The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are just around the corner with athletes from all around the world getting ready to compete for the first place medal. The winter Olympics are quite a bit smaller than the summer Olympics as there are less options for winter sports played as during the summer ones. There are also less countries and athletes competing as some countries do not have these sports or the winter climate or terrain to sustain this type of sport. This does not always prevent athletes from competing, however, as proven by the Jamaican bobsledding team years ago. They took fast runners and athletes from Jamaica and taught them how to bobsled using a wooden cart on wheels. Their initial particpation into the Olympics was a big crowd pleaser. This article mentions a few of the various sports at the Olympics Games performed by some athletes like the telluride ski instructor that teaches telluride ski lessons and will be participating in the giant Slalom event.

Ice hockey is one of the big fan spectator sports to witness at the Olympic games. One of the most famous gold medal final hockey games was the 1980 game of the USA versus Russia where the US came out on top. It had always male only event but now women’s ice hockey is also in the Olympics. Other types of skating sports that are popular is speed skating, ice dancing and figure skating. These popular competitions bring in large audiences.

The American team has always had top performers in these events as well with Apolo Anton Ohno competing in his third Olympic games this winter in speed short track skating. Figure skating greats in the past have been Dorothy Hamill, Scott Hamilton and Nancy Kerrigan who missed out on getting gold when her competitions boyfriend injured her in an attack the day before competition.

Some of the sports that people love to watch are the ones that they only get to witness on the Olympics like bobsledding, luge or curling. These less popular sports have their spotlight during the Olympic games where they can exhibit their abilities and talents in sports that are not normally played in every state or country. Bobsledding and luge are thrilling and fast races where a sled races down an icy tube to the finish. In order to attract athletes for these sports some coaches visit other states to seek out younger kids that could be a good fit for that sport. This happened in Colorado where the US luge team put on a demo and got some interested children involved. A couple of the athletes competed in the 2008 Olympic Games as a result of this exhibition. Curling is a sport that is mainly played in the norhtern midwest and is a slower more strategic sport much like bocce ball but on ice.

Downhill ski racing and cross country skiing are also popular sports in the winter games. The downhill skiers and snowboarders thrive on speed and an element of danger and the cross country skier have extreme stamina and endurance.