Journalist, Author & Syndicated Columnist
November is National Adoption Awareness Month. Journalist, author and adoptee, Seth Berkman, got a taste of his birth country when the New York Times sent him to report on the United Korean women’s hockey team. Consisting of players from both North and South Korea, select players trained and competed together as teammates at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
After winning two bronze medals at the PyeongChang Olympics this year, Alex and Maia Shibutani made history by becoming the first skaters of Asian heritage to medal in ice dancing. “It was really special, because there hadn’t been a tradition of ice dance success for Asians,” says Alex, 26. “Whenever we compete anywhere in Asia, we always feel adopted and embraced by the locals.”
The PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics will mark Julia Marino’s debut as an Olympian. A gold medalist at the 2017 X Games, the 20-year-old snowboarder specializes in Slopestyle and Big Air. A resident of Westport, Connecticut, Marino says that the best souvenir she hopes to bring home from Korea is a medal for Team USA.
Former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski is a physician, inventor and once ranked among the top 10 American luge competitors during the 1988 Olympics Trials. He may now add author to his impressive resume, thanks to his memoir, “The Sky Below: A True Story of Summits, Space, and Speed” (Little A, $24.95).
Too many people have brushed off Lochte-Gate with, “Boys will be boys.” Which makes me question, just what kind of boys are we raising?
The son of a nuclear engineer and a nurse, swimming champion Nathan Adrian grew up in the Seattle area. At five, he began swimming to keep up with his older siblings. Rio marks the third Olympic Games for the 27-year-old champ. Having already won four Olympic medals (three gold and a silver), he is looking forward to helping the United States win a few more.
Becky Sauerbrunn is the co-captain of the U.S. Women’s National Soccer team, which will be competing next month at the Olympics. Asked if she would squeeze in any sightseeing, she said, “There won’t be a lot of time! We play in stadiums all around Brazil and won’t be in Rio until the end of the tournament, if all goes well. If I have some time, however, I would like to see the National Library of Brazil. It’s one of the largest libraries in the world.”
Born in Lake Forest, Ill., to Dutch parents, 6-foot-8 inch Matt Grevers swam for Northwestern University and went on to win gold medals at the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing (2008) and London (2012).
Olympic medalist Steve Furniss competed for the United States at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and also in Montreal four years later. A resident of Huntington Beach, California, he is a co-founder of the swimwear line TYR, which earned a place in pop culture by designing the iconic red swimsuits worn by the cast of “Baywatch.” At the Munich Games, Furniss was 19 and excited to be competing in Germany, but horrified to learn about the massacre of the members of the Israeli wrestling team. Now 63, he shares some of his memories of those Games and more.
Kelly Clark is a four-time Winter Olympian (2002 through 2014) who has won a gold medal and two bronze medals. The halfpipe specialist has said that if she stays at the top of her game, she would love to represent Team USA at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“There’s nothing like the Olympics,” she says. “The Salt Lake City Games was such a memorable experience. For me, winning the first gold medal for the United States on U.S. soil was a big moment in my career.”