It was a little saddening as all the women reported that the wind had messed up their routine. Jessika said to Deseret News, “I know that the girls had more tricks out there, but due to the conditions, we had to hold everything back a little bit. We’re all just having fun and doing the best we can. When the wind was a headwind, we just didn’t quite have the speed for the jumps,” Jenson said. “So we really had to get the feel for it and make sure it wasn’t a headwind. We tried our best.”

 Jessika Jenson finished fifth place. This last winter Olympics in 2014 was her first Olympic games. She came in 13th place in the Sochi games. In 2015, Jessika won third place in the World Cup Competition.

Meagan Duhamel talks about how she chose the song for this years Olympics.”Since 2011/2012 Eric has suggested that we skate to the instrumental version of “With or Without You,” but that season we opted for “Coldplay” and we found that “With or Without You” was too similar, so we just set it aside. Once again this spring, Eric brought up the idea of skating to it. We love the piano, we feel like it sums up “us”, and we feel passionately connected to the music and emotion, so it seemed like a no brainer. Then Julie appeared, with an unheard of version by April Meservy. Her voice was raw, powerful and captivating, and Julie, Eric and I sat there in tears listening to it. There was no plan B after that. This was it. It had to be it.”

April was not expecting to sing this song. However, after a struggle with a past relationship, she decided to cover it.

Ldsliving explained that an anonymous giver gave April a ticket to Vancouver to watch the couple perform to her song. This year, another gift was given for her to go to China to see the performance.

April is born in Nevada. She is an American singer and songwriter. Megan Duhamel isn’t the only one that loves April’s music. April has received five Pearl Awards.  She has performed with Matt Nathanson, CAKE, David Archuleta, and Lindsey Sterling.

In 2007, April released her own independent label called Forêt d’Musique, (Jèrriais: “Forest of Music”). She has released a few singles such as Somewhere Between Sunsets and The Good-Morrow. 

Trying to stop the nerves from settling in, he tried to distract himself. In an interview with Deseret News, Bubba said, “The more you can distract your brain from thinking about it, from letting it get in your head (the better).”

For Tuesday’s Competition, Bubba wasn’t expecting that he would have to wear mismatched skis. He broke one of them on Mammoth Mountain earlier. Luckily, he brought another pair with him to South Korea. He wasn’t really sure why he felt he needed to. However, time soon showed him why he needed the extra pair. It was the first day of training and he broke one of the skis. Another competitor offered to let him borrow his. However, the bindings didn’t work.

He tells Deseret News, “It’s been unreal,” he said, wrapped in an Irish flag after finishing 22nd, 10 spots below the cut to qualify for the finals, with a first run score of 53.80. “For the rest of my life, I’m an Olympian. And it’s something I’ve wanted my entire life. So to have it actually happen, I can’t even put it into words.”

On Wednesday after his first run, he was one spot away from qualifying in the finals. However, Bubba is not upset by it. In the same interview, he said that he is just interested in improving his run. He set personal goals for himself and he was able to accomplish them. He is thrilled that he has had this experience and can say that he is an Olympian.

He didn’t start skiing with a coach until he was 14. He taught himself and watched YouTube up until then. However, his mom suggested that he should get a coach. He also said that his sport was never a sport until 2014. There was no one to look up to from the event growing up. However, this Olympics, he has achieved his personal goals and represents Ireland well.

In an interview with Deseret News, she shares “I was kind of a tomboy, and I just wanted to compete,” she said. “I wanted to race people. I wanted to be the fastest.” She wasn’t all that concerned with twirling and spinning and jumping on the ice, she wanted to see how fast she could go.

Every day after school, she would race to get her homework done so that she could go to the rink faster. It was her favorite thing to do.

Her first race is on the 14th of February. She says in the Deseret News interview that she couldn’t have done it without the help of her family and the support of her faith in the Church. “It’s definitely part of who I am,” she said. “I think it’s helped me to have confidence in the things I do.”

Taken from teamusa.org

After long hard days of training, Jerica can always fall back on her family. “I think no matter what I do, it’s just a big part of who I am,” she said. “I think because it’s a big part of our beliefs that family is at the center of pretty much everything. That helps me a lot. I know that no matter what happens, no matter what I do, that my family is there for me, and that helps a lot when you’re in a sport, no matter what happens, there are people who love you and support you.”

Jerica also shares how every Church and LDS ward is a little bit of home for her. She feels comfortable going and when she’s homesick, it calms her sickness. “It’s helped me through a lot of hard times in training and skating,” she said. “Being an elite-level athlete, there are a lot more lows than highs, there are a lot of disappointments, setbacks and hard training. And having that religious background helped me to get through those hard times.”

Jerica has pushed past many trials and struggles to come to the Olympics this year. She is so excited to compete. Her family is so excited for her as well. Her father commented when they heard the news. They were flying back from the tryouts in Milwaukee when they got the news.

“We started getting these texts congratulating us,” he said. “We were saying, ‘Is this serious?’ We tried to call her, but she was busy with the team and couldn’t answer. But then she texted us, and it’s just amazing.” They are excited to see Jerica compete and to cheer her on tonight!

“I’m just going to go out there and race the best I can and be happy with the time,” she said. “I don’t have any really high expectations for myself. I want to improve and learn from the experience. A lot of the teammates I train with every day, this will be their second or third Olympics, so it’s cool to experience it with them.”