The following are range safety rules that should be observed at all events. They will be covered at the mandatory rifle clinics prior to each race. They are all pretty much “common sense” rules.

• Always follow the instructions of the designated shooting range official
• While on the range, only WALKING is allowed*.
• Rifle bolt is always left open when you are not actually shooting in Summer Biathlon.
• You will get into position before the range official hands you the rifle and magazine; you will hand the rifle back to the range official before leaving the shooting station.*
• Barrel of the rifle is always pointed in a safe direction – e.g. down range
• Do not load a magazine (clip) until you are in position
• Keep your finger off the trigger until you are in position, pointed at a target, and ready to shoot
• You will immediately stop shooting, open your bolt, and step back from the firing line if anyone calls out “Cease fire”. Anyone who sees an unsafe condition should immediately call a “Cease fire”.
• Never cross the shooting line unless a cease fire has been declared and the range safety official has given the go-ahead
• If a rifle jams or misfires, keep the rifle pointed down range and call a range official. NEVER look down the barrel to investigate a misfire.
• Do not shoot if you can’t see the targets
• Keep the muzzle of the rifle out of the dirt (snow) – foreign matter in the barrel can cause a rupture.

If you are shooting your own rifle all of the above applies, and in addition:

• Always make sure your rifle and magazines are empty after the race.
• Don’t use high velocity ammunition – the summer biathlon targets in common use won’t hold up.
• For Winter Biathlon if you are skiing with your rifle, you may keep the bolt closed while skiing (to keep snow from entering the mechanism). However, not having the bolt open at any other time is an automatic disqualification.

* There is an exception to this rule for certain classes of competitors.

Step 1: Conditioning requirements to luge

Step 2: Equipment you will need to luge

In step 2 we explore the equipment needed for the luge event. This is vital to the protection and performance of the athlete.

Luge athletes value the following, more than they value a sense of style/fashion:

• Aerodynamics – Equipment designed to cut through wind resistance
• Minimized friction – Try on all clothes as a suit (sometimes individual pieces fit, but do not assemble well, all clothing needs to be tight but also cover the body
• Reduced weight – Clothing should be as lightweight as possible

Luge Sled A luge consists of a piece of fiberglass which has been mounted on two metal steels. The pod is where the luge athlete’s body is placed. The steels are the only luge part, which make contact with the ice. The luge runners are the main method in which the luge is steered. The runners steer using legs, which apply pressure on either side to control direction. The luge direction can also be controlled by making movements of the shoulder which move body weight from side to side. There are also two grips on the two sides of the luge; these grips are the only hold the luge athlete has to stay onboard. The luge weighs approximately 50 – 60 pounds (or 23-27 kg) and typically stretches from the slider’s shoulders to their knees. No head support is provided.

Luge Helmet Luge helmets are a critical speed and safety feature. They feature a rounded plastic visor along with a thin layer of protective padding to protect the head and prevent concussions. A good helmet is designed specifically to reduce aerodynamic drag effects. A helmet allows for a wider, complete track viewpoint and extends under the chin, which reduces friction.

Racing suit Luge suits are entirely smooth and contain no zippers and/or snaps, which would slow down sliders during a race. Luge suits are skin tight, which enables air to pass over the body with minimal friction. Most luge teams wear racing suits, which share common color schemes and graphics.

Luge spiked gloves Luge gloves are available from specialist winter sports suppliers. Luge gloves are quite similar to soccer goal keeper’s gloves and have a thin layer across the backhand. Luge gloves have spikes contained in the palm of the hand and along the tips of the fingers. These spikes enable riders to grip the ice during the start of the luge run.

Racing booties Luge racing booties resemble just the inner lining of winter boots. Regrettably booties provide fairly minimal protection from the cold. The booties straighten out a rider’s feet and increase speed along the luge track. The luge booties zippers draw the sliders feet into a perfectly straight position, which causes frontal drag to be minimized.

Step 3: Technique required to luge

In step 3 we discuss the technique required throughout a luge run..

Luge technique The slider uses the spiked fingers of their gloves to paddle the luge from the starting gate. A slider needs to be extremely strong to make the luge move initially. Once the slider has got the luge to move, gravity kicks in and speed naturally accelerates. As the slider steers throughout the course, friction is the main enemy to speed and works against gravity to slow the slider down.

As the start of the downhill section approaches, the slider lies prone on the sled. This is the body position for the remainder of the run. From this prone position, the slider can only life their head slightly to calculate the route down the course. The slider navigates the courses straights, twists and turns whilst trying to keep their body both tight and relaxed.

Tight but relaxed is not easy to achieve whilst the slider is going down a luge course at speeds of up to 90MPH. The sliders body needs to be rigid to maximize acceleration. This is because any slight movements will increase the friction between the luge and the course. The slider needs to be relaxed enough though to absorb the pressures/forces being experienced during the run. Steering will increase friction; therefore the slider steers as little as possible and only when absolutely necessary.

