sochi 2014 what are the sports...lot of research

There is too much information in this and I hope you can cut it a little but I have done a little bit of research using the internet to get you non Winter Olympic sports fans interested in it. The majority has been done on Wikipedia but I have used other web sites. I have gathered a lot of information as there is a lot of sports in the winter Olympics sports that people will not know about….If you want to take a read at what I have gathered you may be surprised at some of the sports. Some of them are very different, for example, the biathlon so has a look and see if any of these catch your eye. I have put the date of when each event is happening…hope this information is helpful to somebody.

The winter Olympics starts on Thursday so I will blog on the things that I find interesting.   

 

Thursday 6 February

Figure skating: Team men's and pairs short program

Figure skating is a sport and activity in which individuals, duos, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport included in the Olympics, in 1908. The four Olympic disciplines are men’s singles, ladies singles, pares skating, and ice dancing. Non-Olympic disciplines includes synchronized skating and four skating. In senior-level competition, skaters generally perform two programs (short and long) which, depending on the discipline, may include spins, jumps, moves in the field, lifts, throw jumps, death spirals, and other elements or moves.

The blade has a groove on the bottom creating two distinct edges—inside and outside. In figure skating, the skater should skate on one edge of the blade and not on both at the same time, which is referred to as a flat edge. Skates used in single and pair skating have a set of large, jagged teeth called toe picks on the front of the blade. Ice dancing blades are an inch shorter in the rear and have smaller toe picks.

Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level (senior) at local, national, and international competitions. The International Skating Union (ISU) regulates international figure skating judging and competitions. These include the Winter Olympic Games, the World Championships, the World Junior Championships, the European Championships, the Four Continents Championships, and the Grand Prix series (senior and junior).

 

Freestyle skiing: Women's moguls

 

Freestyle skiing is a form of skiing which originally encompassed three disciplines: aerials, moguls, and ski ballet. Today, freestyle skiing consists of aerial, moguls, skicross, boardercross, Ski half-pipe, Snowboard half-pipe and Slopestyle and have become part of the Olympics.

Freestyle skiing first began to be contested seriously in the 1960s and early 1970s, when it was often known as "hot-dogging." Bob Burns, who later went on to create The Ski brand skis, pioneered this style in Sun Valley, Idaho, beginning in 1965.

In the late 1960s other followers of the style included Wayne Wong, Flying Eddie Ferguson, Chico and Cokie Schuler and their mentor Chris Flanagan also, Roger Evans, John Clendenin, Hermann Goellner and Tom Leroy. Some people thought that this style of skiing was too dangerous and did not want it to be an Olympic sport. The free-form sport had few rules and was not without danger; knee injuries became a common phenomenon for professional freestylers.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) recognized freestyle as a sport in 1979 and brought in new regulations regarding certification of athletes and jump techniques in an effort to curb the dangerous elements of the competitions. The first World Cup series was staged in 1980 and the first World Championships took place in 1986 in Tignes, France. Freestyle skiing was a demonstration event at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. Mogul skiing was added as an official medal event at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, and the aerials event was added for the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer.

A pioneering group of skiers in the early 1990s started taking skiing to the snowboard parks. They became known as the "New Canadian Airforce" and helped not only to develop aerial and rail based tricks, but also approached companies with ski designs featuring a twin tip system. The twin tip works much like a snowboard in allowing the user to ski normally or ski backwards (switch).

Currently there are two main branches of freestyle skiing: one encompassing the more traditional events of moguls and aerials, and a newer branch often called new school, comprising events such as halfpipe, big air, slopestyle, and big mountain or free-skiing. Freeskiing shares characteristics with street skateboarding, BMX, and inline skating. New school skiing has grown so much that new ski companies were created, companies that strictly make twin-tip skis — skis that are designed for taking off and landing "fakie", or "switch" (backwards) on jumps and rails.

 

Snowboarding: Men's and women's slopestyle

Slopestyle is a winter sporting event where the goal is to perform the most difficult tricks while getting the highest amplitude off jumps, with an emphasis on performing different types of tricks instead of doing one great trick repeatedly. It originated as a snowboarding competition format, but there are now many sports that are considered to have this style of competition, of which skiing and snowboarding are two of the most common.

Friday 7 February

Opening ceremony #

Fireworks are shot over the Bolshoy Ice Dome at the conclusion of a rehearsal for the opening ceremony at the 2014 Winter Olympics, Feb. 1, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/David Goldman

The sky over Sochi lit up with a flurry of fireworks on Saturday as organizers practiced the opening ceremony they will present the world at the Winter Olympics.

