An Encyclopedia of the Winter Olympics

The start of the 2022 Winter Olympics is here and as athletes across the globe prepare to compete in their respective competitions, viewers at home need to do some preparation of their own. With so many different sports taking place at the same time, it can be challenging to keep up. So, here’s a rundown of each event and when they will first take place at this year’s games.

Curling

Though the games don’t officially kick-off until Friday, the first curling competitions will have already taken place (on Wednesday) by the time you are reading this article. Curling is my personal favorite event, combining hand-eye coordination with attention to detail. Each match consists of 10 rounds, and each round consists of 8 attempts by both teams. The teams take turns, with one person pushing a curling stone down the 46 meter track while two others sweep the ice in front of it and try to get it to land within the target. At the end of each round, the team with the stone closest to the center of the target is awarded a number of points equal to the number of stones they have closer to the center than their opponent’s closest stone.

First competitions: February 2nd

Ice Hockey

Due to the popularity of the NHL, most of you likely already have a firm understanding of ice hockey. However, the format of hockey tournaments at the Olympics is somewhat unique. The preliminary round consists of three games for each team to determine seeding. In the men’s event, all twelve teams then advance to the knockout stage and compete in a single-elimination tournament. In the women’s event, however, the bottom two teams in Group B are eliminated before the knockout stage begins. Fortunately, the United States is in Group A due to their performance in qualifiers and therefore will automatically advance past the preliminary rounds in both the men’s and women’s events.

First competitions: February 2nd

Freestyle Skiing

Freestyle skiing consists of a number of events including aerials, freeski big air, freeski halfpipe, moguls, freeski slopestyle, and ski cross. What differentiates these events from other skiing events is that they are all about creativity. Whether it’s performing aerial tricks in big air and halfpipe or traversing through a complicated course in slopestyle and moguls, the goal of any freeskier is to impress the judges and earn the highest number of points with their maneuvers. The lone exception to this is ski cross, in which the winner is determined solely based on who can finish the course fastest.

First competitions: February 3rd

Figure Skating

Another judge-based event, figure skating takes tricks and visual aesthetics to a whole new level. After performing a series of jumps, spins, steps, and sometimes slips, the individual, duo, or team competing is given a score based on a number of factors. These include base points and a grade of execution (GOE) for tricks, an artistic score based on five categories each graded out of ten, and deductions for falling or under rotating on a jump.  There are also a number of limitations given to participants including a time limit (4:30 for men and 4:10 for women) and a maximum number of jumps (eight for men, seven for women), spins (three), and steps (two sequences).

First competitions: February 3rd

Snowboarding

Snowboarding, similar to freestyle skiing, consists of a number of different events: parallel giant slalom, big air, cross, halfpipe, and slopestyle. Four of those events are just the snowboard equivalent of the same competition in freestyle skiing, with halfpipe being perhaps the most famous due to its exciting nature and the recent success of American favorite Shaun White. Parallel giant slalom is the lone snowboarding-unique event, consisting of two competitors racing side by side on parallel courses to see who can find the fastest route and reach the bottom first.

First competitions: February 4th

Cross-Country Skiing

Cross-country skiing takes the classic races seen in the summer olympics and puts them on skis. The sport takes the form of six different events: 15km classic (10 km for women), 15km + 15km skiathlon (7.5 km for women), 50km mass start free (30km for women), sprint free, team sprint classic, and 4x10km relay (5 km for women). In each event, competitors from participating countries race at the same time to see who can complete the long and generally flat courses fastest. The races can take anywhere from a few minutes to over half an hour and the podium is almost always dominated by participants from scandinavian countries.

First competitions: February 5th

Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined

Similar to freestyle skiing, ski jumping results are based on judges, though the scores are less subjective. After bolting down a hill, taking to the air, and hitting the ground over 300 feet from the starting point, ski jumpers are judged on their distance, technique, and landing. They almost never reach more than 30 feet above ground level, focusing on horizontal distance rather than vertical. Each athlete participates in two runs, with their final score equally the sum of their individual scores.

Nordic combined, while technically its own event, is simply a combination of cross-country skiing and ski jumping. The Olympic nordic combined event is known as the Gunderson, and requires participants to perform one jump before completing a 10km race. The starting positions for the race are determined by the scores of each competitor’s jump.

First competitions: February 5th (Ski Jumping), February 8th (Nordic Combined)

Speed Skating (Short Track and Long Track)

Often considered the most exciting winter sport, speed skating is a fast-paced race to see who can get around the ovular track first. Two separate speed skating events, short track and long track, take place at the Olympics. However, contrary to common belief, the difference between the two is not just the distance of the race (though it is true that long track has 5000 and 10000 meter races which short track does not). The primary distinction between the two is that in long track the skaters race to set the best time, while in short track the skaters compete in an elimination style tournament where beating your head-to-head opponent in each round is the goal.  

First competitions: February 5th

Biathlon

Biathlon combines cross-country skiing with, of all things, rifle shooting. The events vary from distances between 7.5km and 20km, and in each case, when a competitor reaches the end of the course they must fire either 2 or 4 shots at a target. Half of these take place standing up and half take place lying down. For each shot they miss, the athlete will either have a standard time penalty added to their score or will have to complete a 150m penalty lap. While the majority of the race may not be exhilarating for viewers, the excitement of the final moments are a great payoff.

First competitions: February 5th

Luge, Skeleton, and Bobsleigh

Though luge, skeleton, and bobsleigh are all different in their own ways, I decided to group them together because they all share the same premise: racing down an icy and twisted course on a sled. Luge is the first to start at this year’s games and is also the only of the three in which the racer begins on the sled. Lying on their back with their feet pointed forward, the racer pulls themself forward to begin before angling their body to navigate the flat sled around curves.

Skeleton is very similar to luge, although rather than starting on the sled, the racer sprints approximately 40 meters and dives face-first onto it to begin. Skeleton racers can reach top speeds of over 90 miles per hour and, like luge racers, must use their body positions to maneuver the course.

Finally, bobsleigh is the most unique of the three, in addition to perhaps the most famous. Contrary to the flat shape of a luge or skeleton sled, a bobsleigh is shaped like a curved cone and is therefore ridden from a sitting position. To begin, the two (or four) racers push the sled 50 meters and jump into it. They then use the built-in steering mechanism, rather than their bodies, to traverse the path and complete the race.

First competitions: February 5th (luge), February 8th (Skeleton), February 12th (Bobsleigh)

Alpine Skiing

The five alpine skiing events are the alpine combined, downhill, giant slalom, super-g, and slalom, though alpine combined is simply a combination of slalom and downhill. While all alpine events are races to reach the bottom of the course fastest, slalom and giant slalom have an emphasis on precision as you are required to pass through somewhere between 45-75 gates. Meanwhile, in downhill and super-g the gates are much more spaced out and the key to victory is speed. Skiers in downhill competitions can reach top speeds of over 100 mph, making thel event one of the most exciting to watch in the winter games.

First competitions: February 5th