The cold weather is calling for a little outdoor fun. What’s more fun and exciting than a ride down abobsleigh? Before you hit the hills, it’s best to know the precautions and instructions to avoid a substantial injury.

The bobsled was created in Switzerland in the late19th century. To attempt greater speed down the Cresta Run at St. Mortiz, a few runners thought to place themselves on a toboggan, which is a simple sled. From there, the sport took too as people all over the world enjoyed racing on bobsleds down steep and narrow courses.
The bobsled got its name when early racers believed they could get even more speed by bobbing their bodies backward and forward. Although the practice was a failure, the name stuck.
As an Olympic sport, the run is at least 1,500 meters long and it includes 15 to 20 turns. A competitive run is prepared by “laying wet snow over a concrete or stone foundation then soaking the snow with water.”

Ice sidewalls keep sleds from flying off the run on the straightaways while banks help to contain the sleds. Once the course and teams are prepared, the race becomes about “the driver’s ability to get to the greatest possible speed out of the sled.”

The run includes maneuvering around turns at speeds of almost 100 miles an hour. The back passenger, or the brake man, brings the sled to a safe stop at the end.

As the Olympics will illustrate, there’s a lot of concentration, focus, and skill that is required to perform in the sport. Before you begin, ensure that you have a team of two-to-four members that you trust. You don’t want to be hurling down a straightaway with a group that you wouldn’t trust with your own safety. Once you’ve selected your team, it’s time to hit the run!

Step 1: Know Where To Be

The Paralymic Games are for athletes with disabilities that prevent them from competing in the Olympic Games. The games were first held in 1976 in Sweden and are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Since 1988 the Paralympic Games have been hosted by the same city and often in the same venues as the Olympic Games; they normally take place a couple of weeks after the Olympics. The Winter Paralympic Games features five different events: sledge hockey, cross-country skiing, biathalon, alpine skiing, and wheelchair curling.

Wheelchair curling
Wheelchair curling was developed in the 1990s in Switzerland; the first World Curling Championship was held in that country in 2002. It was added to the Paralympic Games in 2006 in Torino, Italy. Canada won the first gold medal in the sport. The sport is regulated by the World Curling Federation.

While regular Olympic curling features two teams of 4 players competing for points, wheelchair curling only really needs two players on each team. They play on the same rink and use the same rocks as regular curling. These rinks are 45-46 m in length and 4.5-5 m in width. A vertical line is drawn down the middle from one end to the other. Horizontal lines named hoglines are also painted 11m from each end. Three circles (blue, white and red usually) are also painted at each end and are called the house. Rocks can be thrown by leaning over the side of the wheelchair or pushed with a special pole with a bracket attached. There is no sweeping.

Teams in wheelchair curling must be made up of both men and women and the games are 8 ends each with 8 rocks being thrown by each team in each round. Rocks must be thrown within 18 inches of the centre line, and the rock must be thrown before the hogline is reached. After 8 rocks are thrown by each team in the end, one team scores a point for each rock that is closer to the centre of the house than the other team’s. Each team has a time limit of 68 minutes and are allowed one 60 second time out; if a team goes over their allotted time they automatically lose the game. If a team believes they have no change of winning, they can forfeit the game. To qualify for wheelchair curling, an athlete must be either dependent on a wheelchair to get around or be unable to walk short distances.

In successive Olympic Games some of the courses and events are becoming faster, more difficult and therefore more dangerous. The margin of error allowed by a competitor becomes smaller and smaller and big adjustments are required by these elite athletes to accommodate these course changes.

Where should the line be drawn on Olympic event safety?

Olympic Sponsorship and Broadcast Rights

The Olympic Games are spectator sports worth billions of dollars in revenue. In Canada, the cost of buying the broadcast rights for the 2010 Games hit a record-breaking $90 million for Vancouver, up from $28 million in Turin in 2006 and from $12 million for the Lillehammer Games in 1994.

According to an article on the Toronto Star’s website, TheStar.com, Jim Little, chief brand and communications officer of the The Royal Bank of Canada, which paid $110 million for the rights to the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and London 2012 Games, says it’s well worth it. “It’s the biggest marketing platform in the world”.

It is no secret that tragedy, danger and spectacular accidents generate keen media interest.

When it comes to extreme sports such as high altitude mountaineering the accidents and disasters regularly receive more coverage than successes.

In an article titled “Women’s Olympic downhill course takes a bite out of competition”, Jim Morris, reporting for the online edition of the Canadian Press on the 17.02.2010, said of the spectacular crashes in the women’s downhill event in Whistler, “It was ugly but riveting to watch”.

