The 2010 Olympic Winter Games are scheduled for Feb. 12–28 in Vancouver, Canada. The Games will consist of seven winter sports with 15 disciplines.
Within each discipline, there are numerous events organized by sex (men's and women's events), distance (500 m, 1500 m, 3000 m, 5000 m etc.) or type (Alpine has Super-G, Downhill, Slalom etc.)
Biathlon at the 2010 Winter Olympics
This combination of rifle shooting and cross-country skiing began with Nordic hunters but is also part of winter military training. There is only the one discipline with men's and women's distances in each of five events:
- Individual Start
- Sprint (more skiing, less shooting)
- Pursuit (everybody chases the winner of the sprint)
- Mass Start
- Relay (teams of four).
Curling at the 2010 Winter Games
Though detractors say it is "as exciting as watching paint dry," curling is a sport of strategy and skill rather than of strength or speed. There are two events: a men's tournament and a women's tournament. Each of four team members "throw" two curling stones at a target at the far end of a narrow ice rink. A game consists of 10 “ends” (similar to innings in baseball) and the winner is the team with the most stones closest to the target.
Ice Hockey at Canada's Winter Games 2010
Ice hockey is host country Canada's national winter sport. Twelve men's teams and eight women's teams compete in separate tournaments. Winners of an initial round-robin advance to finals which determine the gold, silver, and bronze medal winners. The Canadian hockey rinks used for the 2010 Winter Olympics are built to NHL standards and are four meters ( about 13 ft) narrower than international rinks.
Skiing Disciplines at the 2010 Olympics
- Alpine Skiing – Events include Downhill (straight down at up to 130 km/h!), Slalom (skiers make fast zig-zag turns through 'gates'), Giant Slalom (wider, gentler turns), and Super-G (a combination of Downhill and Giant Slalom).
- Cross-Country Skiing – With two techniques (classic and free-style) and six types (individual sprint, team sprint, individual start, pursuit, mass start and relay) plus different distances for men and women, this discipline offers a wide range of events.
- Ski jumping – Skiers jump off a ramp and aim for the greatest distance, but are also judged on style. Events are Individual Normal Hill, Individual Large Hill, Team Large Hill.
- Nordic Combined – Combining ski-jumping with cross-country, the Nordic combined has three events (same as for ski jumping) each consisting of a jump followed by a cross-country ski race.
- Freestyle Skiing – this exciting mixture of alpine and acrobatics consists of three events for men and women: Aerial (including tricks such as twister, spread-eagle, iron cross, and helicopter), Moguls (hillocks), and the new Ski Cross (a mass-start event where athletes compete over rolling terrain in heats of four)
- Snowboard - A relatively new discipline combining surfing, skateboarding and skiing. Events are Halfpipe (aerial tricks), Parallel Giant Slalom (two snowboarders race head-to-head through a slalom course) and the new Snowboard Cross (four boarders race against each other over rolling terrain and a series of jumps and ramps).
Skating at the 2010 Olympics
- Speed Skating – Just as it sounds, athletes on long-bladed skates go for speed. According to a release from the organizers, "Speed skating is the fastest human powered, non-mechanical aided sport in the world" with speeds of more than 60 kilometers per hour. Individual and Team Pursuit events.
- Figure skating - Considered by many to be the darling of the Winter Olympics. Men's and women's events in Singles (individual), Pairs (team of two with lifts and jumps) and Ice Dance (interpretive movement to music without lifts and jumps).
- Short Track Speed Skating – This takes place on a hockey rink [see comments], where the tight corners challenge skater control. Skaters race against each other, not the clock, in men's and women's individual and relay events.
Sled Sports at Vancouver 2010
All three of these sports use a sled - basically a narrow platform on steel runners – designed to minimize contact with the ice surface and so increase speed.
- Bobsleigh – An aerodynamic fiberglass bullet on four polished steel runners hurtles down an iced chute at insane speeds. There are two- and four-man and two-women Bobsled events.
- Skeleton – The fiberglass and metal sled supposedly looks like a human skeleton. Athletes throw themselves onto the sled on their stomachs and race head-first down a bobsleigh-type chute at insane speeds with their noses only centimeters off the ice. Men's and women's events.
- Luge – In luge ( French for “sled”), athletes lay on their backs on a fiberglass sled and travel feet-first down a bobsleigh-type ice chute at insane speeds. Men's and women's singles and doubles events.
According to VANOC, the Olympic organizers, over 80 countries and some 5500 athletes and officials are expected to participate in the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada. Vancouver hotels will be packed with an anticipated 150,000 visitors.
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Thomas Alan Gray - Tom has been writing for over 30 years; curiosity leads him to dig into a wide variety of topics.
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