FAITH LAPIDUS:
Winter Olympic sports include different forms of skiing, such as cross-country, Alpine, Nordic combined, free-style, and ski jumping. Snowboarding became an Olympic sport in nineteen ninety-eight. The athlete's feet are attached to a board that moves quickly on the snow. The sport combines the skills of surfing, skateboarding and skiing.
There are also three different sledding sports. These are bobsleigh, skeleton and luge. A bobsleigh is like a little car with a rounded nose made of fiberglass. But instead of wheels, it sits on steel runners that race along the ice. Runners push the bobsleigh for a distance of about fifty meters.
Then they jump onto the bobsleigh and continue racing down the track. Men compete in teams of two and four, while women only compete in teams of two.
BOB DOUGHTY:
A skeleton is a flat kind of sled. An athlete lies on top of it with his or her face down. Luge comes from the French word for sled. In luge racing, the athlete lies on top of the sled facing upwards.
Improvements in technology have greatly changed the equipment for these and other Winter Olympic sports. With specially cooled tracks and racing equipment, it is not unusual for luge athletes to reach speeds of one hundred forty kilometers an hour or more.
FAITH LAPIDUS:
Some of the winter sports played at the Olympics are internationally known, such as ice hockey. Others, like curling, are less widely known. Curling is a team sport played on ice. Two teams take turns pushing stones weighing almost twenty kilograms towards a circular target drawn on the ice.
The biathlon is another Olympic sport that is not as well known. This event combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It began as a survival method. Northern Europeans skied to hunt for food, then later to defend their countries.
The biathlon requires great skill to combine the physical demands of skiing and the calm, focused attention needed for shooting at a target.
BOB DOUGHTY:
One of the most popular events at the winter Olympics is figure skating. This sport combines the athleticism of skating with the gracefulness and creativity of dance. There are four categories of figure skating: men's singles, women's singles, pairs, and ice dancing.
In women's skating, several of the Olympic favorites are the South Korean skater Kim Yu-Na, and Mao Asada and Miki Ando of Japan. Two athletes representing the United States are Rachel Flatt and Mirai Nagasu . In men's skating, Russia has won the gold medal in the last four Olympics. This year's favorites include Russian Evgeni Plushenko, Brian Joubert of France and Evan Lysacek of the United States.
FAITH LAPIDUS:
Ice dancing is another popular event. It is judged on a couple's skill performing steps and turns to music. Unlike the other figure skating events, there are no overhead lifts and big jumps.
Charlie White and Meryl Davis are competing for the United States at the Olympics for the first time. They became very popular on the Internet for their ice dance performance set to traditional Indian music.
Speed skating is also a popular Olympic event. Americans will be watching short track speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno. He won five Olympic medals for the United States at the past two Winter Games.
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BOB DOUGHTY:
The competition nearest to the hearts of many Canadians is ice hockey. For generations of Canadians, ice hockey has been an important part of their culture. Some say that for Canadians hockey is closer to a religion than a sport.
Twelve of the best national teams in the world will compete over twelve days. The first men's hockey game will be between the United States and Switzerland on February sixteenth. The National Hockey League in the United States is again permitting its players to represent their native countries in the Olympics. This has only been permitted for three other Olympic games.
For many hockey fans, the most important game of the Olympics will be decided on the final day, February twenty-eighth. This is when the final game of the men's hockey competition takes place. Experts say the men's hockey event will be one of the most competitive ever. One American hockey official said he thinks it will be the greatest hockey competition in the history of the world.
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