Melissa TaylorPersonal Inquiry

Project #1

Vancouver 2010

Olympic Rings

Blue = Europe

Green = Australia

Yellow = Asia

Red = The Americas

Black = Africa

The five interlocking rings represent five continents or major geographical areas of the world. The five main regions: Africa, the Americas (North and South America are combined), Asia, Europe and Oceania. As it says in the Olympic Charter, the five-ringed symbol "represents the union of the five continents and the meeting of athletes from throughout the world at the Olympic Games." The colors of the rings represent the flags of the countries that participate in the Olympics. Every flag of a country participating in the Olympics includes at least one of the following colors: blue, black, red, yellow, and green.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin conceived the design of both the rings and the flag. The Olympic Committee adopted the flag in 1914, and it was first flown at the 1920 Antwerp Games.

Events

*Alpine Skiing*Biathlon*Bobsled*Cross-Country*Curling*Figure Skating*Freestyle Skiing*Hockey*Luge*Nordic Combined*Short Track*Skeleton*Ski Jumping*Snowboarding*Speed Skating*Bulletin Boards

Click on the links below to move to a specific event or follow along.

Competing Countries

There are 97+ countries competing in the Vancouver Olympics.

Cost of tickets

Twenty per cent of Olympics tickets cost $25 or less. 50% of tickets cost $100 or less. Visa is the only accepted credit card.Adults, children, seniors, students and the disabled pay the same ticket prices. For some Olympic events, the number of tickets that each person can buy is limited.Opening Ceremony ticket prices range from $1,100, for Category A seats, to $175 for Category D seats. Closing Ceremony tickets cost from $775 for Category A seats to $175 for Category D.Prices for Victory Ceremony tickets are $22 for single tickets.

Mascots

Must have item

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Miga

Quatchi

Mukmuk

Alpine SkiingAlpine skiing was added to the Olympic program in 1936. Since 1988, the Olympic Alpine skiing program has consisted of ten medal events, five each for men and women: downhill , super-G, giant slalom, slalom, super combined. The speed events - downhill and super-G - are one-run events, where medals are awarded to the three fastest racers. The technical events - giant slalom and slalom - are two-run events, where medals are awarded to the three fastest racers based on their combined times in the two runs.

BiathlonNot to be confused with Nordic combined, the two-discipline sport of biathlon challenges competitors to cross country ski quickly and efficiently and shoot accurately in a prone and standing position using .22 caliber small-bore rifles during intermittent stops at a shooting range.

Men's biathlon was introduced to the Olympic program at the 1960 Squaw Valley Games, while women's biathlon first made its appearance at the 1992 Albertville Games. At Whistler Olympic Park, five events will be contested for each gender. The competition format is the same for men and women, but the distances vary.

BobsledThere are three bobsled events on the 2010 Olympic program: the two- and four-man events and the women's event, which made its Olympic debut at the 2002 Salt Lake Games.

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) may qualify up to three sleds in each event (two-man, four-man and women's). An NOC may enter a maximum of 12 athletes in the men's competition (13, if an NOC qualifies three two-man teams, three four-man teams and has more than two drivers) and six in the women's competition. A nation has the right to choose which athletes it enters.

Cross-CountryCross-country skiing has been contested at every Winter Olympics since the 1928 Chamonix Games. It involves skiing over various distances and terrains in two different techniques in the quickest time possible.

The classical skiing technique utilizes a kicking and gliding motion along a course with a prepared track. The freestyle technique utilizes a faster, skating motion along a smoothed course.

CurlingCurling is a competition between two teams with four players each. The game is played on ice and the two teams take turns pushing 42-pound stones towards a series of concentric circles. The object is to get the stones as close to the center of the circles as possible. The center of the circles is known as the tee. A team scores a point for each stone that is closer to the tee than the opponents' best stone, provided that the stone is within 6 feet (1.83 meters) of the tee. This circular area is known as the house; it is the scoring zone in curling.  

Figure SkatingThe Olympic figure skating competition consists of four medal events: ladies' singles, men's singles, pairs and ice dancing. The singles and pairs events consist of two portions: the short program and the free skate. There are three phases of competition in ice dancing: the compulsory dance, the original dance and the free dance. In the Singles events, the 24 best placed skaters in the Short Program qualify to skate the Free Program. In the Pairs event the skaters placed 1-20 after the Short Program qualify for the Free Program. The Ice Dancing competition consists of a Compulsory Dance, an Original Dance and a Free Dance, in which all competitors take part.

