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Winter Olympics

How The Olympic Winter Games Begin

In 1921, the International Olympic Committee gave its patronage to a Winter Sports Week to take place in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The success of the First Olympic Winter Games attracted more than 10 thousand paying spectators.

 

Which Country to look out for

Norway can go beyond the 39 medals they won in PyeongChang, when they topped the table. Although some late unwanted Covid news has potentially stripped them of some stars, expect them to bank 40 medals plus.

Germany and The Russian Olympic Team should be next in the medal table, according to prediction specialists Gracenote, with the USA and Canada battling for fourth and fifth.

Team GB won five medal in Sochi and PyeongChang and UK Sport are looking for up to seven medals this year to justify their multi-million pound funding. It could be an intriguing battle between Great Britain and Australia in the medal table too. But let’s not ignore the host, China, who have won 62 medals in Winter Games history, including 13 bronze.

The Winter Olympics, by contrast, are smaller and more exclusive with all 109 medal events being contained within 15 sports. Winter Olympic event is one of the scariest sporting events conceivable…except the three curling competitions., because of the he speeds the athletes can achieve, but unfortunately it doesn’t get the recognition that and applause that the summer sport holds.

 

The Demands of an Athlete

When asked which winter sports are the most physically demanding and hardest; Nordic Skiing  and Biathlon are always ranked number 1, followed Downhill skiing and Speed Skating. But my two standouts are Biathlon and Bobsledding.

The Biathlon born out what started out as military training, is made of two components cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. This sport is Gruelling, and not something you can easily pick up. To become good a good biathlete you need superior levels of endurance, excellent gross and fine motor skills, as well as mental strength.

Bobsledders opposite to the Biathlete is some respect need to be heavy, strong and seriously explosive. With the smallest two-person sled weighing over 200kg and the four-man a minimum of 230kg; you can see why strong and explosive plays its part. Working in a 2 or 4 man team you explode from a standstill to around 35-40m in less than five seconds before loading into the sled. Bobsleigh like its cousin skeleton, can hit up to 90 miles per hour over a mile-long track with 15 to 20 curves. Once inside the sled, you have to limit your movements that could influence the sled’s dynamics. Definitely an event to watch for dramatic crashes when the drive goes wrong turn.