With Glowing Hearts????

The tagline from this years Winter Olympics in Vancouver, and a subtle representation of Canada's national anthem, 'With Glowing Hearts' is intended (I presume) to embody the olympic spirit and personify the games centre....?

Being Irish and not too familiar with the Winter Olympics (although we do have a womens bobsleigh team), I assumed that the pride and power associated with summer olympians and backroom staff stood true to those of the winter olympics? And to an extent they do and surely they may often reach higher levels of pride and purpose. It hasto be said, however, that controversy and evidence of indignation are evermore present in these games.

If I did not live in Korea, maybe I would have passed through life unaware of the crazy sport of short track speed skating, a sport that sees more disqualifications than any other. This is no surprise when you see the reasons for such disqualification: impeding, off-track, cross-tracking, team-skating, kicking out, unsportsmanlike conduct, wrong equipment......so on and so on and so on. In a highly competitive sport thats big in the olympic scene, South Korea hold 4 out of 5 men's world records and one womans. It is apparently, not a speed-skating event if there is not a Korean in the medal winners.

This winter olympics saw many South Koreans earning their place on the national team by winning medals but it also saw an array of disqualifications (some debated their worthiness) and a barrage of abuse from some other contestants (namely Apollo Ohno of the US). In response, it is quite evident inside a classroom in Seoul how people feel about Ohno, more than likely repeating their parents sentiments. I am unsure if a lot of the commentary is just and lets face it, he's not exactly a likable character but the back and forth of accusations from both sides seem slightly askew. Maybe, just maybe, the fact that his coach is Japanese might have something to contribute to the hate???

He is referred to as 'king of fouls'. A toilet paper company in Korea even put his face on their packaging, clearly not a positive marketing spin. According to NBC, there is even a video game with a character similar to Ohno that you can shoot in the head.......... This year in the olympics was no different to previous events with high tension between Ohno and Korean skaters, with Ohno being described as 'too agressive' in the lead to two korean skaters falling into each other and giving Ohno a silver medal. But Korea has one athlete who transcends all of these spiteful conflicts, Kim Yu Na, the figure skater who is as much a talented advertiser in Korea as anything else.

Kim Yu Na's face can be seen on everything from supermarkets, to bank slips to buses to cosmetic brands. She is loved and adored by the country but also pressurised to an enormous extent. Her world record and gold medal came at a time when Koreas female speed skaters were disqualified in the relay final, a comforting pillow to ease the blow.

At 19 years of age, she holds the hopes of a country and the advertising contracts that would leave David Beckham in the shade.