Shoreland presents an introduction to the sports played at the Winter Olympic games. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi athlete’s from around the world will compete in 15 different sports. In the following presentation you will learn interesting facts about each sport, it’s famous athletes, and the countries that often participate in each sport.

Alpine Skiing In 1936, Alpine skiing became a Winter Olympic sport. Bode Miller is said to be the most successful American skier in Alpine skiing, with 31 world cup victories. Lindsey Vonn, a 29 year-old skier, who just underwent a second surgery to repair her knee that kept her from competing in the Sochi Games.

Miller is also a four time world champion and has a pair of silver medals from the 2002 Winter Olympics. Seven time Formula One champion Michael Schumache was in critical condition after undergoing brain surgery caused from a skiing accident. Schumache hit his head on a rock in the French Alps, causing him to go into a coma. Jean-Claude Killy, the greatest skier of his time, collected back to back World Cup Championships in and won the triple crown of Alpine skiing with a sweep of all three gold medals at the 1968 Winter Olympics.

One of the most popular U.S. biathlete is Tim Burke. Tim has participated in the Biathlon for two years and is going again this year for the U.S. Perfiesonal biathlete Lanny Barnes won third place in 2009 making it to the top three biathletes. To date, The Olympic Winter Games has five biathlons for men and five for women: Industrial Races, Sprint, Pursuit, Mass trait Race and Relay, and also the mixed relay.

Curling first appeared in the 1924 Olympics at Chamonix, but it was accepted by the International Olympic Committee in The stone used in curling weighs 44 pounds and is made of a special kind of granite found on the Island of Ailsa Craig in Scotland. During the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, only Canada and the U.S.A. took part in the competition, resulting in 4 teams for each country. Nicole Joraanstad (L) Natalie Nicholson (R) Debbie McCormick (T)

Mirjam Ott has taken part in many contests with her team to to win two silver medals at the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics. The women’s curling team earned fifth place at the end of the 2012 Winter Olympics. Pete Fenson and his team earned a bronze medal, the first Olympic medal for team U.S.A. Debbie McCormick won the championship in 2003 after placing 4 th in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Short Track Short Track was in the Olympics since 1924 but was considered as a sport in Netherlands (82) and Norway (80) hold the most medals all time.

Short Track is a type of speed skating in which athletes complete to cover a meter oval ice track as quick as possible. JR Celski gives US hope for getting a medal in short track speed skating. Claudi Pechstein holds five gold medals for Germany. Shani Davis will try to do something never done before by winning three times in a row. Speed Skating is held on a 400 meter oval at distances ranging from 500 to meters, with two skaters going at a time, but essentially racing against the clock.

Luge

Luge made its debut in Its name is the French word for sled. It is very dangerous and involves sliding at high speeds. Each nation can have ten athletes on their team. Their shoes are called “calypso”. Players have to shift from side to side to control their sled. One of the players, Tony Benshoof, was may win a medal for America.

The Nordic Combined is a winter sport in which athletes compete in both cross-country,skiing, and ski jumping. Nordic Combined started in Nordic Combined was invented by Norwegians. The sport was part of the Winter Olympics program 22 times.

The first known ski jumper was Norwegian Olaf Rye,who jumped 9.5 meters. Billy Demong became the first American to win a gold medal at the Vancouver games. Todd Lodwick is the world champion in the on the Nordic Combined team of U.S.A.

Ice Hockey The first ice hockey game was played between soldiers stationed in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The men played in the Olympics for the first time in Women played in Canada, Russia, Sweden, the United States, Germany, Italy, England, and France are some famous countries that play ice hockey.

Sebastian Courcelles fell on the ice and cut his cheek after falling on some ice skates leading to an accident. The country that got the most medals was Canada. They got 10 gold medals, 5 silvers, and 2 bronze. To play ice hockey, you need to hit the puck into the opponents goal using a stick, while preventing the puck from entering their own goal. Sticks, skates, helmets, a chest pad, elbow pads, gloves, and a jersey to show what team they are on are some equipment and gears that ice hockey player use to play and protect themselves. Matt Moulson is a famous ice hockey player because during his whole career, he managed to make 103 goals, 77 assists, and 52 penalty minutes in the 275 games played

Winter Cross CountryWinter Cross Country Cross Country was created in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Kikkan Randal was the first American Cross Country Gold Medalist. Norway’s Thorleif Haug was the first Cross Country winner.