The Fisht Olympic Stadium, which is at the centre of the 2014 Games and will welcome athletes from around the world, has a lit up roof which can change colours and draw patterns.

Loud music and light displays could be heard and seen through the roof of the stadium as part of the rehearsals which lasted a little over two hours and ended in a crescendo of fireworks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spent more than $50 billion (US dollars)  at the Olympic Games, a prestige project set to open with great fanfare on February 7.

Putin is expected to revel at the Games opening in the unlikely feat of turning an ageing sub-tropical resort on the Black Sea into a glittering modern hub for a Winter Games in seven years

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday 8 February

Biathlon: Men's 10km sprint

Biathlon is any sporting event made up of two disciplines. However, biathlon usually refers specifically to the winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. Other popular variants include summer biathlon, which combines cross-country running with rifle, and biathle (also known as "modern biathlon"), which combines running with swimming.

Cross country skiing: Women's skiathlon

Skiathlon

 

At its meeting in Ljubljana on 6th June, the FIS Council confirmed 'skiathlon' to be the new official name of the Cross-Country race format pursuit in which both the classical and free technique are used with equipment change at mid-distance. This was done in order to distinguish the competition from the handicap races which are a type of a pursuit as well.

Skiathlon was introduced in 2003 and is an event on the program of the Olympic Winter Games and the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. The first half of the race - total length for ladies 15km and 30km for men - is competed in classical technique while the latter half is raced in the free technique. The ski equipment change takes place in special changing boxes at the stadium.

 

Figure skating: Team Ice Dance short dance, women's short programme, pairs free programme

 The short dance (SD) is a segment of an ice dancing competition. It was approved by the June 2010 International Skating Union congress and instituted beginning in the 2010–2011 figure skating season. It merges the original dance (OD) and compulsory dance (CD), which were both discontinued.

Overview[edit]

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir perform a short dance at the 2011 Four Continents Championships

The short dance merges the set pattern of a compulsory dance (renamed at the same time of this ruling to the pattern dance), and the previous rules of the original dance, i.e. requiring a set rhythm but allowing choreographic freedom within the constraints of required elements. In addition to skating two patterns, dancers also must include a step sequence, a set of twizzles, and a lift. Competitors are allowed to choose their own music, so long as it fits the required rhythm/theme.

With this change, ice dancing was shortened to two segments per competition: the short dance and the free dance. This mirrored the short program and free skating segments of single skating and pair skating.

Limited spectator interest in compulsory dances resulted in pressure from the International Olympic Committee to eliminate the compulsories so that the ice dancing competition would consist of two segments, like the other three skating disciplines.^[1] However, many in the ice dancing community were opposed to completely eliminating them, seeing them as an essential technical basis and point of comparison, so the short dance was created as a compromise^.

The first short dance in international competition was skated by American junior ice dancers Anastasia Cannuscio and Colin McManus, at the 2010 Junior Grand Prix Courchevel.

As of January 2014, Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White have received the highest score for a short dance, earning 80.69 at US National Championships 2014.

 

Freestyle skiing: Women's moguls

Freestyle skiing is a form of skiing which originally encompassed three disciplines: aerials, moguls, and ski ballet. Today, freestyle skiing consists of aerial, moguls, skicross, boardercross, Ski half-pipe, Snowboard half-pipe and Slopestyle and have become part of the Olympics.

Freestyle skiing first began to be contested seriously in the 1960s and early 1970s, when it was often known as "hot-dogging." Bob Burns, who later went on to create The Ski brand skis, pioneered this style in Sun Valley, Idaho, beginning in 1965.

In the late 1960s other followers of the style included Wayne Wong, Flying Eddie Ferguson, Chico and Cokie Schuler and their mentor Chris Flanagan also, Roger Evans, John Clendenin, Hermann Goellner and Tom Leroy. Some people thought that this style of skiing was too dangerous and did not want it to be an Olympic sport. The free-form sport had few rules and was not without danger; knee injuries became a common phenomenon for professional freestylers.

 

Ice hockey: Women's preliminaries

Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice in which skaters use sticks to shoot a hard rubber hockey puck into their opponent's net to score points. In some countries, such as Canada and the United States, it is known as "hockey"; the name "ice hockey" is used in countries where "hockey" generally refers to field hockey.

A team usually consists of four lines of three forwards, three pairs of defensemen, and two goalies. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team. Each team has a goaltender who tries to stop the puck from going into the goal.

