By Jesse Walker-McGraw

Hello, STA sisters! We’re talking about something much more cheerful today. The Winter Olympics! This actually will be fun!

Questions and Answers about the Winter Olympics!

Quick note: I’m pretty sure we all know what the Olympics are, but I’ll quickly elaborate. It’s basically most of the world’s countries fighting, but in peaceful, non-violent ways. Like ping-pong. Anyway, they happen every two years, alternating between winter Olympics and summer Olympics. They ended Feb. 23.

Q: How did the Olympics go?

A: Erm… Not too well. For starters, Russia, which hosted the Olympics, went way, way, way over budget building the stadiums, but still didn’t have everything completed. This was mostly because the people in charge were taking money for themselves and not doing what they were supposed to. During the actual Olympics, there were a lot of glitches, including one in the opening ceremony.

Q: What was that glitch?

A: There were five giant animatronic snowflakes that were supposed to open to become the Olympic rings. Only four did. The fifth remained a snowflake. Russia as a whole was not amused.

Q: What else bad has happened?

A: Let’s see… The Russian government had planned to kill a bunch of stray dogs living around the stadium. The world in general did not find this funny. There were threats of terrorism. Someone actually tried to hijack a plane and fly it to Sochi, but failed. A famous athlete withdrew from an event because the course was too dangerous. And one of the snowboarding courses kept melting, making everything much harder for the athletes. Also, a group of fanatical Russian people beat up a band, and the police did nothing. And the band filmed it. Plus, Russia is in big trouble right now for its lack of gay rights.

Q: Yikes. How did the U.S. do?

A: OK. In terms of total numbers of all medals, we came in second, after Russia. But Canada flattened us in hockey. But really, they’re Canada. They are hockey personified.

Q: Where will the next Olympics be?

A: In two years, the summer Olympics will be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

So there it is! Even though these Olympics ran into a lot of problems, I still love what they represent. Unity in the world, peace, and the fact that in two years Olympic ping-pong will be back. Thanks for reading!