I have to admit that I have enjoyed watching the Winter Olympic Games on television.
The one nice thing that makes watching the various events is that there are several stations that carry the Games and you can pick and choose the sports you want to watch. It seems that there are a few added sports, or a variety of a sport with either added members to a team or instead of a team entry it is now a single person competing.
The different ways that you can slide down an ice chute at 70 miles per hour in a luge (feet first), a skeleton (head first), or in a bobsled alone or with team members makes a person wonder why would you do something that can cause serious injury learning the fine points of that sport?
One interesting point that was included besides the sport itself was some background on how a particular athlete reached the status of an Olympiccaliber athlete. The two factors that seemed to be the main focus was to start at an early age and have exercises or other sports to give them the necessary skill to do their Olympic sport.
The early age start was brought out in the book “The Sports Gene,” by David Epstein. One of his focus points was about how athletes from Ethiopia, Kenya, and Africa in general seemed to dominate winning marathons. He wrote how at a young age in an underdeveloped country if you wanted to get from one place to another you ran. Running became a natural method of travel and as the body matured it was an easy transition to running long distances such as a marathon.
The television showed several videos taken when the athlete was at a very young age and was falling or wobbling around as they tried to skate for the first time. A young girl was ‘dancing’ while watching a figure skater do her routine on the ice. At a later age she was dancing on ice skates and if she had the desire and ability to reach an elite level, the Olympics were a possibility.
The other method was doing exercises that improved the strength for the sport. A short segment showed Eric Heiden at the Games. Heiden dominated the speed skating venue during his Olympics time. I remember watching his events and was so envious of the development of his upper thighs. They reminded me of pistons propelling him around the ice.
He used a sliding board, now called the ‘Heiden Board,’ that had him pushing off side blocks and sliding across the board to another block and pushing back and forth. He was also a very accomplished and competitive bicycle rider that aided in developing his legs. Watching the skaters today warm up for their event you see them pedaling on a stationary bike back in a training room.
The figure skaters doing the lifts and stunts and balances while skating spent many hours in a gym with padded mats and spotting belts learning the different moves. Falling on padded mats is better and safer than landing on hard ice. And to make the routine flow from one stunt to another required a coach in dance or gymnastic balances. This was very seldom mentioned, but exercise and practice off the ice required many hours of their time.
There are two other factors that contribute to an athlete’s success that are not part of the training and practice. One is body shape and mental motivation. Depending on the sport being too tall or too short and even body weight can be a deciding factor. The mentality to train hard and the desire to focus on being an Olympic athlete has to be part of the equation.
Another is the availability of facilities and equipment. How many know where you will practice sliding on a luge, skeleton, or bobsled? Ever wonder how many states have an ice slide where you can go and try the sport out and then have a luge or skeleton sled to use? How about a downhill mountain to ski on in Texas? Or a ski jump ramp to fly through the air and practice every day?