A fast-paced physical sport, hockey is most popular in areas of North America (particularly Canada and northern parts of the United States) and Europe. In North America, the National Hockey League (NHL) is the highest level for men's hockey and the most popular. Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of Canada,where the game enjoys immense popularity. The first organized game was played on March 3, 1875, in Montreal.

162 of 177 medals at the IIHF World Championships have been taken by seven nations: Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden and the United States. Of the 66 medals awarded in men's competition at the Olympics from 1920, only six medals did not go to one of those countries. All 12 Olympic and 36 IIHF World Women's Championships medals have gone to one of these seven countries, and every gold medal in both competitions has been won by either Canada or the United States.

 

Ice hockey is a team sport played on ice in which skaters use sticks to shoot a hard rubber hockey puck into their opponent's net to score points. In some countries, such as Canada and the United States, it is known as "hockey"; the name "ice hockey" is used in countries where "hockey" generally refers to field hockey.

A team usually consists of four lines of three forwards, three pairs of defensemen, and two goalies. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team. Each team has a goaltender who tries to stop the puck from going into the goal.

A fast-paced physical sport, hockey is most popular in areas of North America (particularly Canada and northern parts of the United States) and Europe. In North America, the National Hockey League (NHL) is the highest level for men's hockey and the most popular. Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of Canada,^[1] where the game enjoys immense popularity. The first organized game was played on March 3, 1875, in Montreal.

162 of 177 medals at the IIHF World Championships have been taken by seven nations: Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden and the United States. Of the 66 medals awarded in men's competition at the Olympics from 1920, only six medals did not go to one of those countries. All 12 Olympic and 36 IIHF World Women's Championships medals have gone to one of these seven countries, and every gold medal in both competitions has been won by either Canada or the United States.

 

Luge: Men's competition

A Luge  is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine (face up) and feet-first. Steering is done by flexing the sled's runners with the calf of each leg or exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Racing sleds weigh 21-25 kilograms (46-55 lbs.) for singles and 25-30 kilograms (55-66 lbs.) for doubles.^[1] Luge is also the name of an Olympic sport. Of the three Olympic sliding sports, which include bobsleigh and skeleton, luge is the fastest and most dangerous. Lugers can reach speeds of 140 km per hour (87 mph). Manuel Pfister of Austria, reached a top speed of 154 km per hour (95.69 mph) on the track in Whistler, Canada prior to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.

Street luge is a recent innovation of the sport. It is considered an extreme sport, as well as an Olympic sport.

Lugers compete against a timer and are timed to a thousandth of a second, making luge one of the most precisely timed sports in the world. The first recorded use of the term "luge" is 1905, from the Savoy/Swiss dialect of French "luge" meaning "small coasting sled", and is possibly from a Gaulish word with the same root as English sled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ski jumping: Men's individual NH qualification

 Ski jumping is a sport in which skiers go down a take-off ramp, jump and attempt to land as far as possible down the hill below. In addition to the length of the jump, judges give points for style. The skis used for ski jumping are wide and long (260 to 275 centimetres (102 to 108 in)). Ski jumping is predominantly a winter sport, performed on snow, and is part of the Winter Olympic Games, but can also be performed in summer on artificial surfaces – porcelain or frost rail track on the inrun, plastic on the landing hill. Ski jumping belongs to the nordic type of competitive skiing.

Snowboarding: Men's slopestyle

Slopestyle is a winter sporting event where the goal is to perform the most difficult tricks while getting the highest amplitude off jumps, with an emphasis on performing different types of tricks instead of doing one great trick repeatedly. It originated as a snowboarding competition format, but there are now many sports that are considered to have this style of competition, of which skiing and snowboarding are two of the most common.

Slopestyle is one of the most popular events at the Winter X Games. It will become an Olympic event, in both skiing and snowboarding forms, at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

 

 

 

 

Speed skating: Men's 5,000m

Speed skating, or speedskating, is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track". The ISU, the governing body of both ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".

Long track speed skating in Thialf in 2008

The standard rink for long track is 400 meters long, but tracks of 200, 250 and 333⅓ meters are used occasionally. It is one of two Olympic forms of the sport and the one with the longer history. An international federation was founded in 1892, the first for any winter sport. The sport enjoys large popularity in the Netherlands and Norway. There are top international rinks in a number of other countries, including Canada, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Russia. A World Cup circuit is held with events in those countries and with two events in Thialf, the ice hall in Heerenveen, Netherlands.

 

Sunday 9 February

Alpine skiing: Men's downhill

Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. It is also commonly known as downhill skiing, although that also incorporates different styles. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings; ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. Alpine skiing is popular wherever the combination of snow, mountain slopes, and a sufficient tourist infrastructure can be built up, including parts of Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, the South American Andes, and East Asia.

