The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are rapidly approaching with athletes from all around the world getting ready to compete for the first place medal. The winter Olympics are quite a bit smaller than the summer Olympics as there are fewer choices for winter sports played as during the summer ones. There are also fewer countries and athletes competing as some countries do not have these sports or the weather or terrain to sustain this type of sport. This does not always stop athletes, however, as evidenced by the Jamaican bobsledding team several years ago. They took fast runners and athletes from Jamaica and taught them the basics of the bobsled using a wooden sled on wheels. Their entry into the Olympics was a big crowd pleaser. This article mentions a few of the different events at the Olympics Games performed by some athletes such as the telluride ski instructor that teaches telluride ski lessons and will be competing in the giant Slalom event.
Ice hockey is one of the favorite fan spectator sports to witness at the Olympic events. One of the most famous gold medal final hockey games was the 1980 match of the USA against Russia where the US won in the final seconds. It had always been a sport for just men but now women’s ice hockey is also in the Olympics. Other types of skating sports that are popular is speed skating, ice dancing and figure skating. These popular competitions draw large crowds.
The USA team has always had top performers in these events as well with Apolo Anton Ohno competing in his third Olympic games this winter 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 hurt her knee in an attack the day before the Olympics.
Some of the sports that people love to watch are the ones that they only get to witness on the Olympics such as bobsledding, luge or curling. These lesser known and popular sports have their spotlight during the Olympic games where they can show off their abilities and talents in sports that are not normally played in every town or state. Bobsledding and luge are exciting and fast races where a sled races down an icy tube to the finish. In order to attract athletes for these sports some coaches go to other states to seek out younger kids that could be a good fit for that sport. This happened in Colorado where members of the USA Luge organization put on a exhibition and got some interested kids involved. Two of the athletes competed in the 2008 Olympic Games as a result of this exhibition. Curling is a sport that is mainly played in Northern Minnesota and is a slower more strategic sport much like bocce ball but on ice.
Downhill ski racing and cross country skiing are also popular sports in the winter games. The downhill skiers and snowboarders love speed and an element of danger and the cross country skier have great stamina and endurance.
