The Vancouver Winter Olympic Games began on Friday 12th

February 2010 and ended on the 28th of February. 82 nations

competed in the games and the United States of America won

with 37 medals overall. The Great Britain team won only 1

medal which was won by Amy Williams who took part in the

Skeleton event.

Vancouver is a city on the western coast of Canada, bordering

the Pacific Ocean. It is named after the British Captain George

Vancouver after he explored the area in the 1790’s. It has an

approximate population of 578,000 people. It is the largest

metropolitan area in western Canada and is the 3rd largest city

in Canada after Toronto and Montreal. In Canada they mainly

speak French and English. It is also home to the Port Metro

Vancouver which is the busiest port in Canada and the 4th largest in North America. The

metropolitan area of the city also has an approximate area of 1,111.4 sq miles. The city is

commonly mistaken for being situated on Vancouver Island however the island is also

named after Captain George Vancouver. The average temperature of Vancouver in the

summer is 21.9 degrees Celsius and the average temperature in winter is 0.5 degrees.

Above, Vancouver City.

Why Vancouver, Not Johannesburg?

Only countries in the Northern Hemisphere have and will host the Winter Olympic Games.

There are a few reasons for this; firstly the countries that host the games have to have near

access to mountains and areas with snow in the winter because Skiers, Snowboarders,

Lugers etc. Have to have this terrain and conditions to take part in their events. Secondly,

the Southern Hemisphere may have mountains but even in the winter most countries in the

Southern Hemisphere will not have any snow at all so winter athletes would not be able to

take part in some events. Because of these issues countries in the Southern Hemisphere can

still participate but can’t host because they haven’t got the right terrain or climate.

Countries like Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Peru, Colombia and Kenya, all in the Southern

Hemisphere as well as countries with deserts like Morocco, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Lebanon,

India, Israel, Mexico, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan

all competed in the Winter Olympics this year.

Left, Johannesburg,

South Africa

Georgia’s loss

Unfortunately, the Georgian team sadly lost one of their team members the day of the

opening ceremony during practice. The Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, 21, was killed in a high-

speed crash in training at the Whistler Sliding Centre on Friday 12th February. The Georgian

team, despite their loss, decided to still compete in the games. They didn’t win any medals

but they should still be proud of

themselves because they fought

hard!

Left, Georgian winter Olympic

Team

The events of the Winter Olympic Games

15 different events take place in the Winter Olympic Games, these are: Alpine skiing,

Biathlon, Bobsleighing, Cross Country, Curling, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ice Hockey,

Luge, Nordic Combined, Short Track, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, Snowboard and Speed Skating.

This is an information section of the most of the different sports and how they are played.

Alpine Skiing

Alpine skiing has been practiced in the European Alps for at least 150 years. In addition to

adapting cross-country techniques to suit their steeper slopes, alpine skiers also found they

needed slightly wider skis to go downhill safely, and developed different ways to use their

poles and new turning techniques to match the more vertical terrain of the high mountains.

The sport became increasingly popular through the early 20th century with the

development of T-bars, tows and ski lifts, as alpine skiers no longer had to climb up a slope

before skiing down.

Alpine skiing for both men and women debuted as an Olympic sport in 1936 at Garmisch-

Partenkirchen. In 1948, separate downhill and slalom races were added. From that time,

super combined was not contested at an Olympic Winter Games until 1988, in Calgary. The

giant slalom was added in 1952, and the super-G in 1988.

How Alpine Ski Works?

In alpine skiing, racers can reach speeds up to 130kmph down a vertical drop that ranges

from 180 metres (which is slalom) or 1,100 metres (which is downhill) for men or 140

metres and 800 metres for women. The vertical drop is made even more difficult because of

a series of gates the skiers must pass through. Skiers who miss a gate must then climb back

up and go through the missed gate or be disqualified.

Medals Won this Year:

This year in alpine skiing gold

medals were won by:

Switzerland, U.S.A, Germany,

Norway, Austria and Italy.

Silver medals were won by:

Norway, U.S.A, Slovenia,

Croatia and Austria.

Bronze medals were won by:

Sweden, Switzerland, Czech

Republic, Norway, U.S.A and Austria.

Bobsleigh

The idea of racing sleds down a steep and twisting track dates back about 150 years, to the

mid-19th century, when British tourists began tobogganing on the snowbound roads of the

Alps.

The four-man bobsleigh was on the program of the first Olympic Winter Games in 1924, in

Chamonix, France. The two-man bobsleigh event joined the Olympic Games program in

1932. Women began competing in bobsleigh for the first time in 2002, at the Salt Lake City

Olympic Winter Games.

How Bobsleigh Works?

Today’s bobsleigh is built to be fast and aerodynamic, with a rounded fibreglass nose and

four highly polished steel runners. To start, the racers push off as fast as they can for

approximately 50 metres, then they jump into the bobsleigh for a seated descent down the

track. The driver steers down the track, while, at the end of the run, the brakeman stops the

sled.

There are three Olympic bobsleigh events: the men compete in two-and four-man bobsleigh

and women in a two-person format.

