WAWC - Favorite Winter Sport

[Mashiara Sedai]

 

What is your favorite winter sport?

 

When I was a child, I loved to watch figure skating, fueled on by films such as The Cutting Edge. This was about the time Nancy Kerrigan became famous, and not long after, Tonya Harding became infamous.  I gravitated toward Kristi Yamaguchi and Oksana Baiul.

 

As I grew up, I stopped watching the sport.  Flash forward to 2016 when the anime Yuri on Ice came into being.  My love for ice skating drew me to the show, and I'm glad it did!  It's amazing, a show many real life figure skaters love because of how accurately it portrays the sport and the relationships established within it.

 

Last weekend, my husband and I saw the movie I, Tonya, a retelling of the events between Nancy Kerrigan and her attacker, but told through Tonya Harding's eyes.  It's was a phenomenal movie, and it was actually quite sad seeing it from her perspective.

 

After ice skating, my next favorite is hockey--thanks again to The Cutting Edge.  Watching hockey is very cool and exciting.  Seeing the players throw their equipment to the ground and begin to punch each other, or roughly pushing another into the protective, plastic divider makes your heart skip a beat.  It may be a tad bit violent--much more so than most other sports--but it's wonderfully entertaining!

 

So, what's your favorite winter sport?  Will you be watching the event this year and cheering on your team?

[Rhea]

My favorite is the Alpine Skiing events with couples figure skating coming in as a close second and Luge in 3rd. I will watch when I can but with school I probably won't get much time. My favorite skiers are Ted Ligety, Julia Mancuso, Lindsey Vonn and Andrew Weibrecht for the USA. I will be watching Maia Shibutani and Alex Shibutani who are the two-time and reigning U.S. champions. I just love to watch Luge, I don't have any favorites, I will route for anyone from the USA of course!

[Mashiara Sedai]

You sure know your skiers, Rhea!  What about the sport draws you to it?

 

I should have included it in my OP, so here’s a list of current winter sports played at the Olympics. 

 

Basically:

 

Winter Olympic Sports for 2018

The 15 sports of the Winter Olympics are categorized into three main categories: (1) ice sports, (2) alpine, skiing and snowboarding events, and (3) Nordic events. In each of these sports categories there are more specific events as listed.

 

Ice Sports

Bobsled (Two-man, Two woman and Four-man)

Luge

Skeleton

Ice Hockey

Figure Skating (Men's singles, Ladies' singles, Pairs, Team and Ice Dancing)

Speed Skating

Short Track Speed Skating(500m, 1,000m, 1,500 m and Relays)

Curling

 

Alpine, Skiing and Snowboarding Events

Alpine Skiing (Downhill, Super G, Giant slalom, Slalom, Super Combined)

Freestyle Skiing (Aerials, Moguls, Ski Cross, Ski halfpipe and Ski slopestyle)

Snowboarding (Parallel Giant Slalom, Halfpipe and Snowboard Cross and Slopestyle)

 

Nordic Events

Biathlon (combining cross-country skiing and target shooting: individual, sprint, pursuit, mass start & relay events)

Cross-Country Skiing (individual and team sprint, freestyle, pursuit, classical and relays)

Ski Jumping

Nordic Combined (ski jumping and cross country skiing)

[LilyElizabeth]

I don't really watch the Olympics. I don't watch much TV in general. But take me to a hockey game in person and I'm in heaven! I love hockey. 

[Mashiara Sedai]

I agree, Lily!  We saw the Penguins play the Coyotes in December and it was so amazing!  I'd never seen a live game before but I loved it!  If tickets weren't so expensive, I'd love to go more often!

[LilyElizabeth]

Me, too. It's lots of fun!

[Gentled Ben]

I am not a huge hockey fan, but I like it alright. I liked it better when my local team was good, though.

 

I'm not sure that I have a favorite Olympic sport at all, Winter or Summer games. There is no event that I really follow in the offseason, so to speak, and there are so many that I enjoy watching during the games themselves. I kind of like the luge and bobsled, because they're entirely an Olympic thing. I never see luge on a sports show on a Saturday afternoon when nothing else is on, but sometimes they'll have world figure skating championships or something. I see lots of downhill skiing and snowboarding, but no luge or bobsled, or curling for that matter. Heck, on  one of my local PBS stations, I even see Sumo wrestling on a regular late night basis, but never luge. I guess luge isn't huge.

[Mashiara Sedai]

Sumo wrestling on PBS?  I didn't know they did that.  Very interesting.

