Every four years, the world comes together in a beautiful, wintry portion of the globe for the Winter Olympics. Many of us have grown up idolizing figure skaters, snowboarders, or recent luge heartthrob Mazdzer. However, few of us know about the lesser mainstream sports of the Winter Olympics. Check out the coverage on these interesting events:
1. Biathlon
This event combines the endurance of cross country skiing with the precision of marksmanship. The word biathlon comes from the Greek word for two contests. Today, this means skiing and shooting. The event has roots in survival skills in Scandinavia where people hunted on skis while carrying rifles on their back.
2. Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh was invented by the Swiss in the 1860s. Teams of two or four people make timed runs down a narrow, twisting, iced track in a gravity-powered sled. The sport was not formalized until 1950. Until then, there were no weight limits and bobsledding was less of an athletic sport. Many explosive Summer Olympics athletes compete in bobsleigh during the winter.
3. Skeleton
This event is not for the faint of heart. Athletes plummet headfirst down a steep, treacherous ice track on a tiny sled. Sledding is one of the oldest events in the Olympics, but skeleton did not get its start until the late 19th century. It was originally created as a luxury pastime for the rich vacationers of Caras.