Freestyle skiing, a sport associated with extreme agility, balance and poise, is definitely one of the more popular events at the Winter Olympics. Athletes tend to wow their spectators with their amazing leaps of various slopes and almost death-defying stunts.
As with all Winter Olympic sports, one would think that only countries in the cold environments such as Canada, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Russia and Norway, to name a few, would dominate the sport.
This is exactly the case; however, it is the U.S. that outranks everyone in this discipline. The following is a list of countries that have won gold medals in the past: France, Canada, the U.S., Finland Uzbekistan, Australia, Czech Republic,Switzerland, Belarus, China and Norway.
Despite the U.S. leading the way with gold medals, there is a wide range of countries that have won medals. Even Australia, a country somewhat alien to frosty weather was able to win. Therefore, the gold medals for freestyle skiing this year are definitely up for grabs.
It is widely accepted that this is a sport related more to the Winter X Games than the Winter Olympics, with most followers in the U.S. However, it is still a sport in the Winter Olympics with great competitors. There are different forms of snowboarding. There is the halfpipe, which involves gathering momentum on the slope and using that speed to perform thrilling aerial tricks on the obstacle course. There is also the parallel slalom, which is a bit more competitive. With the halfpipe, athletes compete against each other indirectly to see who has the best time. But with the parallel slalom, athletes compete directly against each other to see who can get to the finish line through the obstacle course first. It is more complex than it seems. The obstacles may hamper overall performance such as different levels of snow (valleys, troughs) and the amount of turns that need to be made. Unlike the freestyle skiing, the U.S. stands out as being a favorite. It isn’t a surprise since snowboarding is relatively prominent in the U.S.
There is even a competition for it, namely the Winter X Games. The athletes who will be performing for the U.S. include Jamie Anderson for the women and Nick Baumgartner for the men. They will be aiming to continue the gold medal trend for the old red, white and blue.
The bobsleigh event is one of the relatively few team sports in the Winter Olympics. It involves multiple people going into a sleigh to race other countries down a mountain. One can say that this is similar to a relay in the Summer Olympics. It is usually the most exciting event in the whole Olympics.
Arguably, the same could be said of the bobsleigh. Oddly enough, there is no such thing as a tie breaker or a sudden death. Countries who finish the race at the same time are both awarded the medal which, in a way, is an unexpected and slightly anti- climactic compromise.
In the four-man race, Germany leads the way in this event with the most gold medals of eight, followed by Switzerland. The U.S. is third with four gold medals.
However, the U.S. won the event in the last Winter Olympics so they will be hoping to add to their success this time around. Germany also dominates the two man race with seven gold medals, with the U.S. down to fourth in the category with only two. Germany is al- so the current champion, having won it in the last Olympics.
Richard Duh can be reached at richard.duh@spartans.ut.edu.