Norway won the most Cross Country medals. The first Women’s Cross Country event was held in 1952 In 1910, 42 Russians were crowned Olympic Cross Country champions. The Skiathlon is voted as the most interesting Cross Country event.

Freestyle skiing first appeared at the winter Olympic games as a demonstration event in Freestyle skiing became an official medal sport in 1992, and has been a staple Olympic game ever since. The first winter Olympic games that had freestyle as an official game in it was held in Albertville, France. Freestyle skiing history:

Olympic freestyle skiing has multiple events, which include mogul skiing, aerial, and the ski cross. Ten sets of medals are awarded for freestyle skiing each winter Olympic game. Different equipment is used for different freestyle skiing events, the size of the equipment also generally varies based on gender. List of Olympic athletes competing 2014: Aaron Blunk, Mac Bohonnon, Maddie Bowman.

Figure Skating  Years ago designs were skated on clean ice in the shape of the figure eight.  These complex designs were called figures and that’s why it’s called figure skating.  Figure skating wasn’t included in the Winter Olympics until 1924.

 Jackson Haines invented figure skating.  Figure skating was the first winter sport included in the Olympics and is an activity in which individuals or groups perform in figure skates on ice.  The United States won the most medals in figure skating.  Ashley Wagner is one of the best figure skaters in the United States.

Some events of snowboarding include halfpipe snowboarding,parallel slalom, giant slalom, and sloppey style. Snowboarding inspired the first winter X-games.

There are many different types of snowboarding events like half pipe snowboarding and freestyle snowboarding. A teenage boy, named Tom Sims, invented the snowboard, because he couldn’t skateboard in the winter. The snowboarding events first appeared in the Olympics in 1998, but they were approved in The snowboarding events were added into the Olympics in the year 1994 One of the top three people are called Rose Power.

Facts About Bobsledding Lolo Jones is the most famous American bobsledder. The first bobsledding race took place in 1914 at Switzerland. Bobsledding was introduced at Chamonix, France, in Accidents that occurred during bobsledding are: eight people died, concussions, and broken collarbones. The country that won the most medals in bobsledding was Switzerland with nine gold, ten silver, and eleven bronze medals. Before, the first racing sleds were made of wood (but not called bobsleds), after that, were replaced by steel sleds, which was then called bobsledding.

Olympic long track speed skating promises to be one of the most anticipated and watched events in the Sochi Winter Olympics. Competition will take place across five men and women individual events as a team pursuit race, with much of focus centering on the 500, 1000, 1500 meter events where the biggest American stars are likely to shine.

Chief among those is Shani Davis, who is seeking a third straight gold in the 1000 meters. In speed skating athletes travel a defined distance as fast as possible. The traditional length of a track is 400 meters. Only six-time Olympic champion in the history of speed skating was the Soviet skater Lidia Skoblikova. Equipment – speed skaters wear skin tight racing suits with hoods to reduce air resistance. Speed skaters use special > with a blade that isn’t attached to the boot. These boots are usually made of kangaroo leather. In the team pursuit races, men skate 8 laps, and women skate 6 laps. Two teams of 3 members each take part in each race. The race comes to an end only when the last skater on the team crosses the finish line.

Ski Jumping has been around since the first winter Olympics. Ski jumper Sarah Hendrikson broke her knee ski jumping in august The OC tried to make women ski jumping a sport since 1998.

Women filed a law suit against the Olympics committee. Chris lamb holds a record of m., and is toward to 230+ m.. Peter Frenette got second place in the FIS race October tenth Nick fairall got fifth place in the FIS cup.

SKELETON

 John Daly, a competitor from USA, was inspired to go to Sochi because of the quote, “Don’t let your fears block your dreams.”  On February 19 th, 2010, on his 3 of 4 run, he was 17 th best in the Olympics with the time of 2:40:96.  The same day, on his 4 of 4 run, he also got 17 th place with the time of 3:34:01.  He began competing in  Daly won two gold, two silvers, and two bronze medals on the European Cup circuit.  Daly was 14 th on the 2002 Olympic track.  In , he got 11 th place in Lake Placid.