Alpine skiing began as a club sport in 1861 at Kiandra in Australia and a number of similar clubs in North America and the Austrian and Swiss Alps. Today, most alpine skiing occurs at a ski resort with ski lifts that transport skiers up the mountain. The snow is groomed, avalanches are controlled and trees are cut to create trails. Many resorts also include snow making equipment to provide skiing when the weather would otherwise not allow it. Alternatively, alpine skiers may pursue the sport in less controlled environments; this practice is variously referred to as ski touring, backcountry skiing, or extreme skiing.

In competitive alpine skiing races four disciplines exist: slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom, and downhill. Slalom ski races have courses that require short tight turns, whereas giant-slalom races have courses which are set with more widely spaced turns. Super-giant slalom and downhill have few turns, the courses have gates spaced widely apart and skiers often reach 100 km/h.

 

Biathlon: Women's 7.5km sprint

Cross country skiing: Men's 15km skiathlon

 

Cross-country skiing (or XC skiing) is a form of ski touring in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles. The activity is popular in many places with large snowfields, primarily Northern Europe, Canada, and Alaska.^[1]

Cross-country skiing is part of the Nordic skiing sport family, which includes ski jumping, Nordic combined (cross-country skiing and ski jumping), Biathlon (skiing and rifle marksmanship) and ski-orienteering (which includes map navigation along snow trails and tracks). Cross-country skiing is the modern style of skiing that most resembles prehistoric skiing, particularly when done in the backcountry. It is also related to Telemark skiing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure skating: Team men's and women's free programmes, Ice Dance free dance

 

The free dance (FD) is a segment of an ice dancing competition. It is the second part of the competition to be contested, after the short dance.

Structure and content[edit]

In the free dance, teams are free to choose their own rhythms, program themes, and therefore music. Creativity is also strongly encouraged. Since 1998, dancers have been required to include certain elements in their free dances, including step sequences, lifts, dance spins, and multi-rotation turns called twizzles, but still have greater freedom in choreographing their programs than in the short dance segment. Senior level free dances are four minutes long (plus or minus 10 seconds). The exact number and type of elements required has occasionally changed from season to season.

 

Ice hockey: Women's preliminaries

Luge: Men's competition

Ski jumping: Men's individual NH

Snowboarding: Women's slopestyle

Speed skating: Women's 3,000m

Speed skating, or speedskating, is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track". The ISU, the governing body of both ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".

Long track speed skating in Thialf in 2008

The standard rink for long track is 400 meters long, but tracks of 200, 250 and 333⅓ meters are used occasionally. It is one of two Olympic forms of the sport and the one with the longer history. An international federation was founded in 1892, the first for any winter sport. The sport enjoys large popularity in the Netherlands and Norway. There are top international rinks in a number of other countries, including Canada, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Russia. A World Cup circuit is held with events in those countries and with two events in Thialf, the ice hall in Heerenveen, Netherlands.

 

Monday 10 February

Alpine skiing: Women's super combined

 

Combined is an alpine skiing event. Although not technically a discipline of its own, it is sometimes referred to as a fifth alpine discipline, along with downhill, super G, giant slalom, and slalom.

Traditional & Super-Combined[edit]

A traditional combined (K) consists of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom, in that order. In 2005, the International Ski Federation (FIS) introduced the super combined (or "super combi"), consisting of a single run of slalom (which may be run first, but is usually not) and normally a shortened downhill run (or a super G run). This new format (SC) lessened the advantage of the slalom specialists in the event. In either type of combined event, the winner is the skier with the fastest aggregate time. (Until the 1990s, a complicated point system was used to determine placings in the combined event.)

 

Biathlon: Men's 12.5km pursuit

Curling: Men's and women's round robin matches

Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric rings. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a circular target marked on the ice.Each team has eight stones. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones. A game may consist of ten or eight ends.

The curler can induce a curved path by causing the stone to slowly turn as it slides, and the path of the rock may be further influenced by two sweepers with brooms who accompany it as it slides down the sheet, using the brooms to alter the state of the ice in front of the stone. A great deal of strategy and teamwork goes into choosing the ideal path and placement of a stone for each situation, and the skills of the curlers determine how close to the desired result the stone will achieve. This gives curling its nickname of "chess on ice".

 

Freestyle skiing: Men's moguls

Ice hockey: Women's preliminaries

Luge: Women's competition

Short track speed skating: Men's 1500m, women's 500m, women's 3,000m relay

 

Short track speed skating is a form of competitive ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters (typically between four and six) skate on an oval ice track with a circumference of 111.12 m. The rink itself is 60 m by 30 m, which is the same size as an international-sized ice hockey rink.

