The Strangest Games of the Winter Olympics
The Olympic Games are lauded as the pinnacle of athletics, a place where the world’s best can compete for themselves and for their countries. Just competing in the Olympics, let alone winning a medal, is a symbol of supreme skill and rigorous training. Some events in the Games, however, are a bit on the strange side.
Some Olympic sports challenge the definition of a sport. Curling, which is a popular sport in Canada and other frigid regions, is commonly televised and always receives some buzz during the Winter Olympics. In curling, weights are slid down a sheet of ice towards a target painted onto the surface, called the house. At the end of each round of throws, teams get points for how many of their weights are inside the house and closer to the center than the opponent’s closest. Described as “chess on ice” (but perhaps closer to “shuffleboard on ice”), it is a game of technique and strategy, but its competitors do not need to be what is generally considered “athletic”. It may be the only event in which a middle-aged man or woman with mediocre levels of fitness can be a dominant force.
Other events are questionable in their status as a sport, though not for lack of athleticism. It is a similar debate to the ones that perpetually surround the likes of NASCAR. Take figure skating, for example. An event that requires prime fitness, intense training, and extreme skill. It draws large crowds and television audiences during the Games. Does it really belong in the Olympics? This question is an enduring one, and while the event has cemented its place in the competitions, some malcontents are rehashing the old argument as the sport sees an expanded array of events in this year’s Olympics at Sochi. Figure skating will not be going anywhere anytime soon as far as the Olympics are concerned, but if there is even an ounce of doubt in its status as a sport, there are several pounds of doubt for ski ballet. Ski ballet, as its name would suggest, consists of one skiing down a gentle incline while performing a complex dance routine. This actual event appeared in the Winter Olympics in 1988 and 1992, but has not made an appearance since. Sport? Unlikely. Entertaining? Quite possibly. Strange? Definitely.
Still more Olympic sports are odd in their obscurity. Biathlon, a staple of the Winter Games, is a combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. Competitors must ski around a track several times, each time stopping at a shooting range to take aim at a handful of targets. Any missed targets result in a time penalty. This sport is made surprisingly exciting by the potential for sudden massive swings, as a few missed shots can take someone from first place to out of the top ten in the blink of an eye. It is still, however, a strange juxtaposition of two activities that have no apparent connection. Perhaps it could be useful for James Bond if he was tasked to assassinate a target who lived high in the Alps. An even stranger once-Olympic sport is skijoring. Skijoring is a race where the athletes, on skis, get dragged behind dogs or horses. It is similar to water skiing, but with a horse instead of a boat and snow instead of water. Skijoring appeared in the 1928 Winter Olympics, but it has not returned. To this day, skijoring competitions are popular in snowy regions such as Canada, Scandinavia, and Switzerland.
It is important for an Olympic sport to be safe, with minimal risk of severe injury or death to the athletes. Some events, though, are shockingly dangerous. Luge, a sport with several Olympic events, is an exciting race down a track of ice. Competitors speed down and around the track at speeds edging past 90 miles per hour while lying on a small sled. The high speeds and sharp turns make not only for excitement and entertainment, but for danger. Just four years ago, at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, a Georgian luger was killed when he crashed in his final practice run. He became the fourth athlete and second luger to be killed while preparing for the Winter Olympics. One of the other four was a French man who competed in the sport of speed skiing. In this simple sport, skiers fly straight down a steep hill towards the finish line—the fastest time wins. Speeds often reach in excess of 120 miles per hour. Speed skiing appeared in the 1992 Winter Olympics, but the death of Nicolas Bachatay, the French competitor, condemned it to be a one-hit wonder.
The Winter Olympics has seen its share of strange sports, and it continues to do so. Sports requiring little to no athleticism, sports that are not sports, sports that are just weird, and sports that are deadly: the Olympics has them all. Some may argue, however, that it is sports like these that make the Olympic Games so exciting and fun. Competitors in these sports live for the Olympics, for the opportunity that they get once every four years to bring fame and pride to themselves and to their country. Perhaps skijoring and ski ballet should make a return in 2018.
