A former Cheshire resident and CHS class of ‘93 grad Gina DaLan and her husband enjoyed 10 days in Italy viewing 2 Winter Olympic events and visiting with their daughter (attending a college semester abroad in Florence.)

 

My husband, Stefan, and I visited with our daughter, Maya, my father-in-law who is almost 80 and from northern Italy, and some of my husband’s cousins who live there, 
attended 2 events at the Winter Olympics in northern Italy.  

We enjoyed seeing Women’s mono bobsled in Cortina. Cortina is beautiful and the US won gold and bronze in this event which was very exciting! The gold medal winner, Elana Meyer Taylor is now the most decorated Black athlete in Winter Olympic history and the most decorated U.S. bobsledder! As a special educator, her story is also very interesting to me as she is an advocate for children with disabilities. Both of her young sons are deaf and one of them has Down Syndrome. 

We also saw Nordic Combined in Predazzo. I wasn’t sure what this event was before attending the Olympics. It is an event that combines ski jumping with cross country skiing. The ski jump was really exciting to watch! And the day after we were at the cross county ski event…you may have seen that a dog joined some of the athletes as they approached the finish line! 

Being at the Olympics for the first time, it was wonderful to see athletes from all over the world competing and the camaraderie between them.  And even though it was in another country, it was wonderful to see our US athletes competing!