Pathways into Winter Olympic Sport

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By Caroline Heaney

Olympic Rings from the Sochi Olympic Village (Copyright Gary Anderson)

The British terrain isn’t exactly designed for participation in Winter Olympic sports yet Team GB will be taking a 56-strong squad to the Winter Olympics which open in Sochi next week, so how do British athletes come to be involved in these sports?

Paths into winter sports vary and often quite different to the more conventional routes seen in summer Olympic sports. Whilst most athletes have a background of junior participation, often having made their entry into the sport at a young age, in some Winter Olympic sports this is not the case. It is very common for athletes in these sports to start late having begun their sporting career in other sports. Athletics to bobsleigh has, for example, become a very common route into the sport.

Paths into winter sport can be influenced by factors such as:

  • Opportunity – e.g. do you live near a Winter sports facility?
  • Finance – e.g. can you afford skiing lessons?
  • Role models – e.g. are there role models that make you want to try a Winter Olympic sport?

I explore this more in the article Why would British Athletes Chose Winter Sports? in The Conversation.

The Development of the Winter Olympics – Athlete Excellence or Performance Art

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By Candice Lingam-Willgoss

While the Summer Olympic Games have remained largely true to their roots – the Winter Games have seen a raft of newly created sports being included in the line-up year on year. This Winter Olympics will see 98 events over 15 disciplines in 7 sports –skating, skiing, bobsleigh, biathlon, curling, ice hockey and luge. 12 of these are new events to be contested including:- Women’s Ski Jumping, Ski half-pipe, Team relay luge, Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle, and Snowboard parallel special slalom. The scope for the creation of new winter based sports seems to be something mirrored by what is viewed in ski resorts, with various different approaches to the ‘originals’ being trialled all over the slopes.

Extreme Sports or Winter Games

In a world which is becoming increasingly more health and safety conscious it is interesting that many of these new sports are ones that can be termed high risk. Are these high risk sports becoming more attractive to both view and participate in as an antidote to the ultra ‘safe‘ world we live in? Take the newly included Slopestyle event which has been introduced for both skiers and boarders, the main goal is to perform difficult tricks while getting the highest amplitude off jumps with emphasis on variety. The Luge programme has now had the Team relay included and while this variation has long been popular among luge aficionados it will be its first outing on such a big stage. In essence this event sees a sport often termed the ‘fastest sport on ice’, that saw the death of a young Republic of Georgia competitor at the Vancover Games being made even more high risk than it was before. Three sleds, four racers (a women’s single, a men’s single and a double, and a touchpad. Rather than the classic baton switch competitors must activate the said touchpad at the end of their run to open the gate for the next sled to go down.

With the inclusion of these types of sports it could be argued that the Winter Olympics is becoming closer to the recently created X Games at every outing, in fact Sean White is a key example of this. White is competing in two snowboarding competitions at Sochi, the halfpipe and the slopestyle and while he is already a two times Olympic Gold medallist he also holds the Winter X-Games record for the total number of gold medals.

The Winter X Games

The Winter X Games were created in 1997 after the 1995 creation of the Summer sport focused X Games and are solely focus on Extreme Winter Sports. The Events of the Winter X games are very much there to entertain and events are driven by spectacle, and the ‘wow factor’ – which begs the question are the Winter Olympics competitors from some of these newer sports a mix of athletes and performers? The tricks that a number of the new winter sports require individuals to carry out, are akin to those performed by entertainers and are as much a display of athleticism as guts and creativity. As Morris of the Telegraph says, ‘the inclusion represents the rise and rise of freestyle skiing and snowboarding, and brings an extra injection of awe to the Games ‘ (2014). This idea that there has been a change to the style of sports included in the games, is something Zimpfer discusses in his blog earlier this month when commenting on how a number of Olympic sports are now becoming “more like a performance than a sport’ (2014).