Freestyle SkiingMogul skiers race down a slope with an average incline of 26.5 degrees over large uniform bumps called moguls . In order to receive good scores, competitors must make high-quality, aggressive turns while remaining in the fall line. In aerials competitions, athletes perform various combinations of flips, twists and tucks off of snow-packed jumps with takeoff angles ranging from 60 to 70 degrees. Skiers choose a point on the ramp to begin, calculating the location carefully in order to attain the necessary speed to execute a planned maneuver. Much like snowboard cross, the Ski Cross features four riders on the course simultaneously, who must navigate jumps and turns in an effort to reach the finish line first.

There are six freestyle skiing events: Moguls, Aerials, & Ski Cross.

Hockey

A team must not have more than six players on the ice while play is in progress. Typically, those players are: one goaltender, two defensemen, two wings and one center. A lesser amount of players can be on the ice as a result of penalties; a goaltender can be replaced by a skater during a delayed penalty or at any other time of the game, at a team's own risk. A regular game consists of three 20-minute periods with 15-minute intermission after the first and second periods. Teams change ends for each period.

If any game is tied at the end of regulation time, a five-minute, ten-minute or twenty-minute sudden-death overtime period will be played with teams of four skaters and one goalkeeper each.

If no goal is scored in overtime, the game will be decided by a shootout. Three players of each team shoot alternately until a decisive goal is scored. The remaining shots will not be taken. If the result is still tied after 3 shots by each team the procedure shall continue with a tie-break shoot-out by one player of each team, with the same or new players with the other team starting to take the tie-break shots. The same player can also be used for each shot by a team in the tie-break shoot-out. The game is finished as soon as a duel of two players brings the decisive result.  

LugeLuge consists of three events: men's singles, women's singles, and doubles.

The athlete(s) who navigates the course in the fastest total time after four singles runs or two doubles runs is the winner. In all cases, time is measured to the thousandth of a second, making luge and short track speed skating the most precisely timed events of the Winter Games.

Nordic CombinedNordic combined involves ski jumping and cross-country skiing in two separate events held on one day. Athletes in this sport exhibit the fearlessness of a ski jumper and the endurance of a cross-country skier. Nordic Combined is one of only two sports on the Olympic program (ski jumping is the other) where only men compete.

There are three events on the 2010 Olympic program: Individual Normal Hill, Individual Large Hill, & Team

Short TrackCompetition takes place on a 111.12-meter oval laid out on an indoor rink built to international ice hockey dimensions (NHL rinks are about 4 meters too narrow). There are no lanes. Only the turns are marked, and seven cones delineate each one.

There are four men and women’s events. The men race in the 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, and 5000 m relay. The women race in the 500 m, 1000 m, 1500 m, and 3000 m relay.

SkeletonThere are two events, men's and women's. Women's skeleton is being contested for the third time (2002 was the first). Men's skeleton was contested in 1928 and 1948, both times the Winter Games were held in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and in 2002 and 2006. In both events the competitors speed down the course while lying face first on a one-person sled.

Ski JumpingThere are three ski jumping events: Normal hill (K95), Large hill (K125), & Team event (K125).The "K" refers to the K-point - the point on the respective hills that is used to calculate distance points awarded to jumpers. On the normal hill, the K-point is 95 meters from the takeoff, and on the large hill, the K-point is 125 meters from the takeoff. The normal hill and large hill are both individual events, in which the competitor receiving the most points (awarded for a combination of distance and style) will win gold. The team (K125) competition is contested on the large hill, with four jumpers per country. The nation with the highest cumulative score from all its combined jumps wins gold.

SnowboardingThere are six snowboarding events on the 2010 Olympic program: Men's halfpipe, Women's halfpipe, Men's parallel giant slalom, Women's parallel giant slalom, Men's snowboard cross, & Women's snowboard cross.

Both halfpipe events were contested at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, where snowboarding made its Olympic debut. The parallel giant slalom events appeared on the Olympic program for the first time in 2002, replacing the two giant slalom events that were contested in Nagano. The snowboard cross events made their debut on the Olympic program at the 2006 Torino Games.

Speed SkatingOne of six sports to have been a part of every Olympic Winter Games. Athletes race over artificial ice at speeds up to 60 km/hr (37mph). Athletes often skate in a hunched position to reduce air resistance. Two athletes skate in each race, but they are competing against the clock and not each other. Each competitor is assigned his or her own lane and must skate counter-clockwise around the rink, changing lanes at the crossover point in each lap. The skater with the fastest time of all competitors wins the event. In the 500m, the athlete with the fastest total time from both races wins.

Bulletin Boards On this board I have given facts about the Olympics. It displays the motto, the torch, the flame, the medals, the events, the date of each Winter Olympic games and what each ring stands for. Also featured on this board are pictures representing each item.

On this board I will be keeping track of the medals of the top five countries. I decided on these five countries by researching on the NBC Olympics website. Listed on this site are the All-Time Winter Standings for the countries that have won the most medals in the Winter Olympics. They are listed in order on the board from greatest amount of wins to least.