Thanks Stacy and a huge cheer for all the Winter Athletes! We were inspired and we learned so much!

Thanks to our friend Stacy Spletzer (who manages athlete relations and communications for WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency), Cottage Lane Elementary School is getting the inside scoop from the PyeongChang Winter Olympics!

Stacy is working behind the scenes, looking for interesting things to share with us, including athlete interviews.

Cottage Lane, we want your questions! What do you want to know about the Winter Olympics? We are going to email our questions to Stacy and she will answer them. Submit your questions here!

Monday, February 19

There are other things going on at the Olympics besides the events. It’s also an event that brings people together! Check out these artists and one of the “pin collectors” you can find at all of the Olympics:

Tuesday, February 20

Here’s the Olympic torch and Stacy in the athlete’s village!

 

Thursday, February 15

Today it’s a curler! Our students have been trying this out in P.E. too. Matt Hamilton, curler from the USA, talks about how he gets ready for a match.

 

Wednesday, February 14

Today Dutch decathlete Chiel Warners answered Ashlyn and Elizabeth’s question “How long does it take to train for the Olympics?”

Tuesday, February 13

This morning Lowell Bailey from Lake Placid, NY stopped by to say hi! He competes in the biathlon for USA and this is his fourth olympics!

 

Monday, February 12

Today’s videos are here!

Cross country skier Sadie Bjornsen answers Joanna’s question “Is it hard to be in the Olympics?”

Two representatives from Togo tell Stacy about why they want to get involved with the Winter Olympics even though there is no snow in Togo!

And our friend Shiva thanks us for watching and tells us what’s next for him:

 

Sunday, February 11

My email was dinging early this morning with Stacy emailing from the Men’s luge finals. She was screaming along with the other Americans and Chris Mazdzer’s family as he took silver! This was historic as he’s the first American man to medal in the single luge. Way to go Chris! Cottage Lane was cheering for you!

Stacy also sent this video of another first- the first female bobsled pilot from Jamaica, Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian. Let’s all cheer for Jazmine on Feb. 20 and 21st!

Also, Shiva was back to answer a follow up question from Emma in Mrs. Caunitz’ class: Thanks Shiva!!

Saturday, February 10

We got a few more questions answered!

Kikkan Randall is an American Cross Country Skier who answered a really good question from 5th graders Kiki (Mrs. Heilbronn and Mrs. Garbrous’ class): “How do these winter athletes stay warm?” Here’s Kikkan answering Kiki!

Alex, a Romanian long track skater, talks about doing what you love, a wonderful message.

Paige Conners, an Israeli figure skater, is only 17 and also talks about following your dreams:

Friday, February 9
Thanks to almost 50 students for submitting their questions! We sent them to Korea and while we were all sleeping we got our first answer- to Denise’s question from Ms. Early and Ms. Nadler’s class!

Here’s Denise’s question: I moved from Norway three years ago. Please find some of “my” olympians and give them a hug for me. Can a Norwegian athlete shares how it feels to be in the Olympics?

Here’s Norwegian long track speed skater Ida Njaatun answering her question:

Ali from Mrs. Heilbronn and Mrs. Garbrous’ class asked, “What’s the best part about being in the Olympics?” And we have an answer from Canadian speed skater Jordan Belchos:

Thursday, February 8
Today’s video is of Shiva Keshavan from India who is competing in the luge. Shiva was recently featured in the New York Times and the Olympic Channel has this recent 9 minute documentary about him.

Here’s Shiva in the athlete village saying hi to us at Cottage Lane:

Wednesday, February 7
Here’s Stacy in the athlete village:

And here’s Chris Mazdzer! Chris is on the American Luge Team and is from New York State!

And meet basketball player Kady Kanoute from Mali who shows us the athlete’s cafeteria: