Tip 1: Winter Olympic sports: Alpine skiing
Tip 1: Winter Olympic sports: Alpine skiing
Skiing includes five disciplines. It is a slalom, a giant slalom, a supergiant, a speed descent and an alpine double event. In special equipment, athletes overcome the descents.
Skiing is a descent into theskiing with snow-covered slopes. The winner of the competition is determined by the time spent on overcoming the route, the length and complexity of which depend on the specific type of sport discipline. With slalom, its length reaches 500 m. The athlete must not miss any of the gates located on the descent. For men and women, the standard for their number is 60-75 and 50-55, respectively. Each participant has two attempts. The amount of time spent on both descents is determined by the winner. The length of the route for giant slalom reaches 2.5 km. In addition, the difference in altitude varies from 250 to 450 m. In this competition, women have only one attempt. The supergiant match is held on the track with elevations from 250 to 450 m in men and from 250 to 400 m in women. The rapid descent is carried out on the highway, the length of 2 to 4 km. The number of control gates here is small - 11-25, and the difference in altitude is 500 - 1000 m. Athletes develop speeds of up to 100 km / h or more. The double-event includes slalom and downhill. The sports equipment consists of skis and ski poles. Depending on the type of descent, the equipment can be of various shapes, length and width and made of different materials. Thanks to this, skis and sticks can withstand loads during the race. Slalom athletes have strong plastic boots, the special sole of which allows them to exert additional pressure on the ski surface, waterproof suits and safety glasses. Clothing is made from high-tech fabrics designed to minimize air resistance. Ski glasses protect the eyes of athletes from the sun, wind and snow. Sometimes, instead of glasses, a mask can be used, which performs the same functions. Also in the equipment includes a helmet, which protects the head from injury.
Tip 2: Winter Olympic sports: skeleton
In the programs of the Winter Olympic Games there areSeveral kinds of sports, representing different options for downhill skiing from the mountains. For some of them there is enough snow cover and relatively simple equipment of the sportsman (for example, skiing), others require ice tracks and special sporting equipment. Skeleton refers to the second kind of sports on downhill.
Most of all, this sport is similar to the sledge -the brave racer uses a projectile on two steel skids for descent from the mountain along the ice chute. As in sledge sport, this is a contest for a while - the winner is the one who can go through the whole route in the shortest possible time. To do this, the athlete must control his projectile, choosing the most optimal trajectory of the passage of turns and trying as little as possible to touch the ice trough, so as not to brake the projectile even for hundredths of a second. Unlike the sleigh, the skeleton shell is a flat plastic shield on which the athlete lays a chest, changing its direction either by a deflection of the body, or by touching the icy track with special lining on the shoes. This is quite a traumatic sport, since the driver on the fastest tracks accelerates to a speed of 130 kilometers per hour. The first official competition in this sport began to be held in the Swiss St. Moritz in the late 19th century. There was built a route of necessary parameters and the first skeleton was designed. And when this city got the right to hold the II Winter Olympic Games, the skeleton was included in the program of the competitions. The first Olympic champion in 1928 was the American Jennison Heaton, and his younger brother John received a silver award. The next time this sport appeared in the program of the Olympics in 1948 at the V Winter Olympics, which was also held in St. Moritz. Then there was a break, which lasted 54 years. For the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, the track in St. Moritz has not been the only one for a long time, and regular world championships have been held for 20 years. Since the XIX Winter Games, this sport was presented at all Winter Olympics. Russian Olympians have so far won only one medal in the skeleton - Alexander Tretyakov finished third in the last games in Vancouver.
Tip 3: How many sports in the Winter Olympic Games
Winter Olympic Games do not have such an oldhistory, like summer. Strange as it sounds, but for the first time competitions in one of the winter sports (namely, figure skating) were included in the program of the Summer Olympics in London in 1908. For the first time the Winter Olympic Games took place only in 1924 in the French city of Chamonix.
For today 7 kinds of sports in the programWinter Olympics are considered the main ones. This is skiing, speed skating, biathlon, luge, bobsled, hockey and curling. Skiing, speed skating and bobsleigh are divided into different disciplines, some of them also gained the status of independent sports. In addition, all sports and disciplines, apart from hockey and curling, are divided into different types of competitions.
Skiing and biathlon
Skiing is divided into high-speeddescent, supergiant, slalom, giant slalom. Combined competitions are also held. In the Olympic program, competitions in alpine skiing have been included since 1936. In addition to various competitions in skiing and ski jumping, the program of winter Olympics includes skiing, which includes both kinds. Another of the varieties of skiing is freestyle. It involves performing various acrobatic stunts on skis. Snowboarding, albeit formally considered to be a mountain skiing, but, in fact, it is completely independent, since it assumes a high-speed descent not on skis, but on a special wide board, which is called snowboarding. In the Olympic program, it entered not so long ago - since 1998. Biathlon combines shooting and cross-country skiing. In the program of the Olympics came in 1960.Bobsleigh and luge
If the bobsled has become an Olympic sport withthe first winter Olympics in Chamonix, then his luge sport entered the Olympic program only in 1964. The fate of one of the varieties of toboggans - skeleton - was formed in a peculiar way. For the first time the Olympic awards were played in it in 1928, then in 1948 (both Olympiads took place in the Swiss St. Moritz, and only there was at that time a track for the skeleton). Only since 2002 the skeleton finally entered the Olympic program.Ice Sports
Despite the fact that figure skating is sometimesis considered as a kind of speed skating, in fact, these are two completely different species. Besides, figure skating starts the history of the winter Olympic sports. Since 1992, speed skating has been joined in the Olympic program by the short track. And, finally, two team sports in the Winter Olympics program - ice hockey and curling. The number of sports in the program of the Winter Olympic Games is not changing as actively as in the Summer Olympics. Basically, not new kinds of sports are added, but only their varieties.Tip 4: Which winter sports are Olympic
For a long time, the Winter and Summer Olympicswere conducted in the same year with a difference of several months. Since 1994, according to the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the winter kinds of Olympiads began to be implemented with a shift of two years compared to summer ones. Currently, the program has 7 sports.
For obvious reasons, in ancient Greeceno winter competition was held. Therefore, when Baron de Coubertin and his companions revived the Olympic Games, at first it was only a matter of some summer sports. But the huge popularity of the Olympics pushed the members of the IOC to the idea that it would be good to give an opportunity to compete and athletes "winter sports". First such competitions were the so-called "Northern Games", held in Sweden from 1901 to 1926. And in 1924 in the city of Chamonix (France) was held "International Sports Week on the occasion of the VII Olympiad". This event was a great success, and it began to be called the "First Winter Olympics." Over the past decades, the program of the Winter Olympics has changed significantly. Some sports, once very popular, were excluded from it or modified. For example, the famous biathlon had its predecessor, called "Military Patrol". Men armed with a 7.62 mm caliber carbine, had to run a distance on skis, incidentally striking the target. In 1960, this weapon was replaced by a much lighter and more convenient small-caliber sports rifle, so women were able to engage in biathlon as well, since the impact of the shots became much smaller. Winter sports are clearly divided into two groups: related to the movement of athletes in the snow, and associated with the movement of athletes on the ice. The first group includes: skiing, cross-country skiing, cross-country skiing, jumping, freestyle, snowboarding and the already mentioned biathlon. The second group includes: speed skating, short track, figure skating, tobogganing, bobsled, skeleton, ice hockey and curling. Despite the great popularity in many countries of hockey with the ball ("Russian hockey", or "bandy"), this sport is not yet included in the program of the Olympics. There is a chance that it will become an Olympic one from 2018 onwards.
Tip 5: Where did the 1992 Winter Olympics take place?
At the 91st session of the International Olympic CommitteeThe Committee in 1984, France nominated its two cities at once for the Winter and Summer Olympics. "The Winter variant" was more fortunate - in a dispute with five other European and one American cities, the small town of Albertville was defeated. It is located in the south-east of the country, near the borders with Italy and Switzerland.
Albertville is a small town with a populationless than 20 thousand people, located on the banks of the river Arly in the French Alps. The height difference in the city and the adjacent ski resorts is almost 1700 meters, and the developed infrastructure of Central Europe creates ideal conditions for organizing competitions in winter sports. Especially for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as several starts for skaters in the city, a temporary stadium for 35 thousand spectators. On it competitions of skaters for the last time in the history of olympiads were held outdoors. Part of the stadium's designs was delivered from Barcelona, where it was used in the summer Olympics of the same year. Immediately after the closing ceremony, it was dismantled and later used as a traveling circus. The remaining competitions were held not in Albertville itself, but in nine villages and resort areas near it. Jumping from the springboard and Nordic biathlon were held in Courchevel, skiers competed in Les Arcs, and skiers in Val d'Isere, Les Menuires and Meribel, while in Meribel the matches of the Olympic hockey tournament were held. Competitions in biathlon and cross-country skiing took place in Le Sesi, freestyle in Tignes, and curling in Pralognan-la-Vanoise.The track for bobsled and sledge sport was prepared in La Plana. In the XVI Winter Olympic Games competitions were included in 57 disciplines of 7 sports. 1800 Olympians from 64 countries competed Ira, most of which were prepared by the team of Germany, most recently bringing together East and West Germany athletes. The Germans won 26 awards, 3 medals ahead of the representatives of the joint team of six former Soviet republics.
