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Opening Ceremony Never Gets Old, Even For Olympic Veterans

NWNews | By Tom Banse,
Tom Banse
Published February 6, 2014 at 4:21 PM MST
U.S. Olympic snowboarder Nate Holland
Sarah Brunson
/
U.S. Snowboarding
U.S. Olympic snowboarder Nate Holland

For some of the Northwest athletes competing at the Winter Games, this will be the third or fourth time to experience the Opening Ceremonies.

But snowboarder Nate Holland of North Idaho says it never gets old.

"I'm going to go there and experience the Russian opening ceremonies and Team USA and try to feed off some of that energy," he says. "Get that Olympic vibe going within me and feed off of that for the duration of the time that I'm there."

Most of this region's Olympic athletes will march into the stadium in Sochi with Team USA. But if you're feeling local pride, you might also keep an eye on four other countries:

• The flag bearer for Peru is a cross country skier who now lives in Seattle

• The U.S. Virgin Islands will be represented by a Whitman College student who calls Sun Valley home

• Two athletes based in the Northwest are competing for Australia

• A snowboarder from White Salmon, Washington is now riding for host country Russia

The Opening Ceremonies for the 2014 Winter Olympics take place Friday.

Copyright 2021 Northwest News Network. To see more, visit Northwest News Network.

Northwest News Network
Tom Banse
Tom Banse covers business, environment, public policy, human interest and national news across the Northwest. He reports from well known and out–of–the–way places in the region where important, amusing, touching, or outrageous events are unfolding. Tom's stories can be heard during "Morning Edition," "Weekday," and "All Things Considered" on NPR stations in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.
See stories by Tom Banse
Tom Banse
Tom Banse covers national news, business, science, public policy, Olympic sports and human interest stories from across the Northwest. He reports from well known and out–of–the–way places in the region where important, amusing, touching, or outrageous events are unfolding. Tom's stories can be found online and heard on-air during "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" on NPR stations in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

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