Olympics Buzz: The mystery behind the capital ‘C’ in Pyeongchang is revealed

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Before these Winter Games get too old, it seems as if the mystery of the capital letter needs to be explained. The Games are being held in Pyeongchang, South Korea, according to most American news outlets — except the region decided to change the “c” to an uppercase letter, making it PyeongChang.

Why? Because it wants to be further distinguished from Pyongyang, which is the home of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, he of nuclear arsenal fame.

It would be like Altadena changing its name to AltaDena because the city is embarrassed that sister city Pasadena continually sets up police traps to catch people prematurely crossing the yellow turn line onto Arroyo Parkway.

It’s not as if the mistake hasn’t been made before — in Korea, not the San Gabriel Valley.

A Kenyan member of the Maasai tribe was headed to a U.N. conference in Peongchang, but the travel agent accidentally booked him to Pyongyang. He was held for four hours and released after he signed a paper that said he would never return without a visa.

He was glad to oblige, or is it obLige?

Medal count

After the first day of competition, the mighty United States is tied with Ghana, South Africa, Madagascar and Bermuda (among other countries) with zero medals. Don’t worry, the U.S. will catch up. Although the Netherlands and Norway are off to good starts with four medals, the U.S., by its sheer glut of athletes, will show up on the leaderboard before you start watching back-to-back rerun episodes (because watching it once just isn’t enough) of “Celebrity Family Feud” on ABC on Sunday night. Germany is the only country with two gold medals. Red Gerard won gold in snowboarding slopestyle for the first U.S. medal. Germany was the first country to win two gold medals.

First of the Games

For some reason, a big deal is made of winning the first medal of the Games. And for Charlotte Kalla of Sweden, it was a big deal that she’s experienced before. It was her sixth cross-country skiing medal and third gold. The event was the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon, which is this crazy event where you do the first 7.5K using the classical technique (think Beethoven) and the second half using freestyle (think Lil’ Suzy).

Marit Bjoergen of Norway finished second and became the most decorated female Winter Olympic medalist in history when she picked up her 11th trinket. The United States had a shot with Jessie Diggins, who was ranked third in the World Cup standings, but she slid to fifth place. The U.S. women have never won a cross-country medal.

Orange is the new gold

The Netherlands women swept the podium in the 3,000-meter speedskating competition, only 2,000 meters less boring than the 5,000. Ireen Wust was the two-time defending champion but she had to settle for second behind Carlijn Achtereekte. In Sochi four years ago, the Netherlands won 23 of the 36 speedskating medals. So expect more of the same. Carlijn Schoutens of the U.S. finished 22nd out of 24 competitors.

The new normal

Andreas Wellinger of Germany won the men’s ski jumping on the normal hill. What constitutes a “normal hill”? It’s actually size, not intelligence. (Although, hills are a notoriously dumb land mass.) “Normal hill” is the smaller of the two disciplines; the other hill is called “large.” The U.S. hasn’t won a medal in ski jumping since 1924 at Chamonix, France. And it actually didn’t win there — it was 50 years later when a historian noticed a scoring error, and Anders Haugen was awarded his bronze medal. On Saturday, Kevin Bickner was the lone U.S. athlete, finishing 18th out of 28 competitors.

Another sport we don’t care about

The 7.5-kilometer women’s sprint biathlon, a combination of skiing and shooting — although not at the same time — was won by Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier. She skied fast and didn’t miss any of the targets in the shooting component. Emily Dreissigacker of the U.S. finished 51st out of 87 competitors.

In progress …

In the inaugural mixed-doubles curling competition, sister and brother Becca and Matt Hamilton split their two matches on Saturday, losing to China 6-4 and smoking Norway 10-3 in a game decided by the mercy rule. But things aren’t really looking up for the Hamiltons as they are 2-4 in round-robin competition and tied for sixth in the standings. …

Chris Mazdzer sits in fourth after two of four runs in the men’s luge competition. Germany’s Felix Loch is in first. The final two runs will be Sunday. … Redmond Gerard qualified for the finals of the men’s snowboard slopestyle competition. The final three runs will be Sunday.

Word of the day

Madison Chock, half of the U.S. ice dance team with Evan Bates, told NBC she hopes to do something “romantical” with Bates on Valentine’s Day. In addition to being skating partners, the pair are real-life partners, along with their two poodles, who are not romantically involved but do a lot of sniffing.

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@jcherwa