Thousands of athletes will head to South Korea to showcase their skills in the 2018 Olympic Games. They've taken different paths. Some started in traditional Winter Games sports, like men's and women's ice hockey. Others developed their skills as runners, jumpers and throwers competing under the summer sun. But for many, the chance to develop their skills with world-class coaching in college, whether as a hockey player or a track athlete, opened the door to even greater opportunities. For a fortunate few, college athletics opened a door to Olympic glory. These are the stories of the paths that brought them to Pyeongchang.
More former NCAA student-athletes still have a chance to fight for medals in PyeongChang. On the heels of a Winter Olympics that featured more than 150 former NCAA student-athletes, nine more are participating in the Paralympics. The 2018 Winter Paralympics, a competition for physically disabled athletes, began on Friday, March 9, and will feature events in the disciplines of alpine skiing, biathlon, Nordic skiing, ice sledge hockey, snowboard and wheelchair curling. The events will be held over the course of 10 days at many of the same venues where the Olympians competed last month.
