It's beginning to look a lot like winter
Ashley Islas Sports Editor
Issue date: 12/4/09 Section: Sports
On Thanksgiving one of my favorite athletes - Apolo Anton Ohno - popped up on my teleivision screen announcing that the 2010 Winter Olympics on Vancouver are less than 100 days away and honestly, I could not be anymore excited.
The winter games are a perfect example of the strength, grace and endurance of many athletes who are sometimes overlooked.
Alpine skiing is the equivalence of cross country running and sprinting, well expect for the fact that skiiers must go down steep slopes and must make sharp turns.
The biathlon - a cross-country race and rifle shooting. Yes, rifle shooting. The race challenges the endurance of an athlete, but immediately following they must demonstrate their ability to harness their accuracy and control after being physically challenged.
"Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time!" Yes, the movie about the Jamaican bobsled team did bring this sport into the spotlight, but this sport is so dynamic - aero dynamic that is. The bobsleigh that are used go up to 90 mph.
Cross-country skiing consists of individual, relay and sprint races. It's a test of an athletes endurance or speed.
One of the slowest, yes slowest, but most mesmerizing events is curling. Two teams take turns pushing a stone toward a series of circles and object of the game is to get the stones as close as possible to the center. It's all done with a steady hand and broom.
Figure skating is possibly the best known event and displays an athletes strength and grace in an artistic manner.
Freestyle skiing is the platform for skiiers to display their gravity-defying skills, such as the twister, spread-eagle, iron cross, and the helicopter - an upright 360-degree spin.
I highly doubt that this sport needs much of a description considering the fact that most of us have seen the Flying V. The country team's play a round-robin tournament.
Have you ever seen a human bullet? No? Luge, racers begin by sitting on open fibreglass sleds that can go as fast as 80 mph. They use spiked gloves,steer using their legs and shoulder and come to a halt by sitting up and using their feet.
The Nordic Combined event consists of an athlete making a jump and being scored on it and then waiting anywhere between 15 minutes and a few hours to partcipate in a cross-country race.
In short track speed skating the athletes compete against each other and not the clock to advance to the next round. Sharp turns test an athletes control of speed.
In skeleton athletes train much like sprinters to develop powerful legs they need to explode onto the track. They must also find the best line and steer smoothly through each turn to maintain their speed.
Ski jumping gives athletes an opportunity to ski down a long ramp, referred to as the in-run, and launches into the air at high speeds.
Snowboarding is the icy equivalence of skating.
Speed skating is the relay sprinting of the winter games.
When February comes around take the time to catch a few of the most mesmorizing and graceful athletes defy friction on the ice and gravity in the air.
The winter games are a perfect example of the strength, grace and endurance of many athletes who are sometimes overlooked.
Alpine skiing is the equivalence of cross country running and sprinting, well expect for the fact that skiiers must go down steep slopes and must make sharp turns.
The biathlon - a cross-country race and rifle shooting. Yes, rifle shooting. The race challenges the endurance of an athlete, but immediately following they must demonstrate their ability to harness their accuracy and control after being physically challenged.
"Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up, its bobsled time!" Yes, the movie about the Jamaican bobsled team did bring this sport into the spotlight, but this sport is so dynamic - aero dynamic that is. The bobsleigh that are used go up to 90 mph.
Cross-country skiing consists of individual, relay and sprint races. It's a test of an athletes endurance or speed.
One of the slowest, yes slowest, but most mesmerizing events is curling. Two teams take turns pushing a stone toward a series of circles and object of the game is to get the stones as close as possible to the center. It's all done with a steady hand and broom.
Figure skating is possibly the best known event and displays an athletes strength and grace in an artistic manner.
Freestyle skiing is the platform for skiiers to display their gravity-defying skills, such as the twister, spread-eagle, iron cross, and the helicopter - an upright 360-degree spin.
I highly doubt that this sport needs much of a description considering the fact that most of us have seen the Flying V. The country team's play a round-robin tournament.
Have you ever seen a human bullet? No? Luge, racers begin by sitting on open fibreglass sleds that can go as fast as 80 mph. They use spiked gloves,steer using their legs and shoulder and come to a halt by sitting up and using their feet.
The Nordic Combined event consists of an athlete making a jump and being scored on it and then waiting anywhere between 15 minutes and a few hours to partcipate in a cross-country race.
In short track speed skating the athletes compete against each other and not the clock to advance to the next round. Sharp turns test an athletes control of speed.
In skeleton athletes train much like sprinters to develop powerful legs they need to explode onto the track. They must also find the best line and steer smoothly through each turn to maintain their speed.
Ski jumping gives athletes an opportunity to ski down a long ramp, referred to as the in-run, and launches into the air at high speeds.
Snowboarding is the icy equivalence of skating.
Speed skating is the relay sprinting of the winter games.
When February comes around take the time to catch a few of the most mesmorizing and graceful athletes defy friction on the ice and gravity in the air.
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