There are several actions that will result in skaters being disqualified (DQ) from a race, and having their time rendered invalid.

• Impeding (DQI): Pushing, blocking, or otherwise causing an impediment for another skater
• Off track (DQO): Skating outside the designated track
• Team skating(?): Conspiring with members from the same country, club, or other individual skaters to determine the race result
• Assistance (?): Giving physical assistance to another skater
• Shooting the line or Kicking out (DQK): Driving the foot in lead ahead to reach the finish faster, resulting in the lead foot lifting off the ice and creating a dangerous situation for others
• Unsportsmanlike conduct (DQU): Acting in a manner not befitting an athlete or a role model. Including cursing at a competitor, kicking your feet, striking other skaters or officials, etc.
• Equipment (DQE): Not wearing the proper safety equipment, losing equipment during the race, or exposure of skin not on face or neck.
• False Start (DQS): Leaving before firing of the starter's pistol. On the second violation in the race, the offender on that start is disqualified.
• Did not finish (DNF): Usually due to injury, the skater did not finish the race
• Did not skate (DNS): The skater did not go to the starting line

 

Speed skating: Men's 500m

Tuesday 11 February

Biathlon: Women's 10km pursuit

Cross country skiing: Men's & women's sprint free

Curling: Women's and men's round robin matches

Figure skating: Pairs short programme

 

 The short program of figure skating is usually the first of two phases in figure skating competitions for single skating, pair skating and synchronized skating. As the name suggests, it is the shorter of the two programs, the other one being the free skating. The short program has also been known by other names. From the 1989 to 1992 seasons, it was called the original program, and from 1993 to 1994, it was called the technical program

Freestyle skiing: Women's slopestyle

Ice hockey: Women's preliminaries

Luge: Women's competition

Ski jumping: Women's individual NH

Snowboarding: Men's halfpipe

sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2007)

Vert ramp with vert, transition, and flat

Vert ramp

A half-pipe is a structure used in gravity extreme sports such as snowboarding, skateboarding, skiing, freestyle BMX, and inline skating. The structure is wood, concrete, metal, earth, or snow. It resembles a cross section of a swimming pool, essentially two concave ramps (or quarter-pipes), topped by copings and decks, facing each other across a flat transition. Originally half-pipes were half sections of a large diameter pipe. Since the 1980s, half-pipes contain an extended flat bottom between the quarter-pipes; the original style half-pipes are no longer built. Flat ground provides time to regain balance after landing and more time to prepare for the next trick.

Half-pipe applications include leisure recreation, skills development, competitive training, amateur and professional competition, demonstrations, and as an adjunct to other types of skills training. A skilled athlete can perform in a half-pipe for an extended period of time by pumping to attain extreme speeds with relatively little effort. Large (high amplitude) half-pipes make possible many of the aerial tricks in BMX, inline skating and skateboarding.

For winter sports such as freestyle skiing and snowboarding, a half-pipe can be dug out of the ground or snow perhaps combined with piling snow. The plane of the transition is oriented downhill at a slight grade to allow riders to use gravity to develop speed and facilitate drainage of melt. In the absence of snow, dug out half-pipes can be used by dirtboarders, motorcyclists, and mountain bikers.

Performance in a half-pipe has been rapidly increasing over recent years. The current limit performed by a top level athlete for a rotational trick in a half-pipe is 1440 degrees (four full 360 degree rotations). In top level competitions, rotation is generally limited to emphasize style and flow.

Speed skating: Women's 500m

Speed skating, or speedskating, is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. In the Olympic Games, long-track speed skating is usually referred to as just "speed skating", while short-track speed skating is known as "short track".^[1] The ISU, the governing body of both ice sports, refers to long track as "speed skating" and short track as "short track skating".

Long track speed skating in Thialf in 2008

The standard rink for long track is 400 meters long, but tracks of 200, 250 and 333⅓ meters are used occasionally. It is one of two Olympic forms of the sport and the one with the longer history. An international federation was founded in 1892, the first for any winter sport. The sport enjoys large popularity in the Netherlands and Norway. There are top international rinks in a number of other countries, including Canada, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea and Russia. A World Cup circuit is held with events in those countries and with two events in Thialf, the ice hall in Heerenveen, Netherlands.

International Skating Union rules allow some leeway in the size and radius of curves.