Need for change

This added ‘awe’ as Morris talks about may be a deliberate ‘marketing’ ploy of the Winter Olympics. The viewing figures for the last Winter Olympics peaked at the opening ceremony with 3.2 million viewers, a figure that dropped to as low as one million for some events. Compare this to the summer Olympics of 2008 in Beijing when figures peaked at 5.4 million and Athens at 8.68 million. While as a nation we may not have as many athletes competing, overall there is less interest in winter sports than summer, which begs the question is the inclusion of these new more exciting sports a necessity in order to entice a new group of viewers. Not just the winter sports fans but also the extreme sports fans and the younger generations?

Recent research has examined the newly termed Generation Y those born between 1980 and 1990. The previous generation X made up of the baby boomers are having to step aside as a new generation are becoming the marketing focus of big business, they are a generation of technology savvy, highly ambitious people who relish creativity, are open minded, and as such open to change – they display a patchwork of traits. One of these key traits is interestingly rule following – as a generation less likely to break the law or go against their parents, is this high profile, controlled, and legal style of sport satisfying the side of the generation that craves creativity and a fresh approach. The full spectrum of characteristics of the Y Generation is probably at this stage unknown, what is clear is that it is this sector that need to be drawn in and this is something that the commercially driven sports world is fully aware of.

Money, Money, Money

No area of sport is immune to the naked truth that all high profile events are a business opportunity and Winter Sports are no different. All sports see the commoditisation of sportsmen – to the extent that at times they are seen as little more than billboards for sponsors. The recent selection of the US ice skater Wagner over Mirai Nagasu – a choice cynics among us may consider was due to a need to satisfy sponsors as it would have been something of an inconvenience for BP to have to take her out of their latest commercials, I guess we will never know how much her marketability influenced her selection. There are of course questions over whether the IOC who ultimately made this decision did so in order to increase the attraction of this games to certain audiences where the corporate money lies.

This need to make all sport enterprise a commodity could be in part the reasoning behind this shift in sports that are now on offer at the games. Television companies need viewers and are striving to appeal to a wider more diverse audience, something these newer sports are clearly aiming to do. With the Winter Games now sitting in their own Olympic year rather than being the follow up to the Summer Games they have sought for many years their own individual identity – what seems clear is that they are very much finding their self.

Great Britain on snow and ice – a brief history of involvement at the Winter Olympics

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By Simon Rea

Out in the cold: Britain’s medal tally at the Winter Olympics

Great Britain’s recent involvement in the Summer Olympics has been an overwhelming success. It culminated with a third place finish in the medal table winning a total of 65 medals at the London Olympic Games of 2012 and many GB athletes becoming household names.  But how does this compare to Britain’s performances at the Winter Olympics? Ask most British people what they know about the Winter Olympics and they will reply with Torville and Dean, Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards and something about skeleton Bob!

So are the Winter Olympics less relevant for a country that has few mountains where skiing is possible and no sliding facilities? Or is it something to get excited about and hopeful for British success?

Unfortunately, history is not on our side.  Compare the total medal hauls for the Summer and Winter Olympics:

  • Summer Olympics – Total: 780 medals (236 gold, 272 silver and 272 bronze)
  • Winter Olympics – Total: 22 medals (9 gold, 3 silver and 10 bronze)

Whilst acknowledging that these statistics are skewed because there are fewer medals available at the Winter Olympics, Britain has achieved under 3% of its Olympic medals at the Winter Olympics. Added to this Britain’s best performance at a Winter Olympic Games came at the first, held in Chamonix in 1924.  Great Britain secured four medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze).  This performance achieved a sixth place in the medals table in comparison to sixteenth in 2010.  Along the way there have been some highpoints for British performers as well as several low-points, which may be best forgotten.

Success on the ice

In the late 1970s and early 1980s British figure skaters were prominent on the podium.  John Curry and Robin Cousins winning gold medals in the men’s singles figure skating in 1976 and 1980 respectively. Then in 1984 Christopher Dean and Jayne Torville won gold in the ice dancing and famously achieved the highest score for a single routine with twelve 6.0s and six 5.9s for their Bolero routine.  This was an all-time Olympic highlight.  They tried to repeat their success in 1994 but pushed the rules too far with a controversial assisted lift and had to settle for bronze.

