combined ~ Ski Jumping ~ Snowboard ~ Swimming, and AGENDA, our calendar of top-level international events.

What you need to know about the worldwide carousel of sports is in The Sports Examiner, your all-in-one briefing on Olympic sport! Click below for our new issue:

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