Short-track speed skaters racing through a curve

Short track speed skating takes place on a smaller rink, normally the size of an ice hockey rink, on a 111.12 m oval track. Distances are shorter than in long-track racing, with the longest Olympic individual race being 1500 meters (the women's relay is 3000 meters and the men's relay 5000 meters). Races are usually held as knockouts, with the best two in heats of four or five qualifying for the final race, where medals are awarded. Disqualifications and falls are not uncommon.

 

Wednesday 12 February

Alpine skiing: Women's downhill

Curling: Men's and women's round robin matches

Figure skating: Pairs free programme

Short-Program Components: Both the men's and women's individual events have specific requirements for what must be included in the short program. These are, with slight variation by gender: a double- or triple-axel jump, connecting steps into a triple-jump (or possibly a quadruple-jump for men), jump combination consisting of at least a double- and triple-jump, flying spin and a spin combination with a change of foot.

The Not-So-Free Skate: The long program, or free program, is also known as the "free skate," but it used to be a lot freer. In the early '80s, the International Skating Union sought to have the long program be more well-balanced with an array of technical elements instead of an exhibition dominated by athletic jumps. This is sometimes known as the "Zayak Rule," named for American Elaine Zayak, and it mandates that no more than two types of triple-jumps (or quadruple-jumps) can be attempted in one program. An axel-jump is also required, but no more than two double-axels may be attempted.

Team Competition: Sochi will be the first Olympics to add a team event in addition to men's and women's singles, mixed pairs and ice dancing. Ice dancing was the last event added to the figure-skating program in 1976. The team event now drastically increases the amount of figure skating on display at the Olympics. At Sochi, the team event comes first and consists of both a short program and free program for each of the four figure-skating events: singles, pairs and ice dancing.

Judge's Scoring: In 2004, figure skating changed from a 6.0 scoring system to the ISU Judging System. In the wake of the judging scandal at the 2002 Olympics, the new system was designed to thwart corruption. A computer determines prior to the judges voting which of the votes will count. The judges do not know which votes are to be counted.

Fashion: Katarina Witt got a rule named after her for her skimpy costume at the 1988 European Championships. The "Katarina Rule" required ladies to cover their hips and rear, though this rule was changed in 2004. Men cannot wear tights, contrary to popular belief, and must wear trousers. Clothing should be free from "excessive decoration," which might cause a hazard.

 

Ice hockey: Men's & women's preliminaries

Luge: Doubles competition

Nordic combined: Men's individual NH & 10km

The Nordic combined is a winter sport in which athletes compete in both cross-country skiing and ski jumping.

 

Snowboarding: Women's halfpipe

Speed skating: Men's 1000m

Thursday 13 February

Biathlon: Men's 20km individual

Cross country skiing: Women's 10km classic

Curling: Women's & men's round robin matches

Figure skating: Men's short programme

 

Freestyle skiing: Men's slopestyle

Ice hockey: Men's & women's preliminaries

Luge: Team relay

 Luge Team Relay

In this mixed-gender event, each team comprises women’s and men’s singles sleds and a doubles sled, according to the U.S. Luge Association. All the sleds begin at the same starting point but will follow each other in sequence — with the gates opening up for each sled after the previous sledder in the team hits the finish line. "Many team events involve adding one individual score to another while others, like the 4 X 100 meter track race, involve a continuous event with a transition from one competitor to another," USA Luge CEO Ron Rossi said in an April 2011 statement announcing the event’s inclusion. "Luge’s team event will be the latter, involving touch pads, reaction time and the opening of a gate to arrive at one cumulative time.”

Short track speed skating: Women's 500m

Skeleton: Women's competition

Speed skating: Women's 1000m

Friday 14 February

Alpine skiing: Men's super combined

Biathlon: Women's 15km individual

Cross country skiing: Men's 15km classic

Curling: Men's & women's round robin matches

Figure skating: Men's free programme

Freestyle skiing: Women's aerials

Ice hockey: Men's & women's preliminaries

Skeleton: Men's & women's competition

Ski jumping: Men's individual LH

 

Ski jumping has been included in the program of every Winter Olympic Games. From 1924 through 1956, the competition involved jumping from one hill whose length varied from each edition games to the next. Most historians have placed this length at 70 meters and have classified this as the large hill. (Recent information from the FIS offices in Switzerland have had the K-points from 1924 to 1956 determined as shown below). In 1960, the ski jump hill was standardized to 80 meters. In 1964, a second ski jump, the normal hill at 70 meters (K90) was added along with the 80 meters (K120) large hill. The length of the large hill run in 1968 increased from 80 meters to 90 meters (K120). The team large hill event was added in 1988. By 1992, the ski jumping competitions were referred by their K-point distances rather than their run length prior to launching from the ski jump (90 meters for the normal hill and 120 meters for the large hill, respectively) and have been that way ever since. For the 2006 Winter Olympics, the normal hill was designated as HS106 (K95) while the large hill was designated as HS140 (K125).

