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2002 Winter Olympics. February 8, 2002. [John] Welcome to another Friday Feature of FactsCanada.ca. Friday was the start of the 2002 Winter Olympics, taking place in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. Having said that much, I'm naturally not going report daily results, nor am I going to go into too much detail about our competitors. What I do want to do, however, is let you know how Canada is represented at these games, who will take part, and the hometowns from which they hail. I will also briefly touch on a bit of what each event entails. Hopefully this information will serve as your guide as you follow the action in the news. I hope you enjoy. _______-------=======^^^Ô^^^=======-------_______ 2002 Winter Olympics By John MacDonald (john@factscanada.ca) These games consist of 15 sports in which both men and women compete, but not against each other. Alpine skiing also consists of five distinct events. We are represented in 13 of the 15 sports. They are:
Below is the list of the names and home towns of our representatives, broken down into each of the sports. Alpine Skiing This is considered by many to be the most glamorous sport of the Winter Olympics. Alpine skiing is a unique blend of daring, skill, finesse and speed. The downhill is a celebration of speed in which skiers exceed 130 kilometres per hour; the super-G (super giant slalom) combines the reckless speed of the downhill with the giant slalom's demand for precision. In addition to these three events (downhill, giant slalom and super-G), there are also combined and slalom events.
As the name suggests, this sport is two skills combined into one. Before this competition even starts, it's a challenge to find an athlete who is both a superb cross-country skier and marksman. This athlete must be able to calm his or her body, during a pause in a gruelling cross-country skiing race, to accurately aim and fire a rifle. Testimony to this challenge is the fact that only Canada, Norway, France, Sweden, Russia and Germany are fielding competitors in this sport, and only Canada and Norway have both female and male entrants. This sport has four separate events: The 20-kilometre individual (15 kilometres for the women), the pursuit, the relay and the ten-kilometre sprint (7.5 kilometres for the women).
This sport is akin to an auto race on ice. However, in this case the vehicle has no engine, is made of fibreglass and steel, and is fuelled only by the energy, skill and willpower of the riders, along with the natural force of gravity. The tiniest of errors can mean the difference between finishing first or last, when margins are measured in thousandths of a second.
This might not be the greatest spectator sport, as competitors whistle by any given spot in a matter of seconds, but the majority will be watching on television from the comfort of their homes. The four categories (pursuit, sprint, classical and freestyle) are quite exciting to witness.
As with ice hockey and figure skating, I feel most of our readers will be familiar with this sport, so I'll skip the brief description and merely list the competitors.
This sport is divided into two categories; the aerial and the mogul. While both cater to the daredevil spirit of the skier, the aerial is the lesser of the two chilling endeavours. After gaining speed on a downhill run, the individual launches him- or herself more than 15 metres into the air, twisting, flipping, or attempting any seemingly random, awe-inspiring feat the athlete wishes — as long as the landing on the snow is graceful and under control. The mogul is a hyped up version of the aerial, as the skier flies down a steep run which has been prepared with abrupt bumps so hazardous that it can cause a skier to falter near this opening sequence of the competition. At the bottom of this hill, the skier performs manoeuvres similar to the aerial with a freestyle jump and, hopefully, a clean landing. It doesn't end here, however, as the skier continues down another grade, jumps again, and prays that their skill allows a second safe and agile landing.
Luge This is basically a slide, down which you ride on your back feet first. The luge is divided into singles and doubles — the maximum weight of the luge in the singles event is 23 kilograms, and 27 kilograms in the doubles. Racing down the track at speeds approaching 145 kilometres per hour makes this a very exciting sport to watch.
"Short track" is the term for the speed-skating races on a smaller track. There are two types of short-track race; the individual and the relay. In the individual, both men and women compete in 500-metre, 1000-metre (one kilometre) and 1500-metre races. In the relay the distances are 3000 metres for women and 5000 metres for men. The short-track individual race is held with competitors drawing from a lot to determine their starting placement — as many as four to six racers can be up front on the starting line. Speeds of up to 50 kilometres per hour coupled with the close proximity of the skaters have earned this race the title of "roller derby on ice", as many falls occur in this race of skill and timing. In the relay there are usually four teams of four skaters each, and each skater must make at least one circuit of the track. There is no baton to hand off. Instead, when a skater is ready to come off of the track, he or she races to the next skater who is moving along in a crouched position. Once contact is made they trade places.
This one may sound a bit scary for those with necrophobia, but it's just a name for a new event at this year's Olympic Games. Actually, it's not really new — this event appeared twice before at the Winter Olympics, once in 1928 and again in 1948. Now, 54 years later, the race is on again. The skeleton is basically a luge race run backwards. The entrant starts out on a sled, but instead of riding on his or her back feet first, the rider goes down head first on his or her stomach. With speeds approaching 125 kilometres per hour, this can be a dangerous sport. It seems ironic that the surname of one of Canada's representatives is Pain.
Simply put, this is surfing on snow. This is the newest Winter Olympic event, and it has evolved from a gutsy pastime for youths to one of the fastest-growing winter sports in the world. Mass marketing advertisers have not missed the unique allure of the sport, using it as a backdrop while peddling everything from junk food to cars — and the youth of the world are gobbling it up.
The fastest speeds achievable by a human being under self-propulsion are reached during "long track". The two main categories of this event are the sprint and the all-round. The sprint distances are the same for men and women and are 500 metres and 1000 metres. The all-around has three different distances for both men and women: Men race 1500, 5000 and 10 000 metres, while women perform at 1000, 1500 and 3000 metres. The long-track races are skated in pairs with competitors being picked in a draw performed by a referee. Once the placements are made, each pair of racers will then attempt their best time at the distance skated. The skater who starts in the inner lane wears a white arm band while the outside skater sports a red arm band. Skaters race against the clock, and their times are then converted into points using a complex method of calculation known as the Sammelagt Point System. These points represent the skater's time in a race, adjusted to a 500-metre equivalent and three decimal places. For example, a time of 47.98 seconds in a 500-metre race converts to 47.980 Sammelagt points, while in a 1000-metre race finished in a time of 1 minute, 29.47 seconds converts to 44.735 Sammelagt points (89.47 seconds divided by 2). Finishing times for the 1500-metre race are divided by three, the 3000-metre race final times are divided by six, and so on. An athlete's final result is the sum of his or her Sammelagt points. The overall winner is the skater with the lowest total number of points.
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, Canada has no representatives in these sports. Well, that's the lineup and a few other details. I hope you enjoy the show. Go Canada! _______-------=======^^^Ô^^^=======-------_______ [Craig] Once again, things are changing here at FactsCanada.ca. We're still here, but John and I are going to be announcing some significant changes within the next week or so to reflect new realities. Please stay tuned. _______-------=======^^^Ô^^^=======-------_______ == LINKS AND RESOURCES == FactsCanada.ca — http://www.factscanada.ca Today's resources Did you enjoy the read? Why not subscribe or donate? NinerNet Communications |
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