The Winter Olympics are a thrilling selection of games that attract everybody from every corner of the globe! Whether you live in Italy, America, or China, you can enjoy the Winter Olympics all the same! There are many games that are in the Winter Olympics like ice hockey, figure skating and snowboarding, but there are a few less common ones that usually escape the public eye!
The first wacky sport is called Ice stock. This is when two teams of four players aim to get their stock (pucks) as close to something called the Daube as possible. The Daube is a rubber dick like shape that serves as a target for the competitors to aim for. The team that gets the closest wins! This sounds oddly close to the sport that we all have seen at least once: curling. They both have a puck and a marker to aim for, but they have a few differences. The first is that curing uses sweeping to create or reduce friction on the ice, which controls how far the puck moves. Curling is also done on pebbled ice. However, Ice stock is done on thick, unbroken ice and is done without sweeping. Ice stock is no longer in the Olympics because the more popular sport ,curling, was too similar to it, and got more people to watch.
Next, we have a sport called skeleton. This sport is when you run as fast as you can, throw down your very small but nimble sled, and slide head first on ice at speeds of up to almost 81 miles per hour. I would be terrified if I had to do this and would not touch it with a ten foot pole, but this sport is actually quite popular in Great Britain, the United States of America, Germany, and Switzerland. Although this sport is popular, it is very dangerous because if you fall off, you are rolling on hard ice at high speeds and crashing into the closed wall. There have been many reports of traumatic brain injuries and even death from this sport. Despite this, it is still in the Winter Olympics and this year in 2026, the U.S.A placed seventh, with the female gold medalist being from Austria, and the male from Great Britain.
The next sport and one of the most impressive sports to watch is called aerials. It is kind of like an aerial trick where you do a cart well with a little pop and do not use your hands. However, this sport is not just the trick, it is 10 levels higher. Not only are contestants on skis, but they build momentum, slide up a large ramp, fling themselves into the air, and do crazy acrobatic skills. An aerial trick is only 360 degree turns slightly off the ground, but the sport aerial is doing 720 and 1,080 degree turns at a standard. The most anybody has ever turned in this sport was when competitor Noè Roth did a full-triple-full-full trick in the 2022 games. This is 5 twists(1,800 degree turns) and 3 flips (1,080 degree turns). This adds up to 2,880 degrees and is one of the most impressive moments in all of aerial history. This year, China won both the female and the male bracket. These competitors were Xu Mangtoe for the female bracket, and Wang Xindi for the male bracket.
So, all in all, the Winter Olympics are home to many different unique sports that are practiced throughout the world, and is a very good opportunity to learn about them!
(below I have a list of every regular event that the U.S.A competitors have won a gold medal in)
The U.S.A won gold in-
- Team figure skating
- Alpine Skiing women’s downhill- Breezy Johnson
- Freestyle skiing- Elizabeth Lemley
- Speed skating mens 1000m- Jordan Stolz
- Speed skating mens 500m- Jordan Stolz
- Monobob- Elana Meyers Taylor
- Alpine skiing women’s slalom- Mikaela Shiffrin
- Womens ice hockey- Team U.S.A
- Figure skating women’s singles- Alyssa Liu