On April 6, 2011, the International Olympic Committee officially accepted women's ski jumping into the official Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

 

Saturday 15 February

Alpine skiing: Women's Super G

Super giant slalom or Super-G is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event during the 1983 season and was added to the official schedule of the World Championships in 1987 and the Winter Olympics in 1988.

Cross country skiing: Women's 4x5km relay

Curling: Women's & men's round robin matches

Ice hockey: Men's preliminaries, women's quarter-finals

Short track speed skating: Women's 1500m, men's 1000m

Skeleton: Men's competition

Skeleton is a fast winter sliding sport in which an individual person rides a small sled down a frozen track while lying face down, during which athletes experience forces up to 5g. It originated in St. Moritz, Switzerland, as a spin-off from the popular British sport of Cresta sledding. Although skeleton "sliders" use equipment similar to that of Cresta "riders", the two sports are different: while skeleton is run on the same track used by bobsleds and luge, Cresta is run on Cresta-specific sledding tracks only. Skeleton sleds are steered using torque provided by the head and shoulders. The Cresta toboggan does not have a steering or braking mechanism although the Cresta riders use rakes on their boots in addition to shifting body weight to help steer and brake. The sport of skeleton can be traced to 1882, when soldiers in Switzerland constructed a toboggan track between the towns of Davos and Klosters. While toboggan tracks were not uncommon at the time, the added challenge of curves and bends in the Swiss track distinguished it from those of Canada and the United States.^[1]

Ski jumping: Men's individual LH

Speed skating: Men's 1500m

Sunday 16 February

Alpine skiing: Men's Super G

Biathlon: Men's 15km mass start

Bobsleigh: Two-man competition

Bobsleigh or bobsled is a winter sport in which teams of two or four make timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled. The timed runs are combined to calculate the final score.

The various types of sleds came several years before the first tracks were built in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where the original bobsleds were adapted upsized luge/skeleton sleds designed by the adventurously wealthy to carry passengers. All three types were adapted from boys' delivery sleds and toboggans.

Cross country skiing: Men's 4x10km relay

Curling: Women's & men's round robin matches

Figure skating: Ice Dance short dance

 Ice dancing is a discipline of figure skating which draws from the world of ballroom dancing. It joined the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952 and became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976.

As in pair skating, dancers compete as a couple consisting of a man and a woman. Ice dance differs from pair skating by having different requirements for lifts, requiring spins to be performed as a team in a dance hold, and by disallowing throws and jumps. Typically, partners are not supposed to separate by more than two arm lengths; originally, partners were supposed to be in a dance hold the entire program, though this restriction has been lifted somewhat in modern ice dancing.

Another distinction between ice dance and other disciplines of skating is the usage of music in the performances; in ice dancing, dancers must always skate to music that has a definite beat or rhythm. Singles and pair skaters more often skate to the melody and phrasing of their music, rather than its beat; this is severely penalized in ice dance.

 

Ice hockey: Men's preliminaries, women's classification matches

Snowboarding: Women's snowboard cross

Speed skating: Women's 1500m

 

Monday 17 February

Biathlon: Women's 12.5km mass start

Bobsleigh: Two-man competition

Curling: Women's & men's round robin matches

Figure skating: Ice Dance free dance

Freestyle skiing: Men's aerials

Ice hockey: Women's semi-finals

Ski jumping: Men's team LH

Snowboarding: Men's snowboard cross

Snowboard cross (also Snowboarder X, SBX, Boardercross, Boarder-X or BX) is the official name used by the International Ski Federation (FIS) for their competitive boardercross race events. Boardercross is a snowboard competition in which a group of four snowboard racers start simultaneously atop an inclined course. The racers go over a series of features while trying to reach the finish line first. Boardercross became a Olympic sport in 2006, and was part of the Winter X Games from 1997-2012. At the X Games, the sport was called Boarder-X.

Boardercross courses are typically quite narrow and includes features made of snow including cambered turns, gap jumps, berms, drops, and steep and flat sections designed to challenge the riders' ability to stay in control. It is not uncommon for racers to collide with each other. Some observers have compared the sport to short track speed skating because of the amount of contact involved. The name and the riders' full-face helmets show the sport's influence by motocross.

