I had the opportunity to watch the opening ceremonies of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics this past week.  Although I found the process of the athletes (obviously from many countries) entering the stage to be somewhat uneventful, there were several parts of the ceremonies that I did find interesting.  Around the end of the ceremonies, several singers came out and sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” together.  Not only do I enjoy this song, but its significance on a world stage is very important because it says that everyone should come together and live more peacefully and harmoniously.  Another part of the ceremonies that was incredible to watch was the display of more than one thousand drones: they grouped together in the sky and formed different images, such as a snowboarder and the interlocked rings of the Olympics.

A popular topic of the Winter Olympics is concerned with the Russian athletes who were suspended for doping.  I completely agree with this decision to suspend these athletes: their actions, while providing them with an unfair advantage, are also completely disrespectful to the other athletes who have dedicated a lot of their lives to training for these events.  Doping and other performance-enhancing drugs seem to be prevalent way too much in sports (not just the Olympics), and they shouldn’t be tolerated at all.  In the opening ceremonies, I thought it was interesting that the Russian athletes who didn’t dope and were allowed to participate came onto the stage with a flag of the Olympics’ symbol (the interlocked rings) instead of a flag of their own country.