Fun Facts To know About The Winter Olympics And USA’s Favorite Athletes From The Past and Present

By habits in Smoking on March 8th, 2010

The 2010 Winter Olympic games are gearing up to start soon

here, being held in Vancouver, Canada. The Winter Olympics happen every 4 years and have been going on since the very first one occurred in 1924 in France. These games are quite a bit smaller than the Summer Olympics as there are not as many sports to compete in that require snow or ice. Since the first winter games started some events have {been around|existed such as various types of skating events, skiing races and bobsledding. The United States have hosted the winter games 4 times, more than any other nation. Athletes train hard year round using Olympic plates and different training equipment. Many athletes also are sponsored by corporations and have to promote them at events such as a treadmill sale.There are important events that happened with American athletes during the Winter Olympics and this article will describe a couple of those times.

The Olympics in Squaw Valley was the first to start many new sports for the Olympics. Because this area was not very developed, there was a huge urgency to build, hotels, shops and even roads to prepare for the Olympics. This was also the first time that a separate athlete’s village was constructed and the first time computers were used for the results. The beginning of agreat perfomance at the opening and closing ceremonies also started at Squaw Valley with Walt Disney producing those events in 1960.

In 1976, the figure skater, Dorothy Hamill became known as USA’s sweetheart after winning the gold medal in the Olympics. Her trademark spinning move became known as the Hamill Camel and many girls wanted her her short haircut and purchased the Dorothy Hamill doll. Lake Placid hosted the winter games for the second time in 1980 and it had some issues surrounding it with the threat of it being boycotted but it went on as hoped. Eric Heiden set the world and Olympic records in all five events in speed skating which made him popular around the world The other exciting game in 1980 was known as “The miracle on Ice” when the American hockey team defeated the favored Soviet team.

The 1994 games in Lillehammer, Norway were complete with scandal for American figure skaters, Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding. The most famous scandal was when the ex-husband of Tonya Harding attacked Kerrigan by hitting her leg with a metal pipe trying to eliminate her from competing against Harding. Although injured, Kerrigan skated but Oksana Baiul of the Ukraine won the gold medal.

The 2010 Olympic games is to be held in Vancouver which will be the biggest metropolitan city to host the winter Olympics. The majority of the events will be in the metro area while the alpine skiing takes place at Whistler. Short track speed skater, Apollo Ohno will head back for his 3rd Olympics and will attempt to beat Eric Heiden’s record of Olympic medals won. Other Americans to watch are Lindsay Vonn in Alpine skiing and the two sport athlete, Shawn White, nicknamed “The Flying Tomato” in snowboarding.

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