We should not forget the real
purpose behind the Olympics; the triumph of the human spirit, the coming-together of the world’s best talents, and the hours and
years of hard work that have gone into each competitor’s gruelling quest to make it there.
Silver medalist Mikael Kingsbury of Canada, gold medalist Alex Bilodeau of Canada and bronze medalist Alexandr Smyshlyaev of Russia celebrate on the podium during the medal ceremony for the for the Freestyle Skiing Men’s Moguls
Alex Bilodeau skies his way to his second gold medal here in Russia, defending his Gold Medal win at the last Olympics in Vancouver.
Popstar Vanessa Mae swapped her violin for skies competing for Thailand in these Winter Games.
showcase some of the great winners of this year’s Winter Olympics. We were spending our annual ski
holiday in Whistler, Canada when the Games opened, so we felt a special connection to the Winter Olympics this time around, especially as we were vacationing at the venue of the last Winter Olympics of 2010. With Malaysia unrepresented in the Games (we are a country without snow), we found ourselves rooting for the Canadian team, finding comradeship with the people from the country in which we so love to ski. While we were there, the Canadian ski team were using Whistler as a training ground before flying off to Sochi to make their Olympic bid. And when the Canadians started winning medals, we were thrilled; made us feel we were backing a great horse!
22 FENGSHUIWORLD | MARCH 2014 Te men’s moguls event was won
by Canada’s Alex Bilodeau, bagging him his second gold medal in moguls – his first was won in his home ground of Vancouver four years ago at the last Winter Olympics. Te silver in this event was also taken by a Canadian, Bilodeau’s teammate and rival Mikael Kingsbury. Canada did it again in the Women’s Moguls event, where Canadian sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe took gold and silver, beating the reigning champion of this event Hannah Kearney of the USA, who took bronze. We paid extra attention to this sport as our ski instructor Hamish Smillie’s competitive specialty is in moguls, so he gave us many insights into the intricacies of this particular discipline.
Ten there is Vanessa Mae, yes, the
British violinist who became famous in the 90’s for modernizing classical music on the violin, jazzing up its classical tones while playing dressed in little more than a wet leotard, who has now swapped the music scene for the ski slopes and who will be competing in the Grand Slalom event for her father’s home country of Tailand. Says Vanessa Mae in her interviews, “I’m not here to compete against the best, I’m here to participate with the best.” While she has acknowledged she has no medal chance whatsoever, she stresses that that was not the point of her participation. Just to be a part of this great event was honour enough. Tis makes us think of possibilities for Malaysian children who ski – maybe there is a chance yet to represent
www.fswmag.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96