Comment
Share
Posted on Wednesday March 24th at 10:25 a.m.
Tweet
This is why Border and Skier Cross are in and the likes of Ski Half Pipe and, Ski and Board Slopestyle events are out... at this stage.
If you have watched a halfpipe event, or a slopestyle comp you might notice that many of the skiers are actually carrying more speed and getting more amplitude than the snow boarders, especially in the harder pipes.
It seems logical to me that these ticket, network broadcast sale and spectator friendly competitions would be first in line with the IOC. Only time will tell, role on Sochi 2014.
What were they thinking?
After reading up on the Olympics I find it interesting to note that in 393 AD it was actually Christianity that outlawed the games seeing them as a pagan festival in discord with Christian ethics. Athletes in the ancient games competed naked, so I guess that rules out any winter activities.
Another interesting point is some of the sports competed in over the years. Pigeon Shooting, yes with live pigeons, at least they were before the comp. The goal was to shoot and kill as many live pigeons as possible and if a shooter missed two pigeons they were out of the competition. What about Tug of War held for 20 years, or the 200 meter Obstacle Race Swimming, Plunge for distance - Swimming/Diving, the Underwater Race, or solo synchronized swimming!
The official Winter Olympic Games started after the Summer Olympics had been held for many years. Part of this was due to the fact that future winter sports like figure skating and hockey were held for a time as part of the Summer Olympic Games.
In 1932 Sled Dog Racing was an Olympic sport. Did the dogs get the medals? I mean they did all of the work. Can you imagine the scene at the podium? Fighting and humping aside, how big was the podium? And what race format did it take? Probably the closest thing to Chariot Racing in the modern Olympics, was it a mass start, were the mushers armed. Are we talking Iditarod or Ben Hur?
Not taking anything away from the athletes but it still intrigues me that they have visually impaired biathlon in the Paralympics. "and Vladov Surenski from the Ukraine just took out one of the judges!!" Come on IOC let's combine some of these events... For 2014, the Visually Impared Biathlon Turkey Shoot... with real turkeys. ROTFLOL.
The Current Winter Sports are;
Ice Sports
* Bobsled
* Luge
* Skeleton
* Ice Hockey
* Figure Skating (including Ice Dancing)
* Speed Skating
* Short Track Speed Skating
* Curling
Alpine, Skiing and Snowboarding Events
* Alpine Skiing
* Freestyle Skiing (Aerials, Moguls and Ski Cross)
* Snowboarding (Parallel Giant Slalom, Halfpipe and Snowboard Cross)
Nordic Events
* Biathlon (cross-country skiing and target shooting)
* Cross-Country Skiing
* Ski Jumping
* Nordic Combined (ski jumping and cross country skiing)
Discontinued sports and Events
Here are just some of the sports or events that were once part of the Winter Olympics.
* Military patrol (a precursor to the biathlon) was a medal sport in 1924. It was also a demonstration sport in 1928, 1936 and 1948.
* In figure skating, an event called Men's special figures was on the program only once in 1908.
Demonstration sports
The following sports have been part of the Winter Olympic program as a demonstration sport at some stage.
* Bandy (like ice hockey with a ball), 1952.
* Ice stock sport (a German variant to curling), 1936 & 1964.
* Skijöring (skiing behind horses), 1928.
* Sled-dog racing, 1932.
* Short track speed skating started as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, before becoming a full sport from 1992 onwards.
* Snowshoeing, 2002.
* Speed skiing, 1992.
* Synchronized skating (2002)
* Winter pentathlon (a variant to the modern pentathlon), 1948.
Other Winter Sports Trivia
* There are four Winter Olympic Games Sports that are held indoors: Speed skating, figure skating, curling, and ice hockey.
* Two sports have mixed events (males and females together): figure staking and luge. Two sports are for males only: Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping. More about women at the Winter Olympics.
* Cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating have been competed at every Winter Olympics since 1924.
Locations of the Winter Olympics:
1924 - Chamonix, France
1928 - St. Moritz, Switzerland
1932 - Lake Placid, New York, USA
1936 - Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
1940 - Canceled
1944 - Canceled
1948 - St. Moritz, Switzerland
1952 - Oslo, Norway
1956 - Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
1960 - Squaw Valley, California, USA
1964 - Innsbruck, Austria
1968 - Grenoble, France
1972 - Sapporo, Japan
1976 - Innsbruck, Austria
1980 - Lake Placid, New York, USA
1984 - Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
1988 - Calgary, Alberta, Canada
1992 - Albertville, France
1994 - Lillehammer, Norway
1998 - Nagano, Japan
2002 - Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
2006 - Turin, Italy
2010 - Vancouver, Canada
2014 - Sochi, Russia
CLICK THE MAP FOR A BIGGER VERSION
* Green = Countries that have hosted one winter olympics
* Blue = Countries that have hosted two or more winter olympics
* Black dots = cities that have hosted one winter olympics
* Orange dots = cities that have hosted two winter olympics (Lake Placid, USA; St. Moritz, Switzerland and Innsbruck, Austria)
Note that because Sarajevo was part of Yugoslavia when the winter olympics was held in 1984, all of Yugoslavia has been colored in here. (Sarajevo is part of Bosnia-Herzegovnia today)
So now we look forward to Sochi 2014.
Seem like a long way away? Well, Athletes are training and the Russians are building right now. It will be here before you know it.
President Vladimir Putin's 2014 Winter Olympic Speech
2014 Plans & Prospects
Credits: Wikipedia, Top End Sports.