As expected, The Netherlands’ strapping speed skater, Ard Schenk, won the 5,000 meters handily. Next day, though, the flying Dutchman fell at the start of the 500 meters.

Trumpets blared. Fireworks exploded. Drums and cannons thundered. A 700-voice chorus sang hallelujah. A band played The Ballad of Rainbow and Snow. Eight hundred Japanese children on ice skates released 18,000 multicolored balloons into the air. More than 1,000 athletes from 35 countries paraded in their winter finery. And right…

Figure skater Sjoukje Dijkstra put on a dazzling performance in Cortina, Italy. Sjoukje: “It’s just working hard that makes you good.”

The lilting strains of Johann Strauss’s Graduation Ball wafted through Cortina, Italy, as a sturdy blonde girl glided around the open-air rink. The music leaped, and the girl leaped too—a twisting “double axel” that sent her hurtling through the air until she glided back on the ice. The music…