Medals Won This Year:

Gold Medals were won by: U.S.A, Canada and

Germany

Silver Medals were won by: Germany and

Canada

Bronze Medals were won by: Canada, U.S.A

and Russia

Curling

The game of curling is more than 500 years old. The earliest written record of curling — of

groups of people sliding stones on frozen ponds and lochs (an arm of the sea that is similar

to a fjord) in competition are found at Scotland’s Paisley Abbey and date back to 1541.

How Curling Works?

At the Olympic Winter Games, curling consists of two events: a women’s tournament and a

men’s tournament. Each tournament starts with 10 curling teams. Two teams play against

each other at a time. The game is played on ice, and the two teams take turns pushing 19.1-

kilogram stones towards a series of concentric rings or circles. The object is to get the stones

as close to the centre of the rings as possible.

One game consists of 10 ends (similar to innings in

baseball). During each end, each four person team

throws (in fact, slides along the ice) eight stones,

two stones per person and 16 altogether. Team

members sweep the ice clean in front of each stone

to control the stone’s direction, known as its curl

and the stone’s speed. The team with the most

points more stones closer to the centre of the rings

at the conclusion of 10 ends, is the winner.

Medals Won This Year:

Gold Medals were won by: Sweden and Canada

Silver medals were won by: Canada and Norway

Bronze medals were won by: China and Switzerland

Figure Skating

Figure skating was an Olympic sport before there was an Olympic Winter Games. Figure

skating first appeared at the London 1908 Olympic Summer Games with events for pairs and

singles. Ice dancing joined the Olympic Winter Games in 1976, when the Games were held

in Innsbruck, Austria. The compulsory figures competition was dropped from the figure

skating program prior to the Albertville 1992 Olympic Winter Games.

How Figure Skating works?

At the Olympic Games, each of figure skaters four disciplines are adjudicated by a separate

panel of 9 International Skating Union championship judges using a computer scoring

system to measure the quality of each performance. Before each event, there is a secret and

random draw to determine which judges’ scores will form the result of the segment. Only

seven of the 9 scores are used. A new draw is done for each segment.

During each performance the judges assign a grade of execution (GOE) to every element

that is executed. This makes up the technical score. At the conclusion of each performance,

the judges assign additional program component scores that measure the overall technical

and presentation abilities of the skater or team. The individual or team with the highest

totals of technical and program component scores is deemed the winner.

Medals won this year:

Gold medals were won by: China, U.S.A, Canada and

South Korea

Silver Medals were won by: Japan, U.S.A, Russia and

China

Bronze Medals were won by: Germany, Japan,

Russia and Canada

Ice Hockey

While men's ice hockey made its Olympic debut at the 1920 Summer Olympic Games in

Antwerp, it was moved to the Winter Games since the inaugural 1924 Winter Olympic

Games in Chamonix. Women’s ice hockey debuted at the Nagano 1998 Olympic Winter

Games.

How Ice Hockey works?

During the Olympic Winter Games, eight women’s teams and 12 men’s teams compete in

round-robin tournaments. Top seeded teams from round robin play advance to the playoff

rounds.

A team must not have more than six players on the ice while play is in progress. The object

is for one team to get the puck past the other team’s goaltender and into the net, similar to

soccer.

A regular game consists of three 20 minute periods, with a 15 minute intermission after the

first and second periods. If a tie occurs in a game in which a winner must be determined, a

sudden-victory overtime period is played. During the gold medal game, a 20 minute, sudden

victory period is played. In the event of a

tie after a sudden victory period, a game

winning shoot out determines the winner.

Medals Won this Year:

Gold medals were won by: Canada

Silver medals were won by: U.S.A

Bronze medals were won by: Finland

Luge

Luge races have grown considerably faster since then with refrigerated Luge tracks and

aerodynamic equipment, so that speeds now regularly reach 140 kilometres an hour or

more and G-forces reach over 5G.

Luge for men, women and doubles made its Olympic debut at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck.

How does Luge work?

In Luge racers begin by sitting on open fibreglass sleds. Pulling on fixed handles in the ice,

they burst out of the start. After this explosive start, they use spiked gloves on the ice

surface for extra acceleration before lying down on their backs, feet stretched out in front of

them, heads back to be as aerodynamic as possible. Luge racers steer using their legs and

shoulders, and brake by sitting up, putting their feet down and pulling up on the sled

runners.

The singles events consist of four heats over two days. The individual with the lowest

combined time over the four runs wins. Men and women compete on the same track, but

the women and doubles begin further down the course. The four-run format is unique to

the Olympic Winter Games and designed to

reward consistency, endurance and ability to

withstand pressure, particularly on the second

day.

Medals won this year:

Gold medals were won by: Germany and

Austria

Silver medals were won by: Germany, Austria

and Latvia

Bronze medals were won by: Italy and

Germany

Nordic Combined

Throughout Norway in the 1800s, skiers gathered each winter for a series of ski carnivals

consisting of small athletic

competitions combined with

some entertainment.

Considered the best of all the

carnival athletes, a small group

specialized in cross-country

skiing, demanding endurance

and strength, and ski jumping,

requiring physical strength and

technical control.

