The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are rapidly approaching with athletes from all around the globe preparing to compete for the first place medal. The winter Olympics are considerably smaller than the summer Olympics as there are less options for winter sports played as during the summer ones. There are also fewer countries and athletes competing as several countries don't have these sports or the weather or terrain to sustain a winter sport. This does not always stop athletes, however, as evidenced by the Jamaican bobsledding team years ago. They took strong runners and athletes from Jamaica and taught them the basics of the bobsled using a wooden cart on wheels. Their initial particpation into the Olympics was a great crowd pleaser. This article mentions a few of the various sports at the Olympics Games performed by some athletes like the telluride ski instructor that teaches telluride ski lessons and will be participating in the giant Slalom event.

Ice hockey is one of the favorite fan spectator sports to witness at the Olympic games. One of the most famous gold medal final games was the 1980 match of the USA against Russia where the US came out on top. It had always been a sport for just men but now women's ice hockey is also in the Olympics. Other types of skating sports that are popular is speed skating, ice dancing and figure skating. These popular competitions bring in large audiences.

The USA team has always had top performers in these events as well with Apolo Anton Ohno skating in his third Olympic games this year in speed short track skating. Figure skating success stories in the past have been Dorothy Hamill, Scott Hamilton and Nancy Kerrigan who missed out on winning gold when her competitions boyfriend injured her in an attack the day before competition.

Some of the sports that spectators enjoy watching are the ones that they only get to witness on the Olympics like bobsledding, luge or curling. These less popular sports get their spotlight during the Olympic games where they can exhibit their abilities and talents in sports that are not normally played in every state or country. Bobsledding and luge are exciting and fast races where a sled races down an icy tube to the finish. In order to find athletes for these sports some coaches visit other states to seek out younger kids that may have an interest or knack for it. This happened in Colorado where members of the USA Luge organization put on a demo and got some interested children involved. Two of the athletes competed in the 2008 Olympic Games as a result of this exhibition. Curling is a sport that is mainly played in the norhtern midwest and is a slower more strategic sport much like bocce ball but on ice.

Downhill ski racing and Nordic skiing are also big sports in the winter Olympics. The downhill skiers and snowboarders thrive on speed and an element of danger and the Nordic skier have extreme stamina and endurance.