Olympic Luge Tragedy

A few hours before the Olympic Games opening ceremony, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died in a horrific crash, flying off the luge course at 145 km/h during a training run and colliding with an un-padded steel pole. The international federation that governs luge racing claimed that the track was safe. The accident was deemed to be the fault of the inexperienced competitor who failed to control his sled.

During training runs at the Whistler Sliding Centre where the tragedy took place athletes were attaining unprecedented speeds on the luge track. Designed for speeds of 137 km/h (85 miles/h), the track was delivering speeds above 150 km/h, 9 miles/h faster than the standing 2000 world speed record.

According to an article: “Speed and Commerce Skewed Track’s Design” in the Wall Street Journal online edition, the first choice of Grouse Mountain for the sliding centre was abandoned because Whistler would be a more financially viable location after the Games. As a result, the track designers had to fit the track into a narrower valley, which meant a steeper slope and tighter turns.

While absolving themselves of blame for the accident the luge federation fixed the corner where the accident took place by replacing it with a wall and lowered the start gate of the course to slow the sleds.

Women’s Olympic Downhill Run

In an accident reminiscent of Austrian downhiller Hermann Maier’s hair-raising crash in the 1998 Nagano Games, Swedish alpine star, Anje Paerson was fortunate to escape severe injury after a spectacular crash during the women’s Olympic downhill run on the almost 3 km Franz’s course. Paerson flew 60 metres before crashing into the piste.

Due to warm weather that initially postponed the event, the women only had one warm-up run on the downhill course (instead of the standard two runs). The warm-up run they had was in two sections, squeezed between men’s events. Trying to hold another training would have delayed the women’s downhill. That would have meant rescheduling television times and putting more pressure on a schedule already upset by bad weather.

German competitor Maria Riesch, a downhill veteran and pre-race favourite, declared the course the most difficult that she has ever skied. As reported to the Canadian Press, digital version on the 17.02.2010 Riesch said, “When I was down in the finish I thought I was going to die.” Though a pre-race favourite Reisch finished eighth. “My legs were dead. It was so tiring.”

According to Reuters USA online edition, Canadian competitor Emily Brydon said, “The reason for the carnage is that it’s a long run for the women and you’re exhausted when you reach the bottom, which makes those last jumps really tricky,” she added.

The women’s race director, Atle Skaardal said later that the course, where women were reaching speeds of just under 110 km/h, will be changed for safety reasons. “We will try to ease things down a little bit,” Skaardal said.

Similarly to the reaction to the tragedy in the luge event, a lower start position will be used.

Olympic Athletes Compete on the Edge

In speed events which may well be considered extreme sports, Olympic athletes are often competing on the edge of their ability and the limit of control since the difference between a medal or indeed the top ten placements is often a matter of hundredths of a second. Serious crashes, career -threatening injuries are not surprise occurrences at the Olympics. Elite athletes compete at speeds regularly in excess of 100 km/h when a single mistake can be very costly in terms of their performance and their safety. The winner of the gold medal is often arguably the competitor who reaches the brink of disaster without toppling over the edge.

Do you recognize the names Giant Slalom, Luge, and Curling? Yes? Then you must be ready for the Winter Olympics! Here are a few suggestions to make them more meaningful to your children:

1. Let each child or small group of children choose an event to research. The events may be their favorites or ones they would like to know more about. (NOTE: A list of Winter Olympic events is at the end of this article.)

2. Tell the children what you want them to find out…the history of the sport, the rules of it, the equipment needed, people who have performed that event in past Winter Olympics…whatever you decide. This will keep them focused and help them write their reports using main ideas.

3. Classify the Olympic events into categories. Which take place on the snow? On the track? On the rink?

4. Make a video collage with snippets of each event.

5. Hold your own Winter Olympics! If you live where it does not snow, use props that can substitute for skis (shoeboxes, foil), ski poles (broomsticks), and whatever else you can find. Amend the rules for your age group. For the Medal Ceremony, use gold, silver, and copper pens to make the ribbons. Have your children sequence the activities in which they participated.

6. Alphabetize the names of the Olympic events.

7. Use a TV Guide to practice reading schedules and find the days, times, and channels for specific sports.

Here is a list of Winter Olympic events:

Giant Slalom, Luge, Curling, Speed Skating, Ski Jumping, Freestyle Aerials, Biathlon, Super-G, Ice Dancing, Cross Country, Combined Downhill, Slalom, Short Track, Bobsleigh, Nordic Combined,

Figure Skating, Freestyle Moguls, Snowboarding, Ice Hockey, Downhill, Skeleton

Enjoy the Winter Olympics!

I hope these ideas are useful and inspire your own creative thinking.

And remember…Reading is FUNdamental!