Jamie Greubel Poser's 2018 Winter Olympics journey is a family affair
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — From the time Pyeongchang was chosen to host these Winter Olympics, Jamie Greubel Poser knew she had to be here.
As much for her sister as for herself.
Greubel Poser’s 17-year-old sister, Elizabeth, was adopted from South Korea when she was 5 months old. Until a few days ago, she hadn’t been back.
“I never thought I would have that connection in my sports career,” said Greubel Poser, the driver of the USA-2 bobsled. “I was always motivated because I was so competitive and I loved competing in sports. But to have a new meaning behind why I wanted to compete there was just different.
“I wanted to go in Sochi because I wanted to be the best in the world at my sport,” she said. “I still do, but this has a deeper meaning for me now.”
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Elizabeth and her father, Peter, spent the last couple of days in Seoul, where they did a street tour that took them to several palaces, and then a food tour. They took a train to Pyeongchang on Monday, arriving in time to see Greubel Poser’s husband, Germany's Christian Poser, compete in the two-man bobsled.
Christian Poser and Nico Walther were in first place heading into the final two runs. Jamie Greubel Poser, who is 34, begins competition Tuesday night.
“It’s been exciting,” Elizabeth told Paste BN Sports. “It’s been different because it’s a whole different culture.”
Greubel Poser grew up in Newtown, Penn., with two younger brothers, so she was thrilled when her parents said they were adopting Elizabeth. She got her first passport because of her sister, a requirement as part of the family’s background check.
Unlike adoptions from some other countries, parents don’t come to South Korea to pick up their babies. Instead, Greubel Poser said she and her brothers accompanied their parents to John F. Kennedy airport, where they eagerly waited at the gate for her sister.
“We were super excited waiting,” Greubel Poser said. “A couple got off the plane, and had our sister. It was just an incredible moment and something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life.”
Elizabeth has never been to one of her sister’s races. Most bobsled World Cups are in Europe, and Elizabeth was a little too young to join her father and brother in Sochi four years ago, when Greubel Poser won a bronze medal. (Their mother, a physician, couldn’t take off of work, and their other brother was in school.)
But when Greubel Poser came to Pyeongchang for last year’s test event, it was as if her little sister was with her.
“Just kind of walking around and being like, `My sister could be here. She could be any one of these people that I’m meeting,’” Greubel Poser said. “It’s very emotional. It’s crazy. It’s hard to explain, just walking around and taking it in and thinking that life could be completely different, but this is how it worked out.”
Greubel Poser sent her sister an endless amount of photos — mostly of food.
The Greubels have tried to make sure Elizabeth maintains a link to her heritage, and sent her to Korean language classes when she was younger. But it’s a hard language to learn, and Peter Greubel said she got frustrated with it.
“The only time she was using it was at school,” he said. “So we opted to let that kind of go to the wayside.”
Korean food, however, was a different story.
“She loves Korean food,” Greubel Poser said. “We have this amazing (Korean) restaurant in our hometown and our family eats there all the time. She loves it.”
Indeed, that was one of the things Elizabeth was looking forward to about getting to Pyeongchang. While she enjoyed the food in Seoul – “I wanted eggs this morning for breakfast, and she wanted kimchi and pork,” Peter Greubel said -- it wasn’t any different than what she gets in the United States.
The other thing Elizabeth is looking forward to -- besides seeing her sister and brother-in-law, of course -- is meeting Olympians.
When Elizabeth and Greubel Poser were FaceTiming last week, Elizabeth told her sister she wanted to meet Chloe Kim.
“She said, `I’m standing right next to her.’ I freaked out. I was in an ice cream store,” Elizabeth said. “I want to meet in her person because she’s 17, I’m 17. She’s Korean, I’m Korean.
“And because she’s an Olympic gold medalist.”
Depending on how things go the next few days, her sister and brother-in-law might soon be, too. What a sweet ending that would be, Greubel Poser winning the ultimate prize in a country that has already given her so much.
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Follow Paste BN Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.
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Rachel Axon contributed to this story.