Just a bobin and a luging while curling down with the board and skates and hoping to jump onto the ole medal stand. Let’s explore the Olympic winter sporting events to learn a bit more.
The Bobsled Events consist of the Women’s monobob, Two-man, Two woman and Four-man teams. Today’s sleighs are designed to be as light as possible and combine light metals, steel runners, in an aerodynamic composite body. Competition sleighs must be a maximum of 12.5 ft. long (4-crew) or 8.9 ft. long (2-crew). The runners on both are set at 2.2 ft. gauge. Until the weight-limit rule was added in 1952, bobsleigh crews tended to be very heavy to ensure the greatest possible speed. Nowadays, the maximum weight, including crew, is 1,390 lbs. for the 4-man, 860 lbs. for the 2-man, and 750 lb. for the 2-woman, which can be reached via the addition of metal weights.
Bobsleigh crews once consisted of five or six people, but were reduced to two- and four-person sleighs in the 1930s. The crew has a pilot, a brakeman, and pushers. “Athletes are selected based on their speed and strength, which are necessary to push the sleigh to a competitive speed at the start of the race. Pilots must have the skill, timing, and finesse to steer the sleigh along the path, or “line”, which will produce the greatest speed.”
Today’s bobsleighs; the steering system consists of two metal rings that manipulate a pulley system located in the forward cowling that turns the front runners. For example, to turn left, the pilot pulls the left ring. Speeds up to 80 mph mean only subtle steering adjustments can be made, as anything larger results in a crash. The pilot does most of the steering, and the brakeman stops the sled with the sled’s brake lever.
Women’s monobob is a new Olympic discipline. For decades, the world of bobsleigh has been dominated by teams using F1 technology and aerospace engineering to design the fastest possible bobs, while keeping their innovative aerodynamics research closely under wraps. Unlike other bobsleigh events, monobob athletes use a bob that is identical to those of their competitors, giving pride of place to the driving, with the value of the equipment having no bearing. “You focus on the driving and the athletic skill.”
“Like the two- and four-man versions, the quality of the start is of vital importance. This is the job of the lone pilot who has to find the best path throughout the run. The monobob is long and aerodynamic, complete with large steel runners on both sides of the forward cowling.”
Luge, like bobsleigh, was developed as a sport in Switzerland. Its roots go back to the 16th century, but it was not until 300 years later that the first luge tracks were built by Swiss hotel owners to cater to tourists. A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds face up and feet-first. A luger steers by using the calf muscles to flex the sled’s runners or by exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh 46–55 lb. for singles and 55–66 lb. for doubles. Lugers can reach speeds of 87 mph. The Luge Events consists of Men’s Singles, Women Singles, Mixed Doubles and Mixed Team Relay.
Men’s and women’s Skeleton is a winter sliding sport where a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first. The sport and the sled may have been named from the bony appearance of the sled.
Unlike the sliding sports of bobsleigh and luge, the race involves single riders. Like bobsleigh, but unlike luge, the race begins with a running start from the opening gate. The skeleton sled is thinner and heavier than the luge sled and affords the rider more precise control of the sled. Skeleton is the slowest of the three sliding sports, as skeleton’s face-down; head-first riding position is less aerodynamic than luge’s face-up, feet-first ride. A women’s race was added in the 2002 Winter Olympics. During elite racing the rider experiences accelerations up to 5g and reaches speeds over 81 mph.
The Biathlon combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not timed per se, but missed shots result in extra distance or time being added to the contestant’s total. For each shooting round, the biathlete must hit five targets or receive a penalty for each missed target. It consists of 9 different disciplines: Individual, Sprint, Super Sprint, Pursuit, Mass Start, Mass Start 60, Relay, Mixed Relay, and Single Mixed Relay.
Ice Hockey has both men’s and women’s teams. It originated in Canada in the early 19th century. Around 1860, a puck was substituted for a ball, and in 1879, two McGill University students, Robertson and Smith, devised the first rules. Olympic hockey pucks are made of vulcanized rubber and must be frozen to reduce friction before each game.
Curling includes men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles that use a stone weight between 38 and 44 lbs.; a maximum circumference of 36 inches and a minimum height of 4.5 inches. Each team has eight stones, with each player throwing two. Points are scored for the stones resting closest to the center of the house. Curling stones are made from a special granite that is found in only two quarries in the world: the Trefor Granite Quarry in Wales and the Scottish island of Ailsa Craig.
There are two types of broom. The most common is a brush or “push broom”. The other is a corn/straw/Canadian broom, which, with long bristles, looks much like a normal broom.
Then of course we have Figure Skating: Men’s singles, Ladies’ singles, Pairs, Team and Ice Dancing. Two Americans are responsible for the major developments of the sport. In 1850, Edward Bushnell of Philadelphia revolutionized skating when he introduced steel-bladed skates allowing complex maneuvers and turns. Jackson Haines, a ballet master living in Vienna in the 1860s, added elements of ballet and dance to give the sport its grace.
Speed skating of course is the competitive form of ice skating. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. There are currently ten events in Long Speed track: 500 meters (men’s and women’s); 1,000 meters (men’s and women’s); 1,500 meters (men’s and women’s); 5,000 meters (men’s and women’s); 3,000 meters (women’s); and 10,000 meters (men’s).
Short Track Speed Skating consists of 500 meters (men’s and women’s); 1,000 meters (men’s and women’s); 1,500 meters (men’s and women’s); 3,000 meter relay (women’s); and 5,000 meter relay (men’s). Athletes compete not against the clock, but against each other. This adds the elements of strategy, bravery and skill needed for racing.
Alpine Skiing consists of the Downhill, Super G, Giant slalom, Slalom, Super Combined, and mixed team. Freestyle Skiing includes the Aerials, Moguls, Ski Cross, Ski halfpipe and Ski slopestyle.
The Nordic Combined combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing. Cross-Country Skiing consists of individual and team sprint, freestyle, pursuit, classical and relays.
Freestyle skiing combines speed, showmanship and the ability to perform aerial maneuvers whilst skiing. People began performing somersaults on skis the beginning of the 20th century. In the early 1920s, U.S. skiers started to flip and spin. Freestyle skiing took off in America in the ‘60s and became known as ‘hotdogging’. The name captures the breathtaking mix of acrobatic tricks, jumps and sheer adrenalin rush of the sport.
The origin of ski jumping can be traced to Ole Rye, who jumped 9.5m in 1808. Norwegian Sondre Norheim is considered the father of modern ski jumping. He won the world’s first ski jumping competition with prizes, held at Ofte, Høydalsmo, Norway in 1866.
After World War I, Thulin Thams and Sigmund Ruud developed a new jumping style known as the Kongsberger Technique. This involved jumping with the upper body bent at the hips, a wide forward lean, and with arms extended at the front with the skis parallel to each other. Using this technique, Sepp Bradl of Austria became the first to jump more than 100 meters when he jumped 101 meters in 1936.
Snowboarding combines elements of surfing, skateboarding and skiing and was developed in the U. S. in the ‘60’s. Surfers and skateboarders became involved and by 1980, snowboarding was a national activity. Snowboarding consists of Parallel Giant Slalom, Halfpipe, Snowboard Cross, Big Air and Slopestyle. So let’s head out to them slopes and ice for a few days of fun!