The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are just around the corner with athletes from all around the globe preparing to compete for the first place medal. The winter Olympics are quite a bit smaller than the summer Olympics as there are less options for winter sports played as during the summer ones. There are also less countries and athletes competing as several countries do not have these sports or the winter climate or terrain to sustain this type of sport. This does not always stop athletes, however, as proven by the Jamaican bobsledding team several years ago. They took strong runners and athletes from Jamaica and taught them how to bobsled using a wooden cart on wheels. Their entry into the Olympics was a great crowd pleaser. This article mentions a few of the various sports at the Olympics Games performed by some athletes like the telluride ski instructor that teaches telluride ski lessons and will be competing in the giant Slalom event.
Ice hockey is one of the big fan spectator sports to witness at the Olympic events. One of the most famous gold medal final games was the 1980 match of the USA against Russia where the US won in the final seconds. It had always male only event but now women’s ice hockey is also an Olympic sport. Other types of skating sports that are popular is speed skating, ice dancing and figure skating. These popular events bring in large audiences.
The American team has always had top athletes in these sports as well with Apolo Anton Ohno skating in his third Olympic games this year in speed short track skating. Figure skating success stories in the past have been Dorothy Hamill, Scott Hamilton and Nancy Kerrigan who missed out on getting gold when her competitions boyfriend injured her in an attack the day before competition.
Some of the sports that spectators enjoy watching are the ones that they only get to witness on the Olympics like bobsledding, luge or curling. These less popular sports have their spotlight during the Winter Olympics where they can exhibit their abilities and talents in sports that are not normally played in every town or state. Bobsledding and luge are thrilling and fast races where a sled races down an icy tube to the end. In order to find athletes for these sports some coaches visit other states to seek out younger kids that may have an interest or knack for it. This happened in Colorado where members of the USA Luge organization put on a exhibition and got some interested children involved. Two of the athletes competed in the last Olympic Games as a result of this exhibition. Curling is a sport that is mainly played in the norhtern midwest and is a calmer sport very similar to bocce ball but on ice.
Downhill ski racing and cross country skiing are also big sports in the winter Olympics. The downhill skiers and snowboarders thrive on speed and an element of danger and the cross country skier have extreme stamina and endurance.
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January 26, 2010
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