Awesome Winter Olympic Events

On Friday, February 12th, the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games will take place in Vancouver, British Columbia. That’s in western Canada for all you geography buffs. While Americans don’t get as excited about the winter games as the Scandanavians or Canadians, there are some events that could prove to be entertaining.

The last time I went skiing and shot stuff, I was politely asked to leave the ski resort.

Biathlon
Combining the activities of skiing and rifle shooting seems like something that would go on at a frat party in Aspen, but its an actual olympic event that has been around since 1960. Contestants ski up to a spot 50 meters from a target and take five shots, needing to hit areas of the target to avoid penalty time. Not only do contestants have to be a crack shot, they also have to be in shape, as the men’s course is 20 kilometers long.

Sliding Sports: Luge, Bobsleigh, Skeleton
Think of these as a sleigh ride on steroids. Bobsleigh can be done in teams of two or four, while the luge can be individual or two-person. The skeleton event, which is similar to the luge except contestants are on their stomachs, sees participants get a 50-meter running start before diving head first onto their sled. If you think you’ve seen some cool wipeouts watching your friends sled down a hill, you haven’t seen anything until you see these dudes and dudettes flip at ridiculous speeds.

Ice Hockey
Most people aren’t too upset about ESPN taking hockey out of their programming rotation, but you have to respect a contact sport played on ice. Any sport that can include fighting as a strategic ploy has my vote for an awesome game. Missing teeth and mullet-like haircuts will be the norm in the men’s 12-team, round-robin tournament.  There’s no doubt the host Canadians will be looking for gold in this event.

The snowboard cross event seems like solid entertainment.

Snowboarding: Parallel Giant Slalom, Halfpipe, Snowboard Cross
One of the newer events of the winter games, snowboarding was added in 1998. The parallel giant slalom is a one-on-one matchup through a series of gates. In the halfpipe, participants go all winter X-games, performing a series of jumps and tricks in an attempt to earn a high score.  For the snowboard cross, four racers run at a time, racing over rough terrain and a series of jumps and ramps.