Men have competed in Nordic combined individual events since the first Olympic Winter

Games in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The team event was introduced at the Calgary 1988

Winter Games, while the sprint event joined the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games in

2002.

How Nordic Combined Works?

The jumping portion occurs first followed by a free technique cross-country race. The break

between the jumping and the cross-country race can be as little as 35 minutes, or as long as

a few hours.

Known as a “Gundersen” or pursuit start, the jumping results generate the starting seed for

the cross-country race that follows, with the second and remaining athletes beginning

seconds or even minutes after the best jumper. Using pack-racing strategies, the athletes

cluster into trains that chase down other athlete trains. The winner of the Nordic combined

event is the first athlete across the cross-country finish line.

Medals won this year:

Gold medals were won by: France, Austria and U.S.A

Silver medals were won by: U.S.A

Bronze Medals were won by: Italy, Austria and Germany

Skeleton

Like the other sliding sports of bobsleigh and Luge, the start is crucial in skeleton, where a

tenth of a second lead at the start can become three tenths of a second by the bottom of

the run. These athletes train much like sprinters to develop powerful legs they need to

explode onto the track. But speed is not the only factor: they must also find the best line

and steer smoothly through each turn to keep their speed high.

How Skeleton works?

Skeleton got its name from the sled used, originally metal, now fibreglass and metal , as it

resembles a human skeleton. To start, a skeleton slider grasps the handles on either side of

the sled, runs as fast as possible for approximately 50 metres, and then dives head first onto

the sled. Sliders lie on their

stomachs and steer by

shifting their bodies very

slightly.

There are two individual

skeleton events in the

Olympic Games: one for

men and one for women.

Both events consist of four

heats held over two days,

timed electronically to 0.01

seconds. The individual with

the lowest combined time

wins.

Medals won this Year:

Gold medals were won by: Great Britain and Canada

Silver medals were won by: Germany and Latvia

Bronze medals were won by: Russia and Germany

Ski Jumping

The desire to jump longer led to the radical new development in 1985 of V-style, where a ski

jumper holds his skis in a V-shaped position (instead of parallel) while in the air. Credited

with this new style was Swedish ski jumper Jan Boklöv. At the time, most ski jumpers

laughed at this innovation and Boklöv was penalized for his unorthodox style. Eventually

sport science caught up with Boklöv’s advancement and realized that V-style produced 28

per cent more lift.

How Ski Jumping Works?

An athlete skis down a long ramp, referred to as the in-run, and launches into the air at

speeds of up to 95 kilometres per hour. Technique is integral to ski jumping as athletes must

perform a very precise and well-timed takeoff. Once in the air, jumpers assume the V-style

and adjust their position to maximize lift and minimize drag. Competitors are evaluated on

distance and style and while there is a very close relationship between the two, the skier

with the longest jump will often have the highest style points. An exception to this can be

found in the landing portion of the jump as long jumps can make landing in a controlled

telemark position more difficult. The quality of landing can be a determining factor in

deciding the finishing place when the distances are similar.

The distance ski jumpers travel in competition is closely regulated by a jury. At the start of

the competitive round, the jury selects a start gate that allows the best athletes to fly close

to the maximum safe distance. All athletes start from the same gate and, as a result, less

proficient jumpers fly a shorter distance. Ski jumps are designed with many start benches

allowing the jury to select the appropriate start gate based on conditions such as wind,

temperature, humidity, snow type and other factors that can impact the distance a jumper

flies.

Medals won this year:

Gold medals were won by: Switzerland and

Austria

Silver Medals were won by: Poland and

Germany

Bronze medals were won by: Austria and

Norway

Athlete Fact file

Name: Amy Williams

D.O.B: 29th September 1982

Age: 27

Specialist Sport: Skeleton

Awards: Gold Medal in the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games 2010

Nationality: British

Name: Bergeron Patrice

D.O.B: 24th July 1985

Specialist Sport: Ice Hockey

Awards: Gold Medal for Canadian Ice Hockey team win in the

Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010

Nationality: Canadian

Did You Know?

Did you know that in the Winter Olympic Games this year Canada had 206 athletes

competing?

Did you know that Ottawa, the capital of Canada, isn’t the biggest city in the country?

Did you know that Vancouver is the 3rd most densely populated city in North America?

Did you know that Vancouver is 8 hours behind our time?

Did you know that the highest temperature ever recorded in Vancouver is 34.4 degrees

Celsius?

Competition! Prizes will be won!

What is the biggest city in Canada?

If you think you know the answer, write it on a piece of paper and

post it in the DKC box outside of the library.

The Paralympics

The Paralympics begin on the 12th of March 2010. The Paralympics are a multi sport event

for athletes for physical and visual disabilities. They occur every four years following the

Olympic Games and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee. The

Paralympic Games are sometimes confused with the Special Olympic World Games which

are only for people with intellectual disabilities. They are designed to emphasize the

participants' athletic achievements, not their disability.

So far the Paralympic Games have been held in: Italy, Japan, Israel, Germany, Canada,

Netherlands, U.K, U.S.A South Korea Spain Australia Greece and China and will start in

Vancouver on the 12th March and be followed by the London games in 2012.

By Carl Burch