Tuesday 18 February

Alpine skiing: Women's giant slalom

Bobsleigh: Women's comptition

Curling: Men's & women's tie break matches

Freestyle skiing: Men's halfpipe

Ice hockey: Men's qualification play-offs, women's classification matches

Nordic combined: Men's individual LH & 10km

Short track speed skating: Women's 1000m, men's 500m, women's 3,000m relay

Speed skating: Men's 10,000m

Wednesday 19 February

Alpine skiing: Men's giant slalom

 Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles (gates) spaced at a greater distance to each other than in slalom but less than in super-G.

Giant slalom and slalom make up the technical events in alpine ski racing. This category separates them from the speed events of super-G and downhill. The technical events are normally composed of two runs, held on different courses on the same ski run.

The vertical drop for a GS course must be 250–450 metres (820–1476 ft) for men, 250–400 m (820–1312 ft) for women. The number of gates in this event is 56–70 for men and 46–58 for women. The number of direction changes in a GS course equals 11–15% of the vertical drop of the course in metres, 13–15% for children. As an example, on a 300 m (984 ft) vertical course, there would be between 33 and 45 direction changes for an adult race^.

Although not the fastest event in skiing, on average a well trained racer may hit speeds of 50+ mph. Faster events such as super-G, can reach speeds 80+ mph, and slower events such as slalom averaging out at 25- mph.

Biathlon: Mixed relay

Bobsleigh: Women's competition

Cross country skiing: Women's & men's team sprint classic

Curling: Men's & women's semi-finals

Figure skating: Women's short programme

Ice hockey: Men's quarter-finals

Snowboarding: Men's & women's parallel giant slalom

Speed skating: Women's 5,000m

Thursday 20 February

Curling: Women's bronze & gold medal matches

Figure skating: Women's free programme

Freestyle skiing: Men's ski cross, women's halfpipe

Ice hockey: Women's bronze & gold medal matches

Nordic combined: Men's team LH & 4x5km

Friday 21 February

Alpine skiing: Women's slalom

Biathlon: Women's 4x6km relay

Curling: Men's bronze & gold medal matches

Freestyle skiing: Women's ski cross

Ice hockey: Men's semi-finals

Short track speed skating: Men's 500m, women's 1000m, men's 5,000m relay

Speed skating: Womens & men's team pursuit

Saturday 22 February

Alpine skiing: Men's slalom

Biathlon: Men's 4x7.5km relay

Bobsleigh: Four-man competition

Cross country skiing: Women's 30km mass start free

Ice hockey: Men's bronze medal match

Snowboarding: Men's & women's parallel slaloms

Snowboarding is an sport at the Winter Olympic Games. It was first included in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.^[1] Snowboarding was one of five new sports or disciplines added to the Winter Olympic program between 1992 and 2002, and was the only one not to have been a previous medal or demonstration event.^[2] In 1998, four events, two for men and two for women, were held in two specialities: the giant slalom, a downhill event similar to giant slalom skiing; and the half-pipe, in which competitors perform tricks while going from one side of a semi-circular ditch to the other.^[2] Canadian Ross Rebagliati won the men's giant slalom and became the first athlete to win a gold medal in snowboarding.^[3] Rebagliati was briefly stripped of his medal by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after testing positive for marijuana. However, the IOC's decision was reverted following an appeal from the Canadian Olympic Association.^[4] For the 2002 Winter Olympics, the giant slalom was dropped in favor of the parallel giant slalom, an event that involves head-to-head racing.^[5] In 2006, third event, the snowboard cross, was held for the first time. In this event, competitors race against each other down a course with jumps, beams and other obstacles.^[6] On July 11, 2011, the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board approved the addition of Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle to the Winter Olympics roster of events, effective in 2014. The decision was announced via press conference from the IOC's meeting in Durban, South Africa.

Six athletes have won two medals. Philipp Schoch of Switzerland, Shaun White and Seth Wescott of the United States are the only double gold medalists.^[7][8] Karine Ruby of France and Americans Ross Powers and Danny Kass also won two medals.^[9] In the men's half-pipe event, American snowboarders have collected six of nine possible medals, achieving a unique medal sweep in 2002.^[10] Gladly, the United States won a total of 22 medals, more than any other nation. The Americans and the Swiss collected five gold medals each. As of the 2006 Winter Olympics, 42 medals (14 of each color) have been awarded since 1998, and have been won by 38 snowboarders from 11 National Olympic Committees.

 

Speed skating: Women's & men's team pursuit

Sunday 23 February

Bobsleigh: Four-man competition

Cross country skiing: Men's 50km mass start free

Ice hockey: Men's gold medal match

Closing ceremony