British athletes have found success in the skeleton event which was introduced at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. This is an event where the athlete lies face down on a small steel sled and hurtles down an ice track at speeds of around 90 mph. British success in the skeleton was started in 2002 by Alex Coomber who won a bronze medal, an amazing feat considering that she had broken her wrist ten days prior to the event!  This was followed up by a silver medal for Shelley Rudman in 2006 and then a gold medal in 2010 for Amy Williams.  Currently, British women top the medal tables for this event.

As the sport of curling has Scottish origins it is one where we may expect that British athletes have found success.  In fact, Great Britain won the men’s event in 1924 and were the holders of the Olympic title until it was reintroduced into the Olympics in 1998.  Continuing the trend Rhona Martin’s team dramatically won gold in 2002 with the last stone of the competition, since then medals have been in short supply.

Frozen in time

With the exception of achievements in speed skating (Nicky Gooch, 1994) and in bobsleigh (Sean Olsson’s four, 1998) medals have been sparse on the ground.  Interestingly, one British failure at the Winter Olympics is remembered as fondly as the successes.  Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards became an all-time Olympic hero in 1988 when he became the first (and still only) British competitor in the 70 m and 90 m ski jumps.  Eddie was a dedicated athlete who had tried to qualify for the British ski team in 1984 but had failed to make the team.  Not disheartened by failure he moved to Lake Placid and began training for the ski jump. However, he had two main problems – he was too heavy and he was long sighted.  In ski jumping it pays to be light because gravity will bring the heavier jumper to the ground more quickly. It also pays not to have to wear glasses as they become steamed up in cold weather.  Unfortunately Eddie came last in both events after which the IOC changed the rules to restrict the competition to ski jumpers who had achieved a certain standard. As a result Eddie failed to qualify for the next three Olympic Games.  Eddie the Eagle is an extraordinary story but spare a thought for the Finnish jumper who won the gold medal and whose victory was over shadowed by a jumper who finished over thirty metres behind him.

Skiing is another sport where British athletes have failed to gain a medal.  It looked like this had all changed in 2002 when Scottish skier, Alain Baxter, won a bronze medal in the slalom.  However, he was disqualified a few days later, when he was back home celebrating in Aviemore, having failed a drugs test.  He was found to have traces of methamphetamine in his body – this is a drug that had been in a Vicks inhaler he had used.  It transpired that the American version of the inhaler contained methamphetamine but the British version, which he usually used, did not.

Sochi 2014: British hopefuls set to break the ice

The lessons here are that if we are looking for British success in Sochi 2014 we should look at ice events such as curling, skeleton, speed skating and bobsleigh.  The attention of British viewers on the lookout for British success should be focused on some of the following athletes:

  • Lizzy Yarnold in the skeleton has won three World Cup races this season and has finished on the podium in every race.
  • Shelly Rudman who is the current skeleton world champion and looking to improve on her silver from 2006.
  • The women’s curling team and their skip, Eve Muirhead, are coached by Rhona Martin and are the current world champions.
  • Elise Christie in short track speed skating who is the current European champion at 1000 m and 1500 m.
  • John Jackson the pilot of the four man bobsleigh that just missed out a World Championship medal in 2013.

British hopes for Winter Olympics medals are usually modest. But this time maybe we can dream of beating our best performance of four medals in 1924 to match our best performance at a Summer Olympics in 2012.

Welcome

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By The Sport and Fitness Team at The Open University

Welcome to our Winter Olympics blog. We will be using this blog to post articles and comments relating to the 2014 Winter Olympics from our perspective as academics in sport and exercise science.

The Winter Olympics will be taking place in Sochi, Russia between 6th-23rd February 2014, and will no doubt provide an amazing spectacle of sport and plenty of opportunity to apply our knowledge of sport and exercise science.

We plan to cover a wide range of sport and fitness related topics in this blog over the coming weeks. We will be starting later in the week with an article by Simon Rea reviewing the success and failure of British athletes at the Winter Olympics in comparison to the Summer Olympics.

To make sure that you don’t miss out on any of our posts, follow us on Twitter (@OU_Sport)!