Jamie Sinclair is a curler who, along with teammates Alex Carlson, Vicky Persinger and Monica Walker, won the 2017 U.S. championships and was part of the winning 2017 Continental Cup team. Sinclair is blogging for TeamUSA.org ahead of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.
The excitement is building; it’s almost the start of the Olympics. Save the date, February 9th is the Opening Ceremony.
It seems like everything else kind of goes on pause for the time the Olympics are on.
I have been really busy curling up until now. I played in the US Open in January, which we won! It was a bit of a Band-Aid for my broken heart. We then went on to Switzerland and played a huge event with 32 teams from all over the world. The pool of teams contained Olympic and world champions. We went to the finals and were up against the Olympic team from China. Great game, but we did lose that final. Then we flew right to Calgary, Alberta for a Slam event. Jet lag and time changes caught up with us there for sure. I was so exhausted that I slept for 13 hours the first night.
Time change and jet lag are a huge factor for our teams going to the Olympics in South Korea. Many teams are heading to Japan first to help acclimate before they actually go to Korea. Some athletes start trying to get their bodies used to the time change by starting to change it here. They stay up later and later and sleep during the day to help trick their bodies into thinking they are already on Korean time. What ever works best for you I guess; I’m not sure which would be better for me.
I have been watching and following, as much as I can, other athletes that have been qualifying for the Olympics in different sports. I am very excited for them but after losing the finals to get there myself, I can’t help but focus on the ones that lost their final, too.
My heart breaks for them and I know that pain is real. I also watched my team, the Minnesota Vikings, lose their huge game to go to the Super Bowl, and I am heart broken for them, sorry guys.
We all know that we will recover and go on but in that moment it hurts. I still have dreams about what if I did this or what if I did that, playing the last shot over and over; that also will fade in time. It sure as heck better... I like my sleep!
Right now I am looking forward to watching the Olympics. One of my favorite parts is watching the Opening Ceremony; it has so much energy! I love seeing all the countries march out and I really love to see what they are wearing. I might be a bit of a clothes critic there. It is something to see how huge our team is; I wonder if I will even be able to spot our curlers in the sea of athletes.
February has no curling events to play in with all the focus on the Olympics. The curling world pauses so we can enjoy and support our athletes competing. What sports are you guys looking forward to watching in the Olympics? I am obviously very interested in the curling but I also like the ones I don’t see that often like bobsled and ski jumping. They have a need, a need for speed! (“Top Gun” reference in case you didn’t get that.)
So my February will be made up of practicing and watching the Olympics. Right after the Olympics is the U.S National Championships so we have to stay sharp. I would love to win that to put another Band-Aid on my heart.