 

Bobsledding is such an interesting sport, I think.  It seems such an odd concept--let's put two to four people inside this metal contraption and push them down an ice-slide.  What could go wrong?

 

Curling is also strange. 

 

Winter sports are definitely odd compared to their summer counterparts.

[Sooh]

I tried the bobsled track once in the summer. We were literally inside a metal cage and it went really fast down the tracks on wheels. Fun times ;)

[Gentled Ben]

6 hours ago, Mashiara Sedai said:

Sumo wrestling on PBS?  I didn't know they did that.  Very interesting.

 

Bobsledding is such an interesting sport, I think.  It seems such an odd concept--let's put two to four people inside this metal contraption and push them down an ice-slide.  What could go wrong?

 

Curling is also strange. 

 

Winter sports are definitely odd compared to their summer counterparts.

 

I cut the cable, so I just have digital antennae TV now. Denver has two PBS stations, one that’s more local and independent than the other. They both have a few alternate channels that feature specialized programming. The alternate channels (much like TV versions of sub forums) don’t show up on cable or satellite—only the main channels are available there. I don’t know why.

 

Anyway, the more local, independent PBS channel has a sub channel that focuses on Asia and Asian-American issues, and they show Sumo wrestling at night.

 

2 hours ago, Sooh said:

I tried the bobsled track once in the summer. We were literally inside a metal cage and it went really fast down the tracks on wheels. Fun times ;)

 

We used to have an alpine slide in the foothills that was similar to that. You’d ride a little cart on a concrete track down the mountainside. It was a blast!

[Sooh]

7 minutes ago, Gentled Ben said:

We used to have an alpine slide in the foothills that was similar to that. You’d ride a little cart on a concrete track down the mountainside. It was a blast!

I tried an alpine slide up in New Hampshire this summer. It was fun, but it was very different to the summer bobsled thing. 

 

Video

[Gentled Ben]

Yes, the bobsled track is much faster with more vertical movement up the sides around turns, but not much different than the slide we used to have. It was the same concept, just much tamer, like riding a pony at a walk vs. riding a stallion at a gallop, but in both instances, you are riding a horse.

[Rhea]

Mashi...I grew up skiing in Lake Tahoe. It was only a few hours from my home. I wasn't alive when the winter olympics were held in Squaw Valley, but that is where I first learned to downhill ski and you can't go there without being drawn into the history of the olympics. I've loved it ever since! 

[Gentled Ben]

I grew up at the foot of the Rocky Mountains and have only downhill and cross-country skied one time each.

[Lessa Nikia]

*throws fists in the air* HOCKEY!!!!!!!! *hurriedly hides all the white and red that was dragged in behind her*

 

I apologize. It is one stereotype that has merit, we Canadians love our hockey. To the point that we may or may not have changed a law for a day for the gold medal game in Sochi in 2014...well at least in Alberta we did.

 

Growing up I did watch a lot of figure skating as well. In our household, if the Winter Olympics are occurring, the TV is on. Doesn't really matter what it is.

[Mashiara Sedai]

One thing I absolutely love from the anime Yuri on Ice, is the love and support of the Canadian people for their champion figure skater, Jean Jack Leroy (AKA JJ)!  *LOL*

 

 

I've heard many Canadians say that they are very, very competitive when it comes to their ice sports.

[Ryrin]

Luge and hockey. I laugh at curling. 

[thehumantrashcan]

Any form of skiing, downhill or nordic.  Can't get enough of it.

[Mashiara Sedai]

59 minutes ago, thehumantrashcan said:

Any form of skiing, downhill or nordic.  Can't get enough of it.

 

Skiiing scares the pants off me.  I don't know why, but it seems so dangerous and horrifying.  I've never been before, and I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to work up the courage to try.

[Illian Tear]

Man y'all are all wrong. The best sport is definitely.....*drum roll*.....CURLING

[Gentled Ben]

21 minutes ago, Illian Tear said:

Man y'all are all wrong. The best sport is definitely.....*drum roll*.....CURLING

I suppose I could agree with that, depending on the...athlete.

 

[Sooh]

3 hours ago, Gentled Ben said:

I suppose I could agree with that, depending on the...athlete.

 

[Illian Tear]

Lol either one of those work I guess. I was thinking of the 2nd picture though.

[Gentled Ben]

[Sooh]

Ben should be disqualified since she's using a flatiron for curling. Don't use golf equipment for winter games goshdarnit!