As the world’s eyes once again gaze upon another spectacle of the world’s fittest and fastest competing this time Pyeongchang winter Olympics, we often will find ourselves wondering what we are even watching.
Pyeongchang as well as being the focal point of the latest North Korea South Korea relations will also be displaying some of the world’s least understood snowy sports. Here are our favorite strange winter Olympic sports.
Equestrian skijoring
This is definitely one of our favorites, and while you won’t see it in the South Korean Olympic games, people do actually still compete in the sport. This involves a person being pulled along on skis by a horse. There are two types of equestrian skijoring, one involves a riderless horse and the other involves someone on the horse guiding it while having someone behind on skis. The horse pulls the skier through a course that has jumps and obstacles and must be led by an extremely well-trained animal. There is also such thing as motorized skijoring whereby people are pulled along by vehicles such as motorbikes!
Skeleton
Skeleton involves a person running along with a small board which is then used to slide along a track. This insane sport is still running in Pyeongchang and is one of the most dangerous Olympics sports still running! Riders can get up to speeds over 130km per hour and experience the equivalent of 5gs of forces.
Curling
Everyone secretly loves curling. There is not a single time where you will sit down to watch the Olympic, see a sport (no matter how strange) and instantly become an expert. Curling is no exception. Curling looks extremely simple and when you compare it to other Olympic sports such as decathlon or marathon seems relatively effortless, however, it is intense! Players slide a large puck down the ice with the aim of getting it as close to a target as possible, similar to lawn bowls but icy. While the puck slides down players will skate alongside with brooms, sweeping the ice to control its speed towards the goal. Canada currently holds the position of the world’s curling champion, which I’m sure is something to be proud of…maybe.
Winter Pentathlon
This sport makes people exhausted just hearing about it. It is by far one of the most intense sports you’d ever see people compete in, with a range of events simply thrown together to test…well, everything. It is a combination of cross-country skiing, shooting, downhill skiing, fencing and horseback riding. Unfortunately, this sport was only demonstrated at the 1948 winter Olympics so we won’t be seeing it make a return to Pyeongchang.
Take some time to watch the 2018 Winter Olympics, even if you’re not into the sport it’s one of the times that people can really get into something they don’t understand just for the purpose of supporting your home country!
This Olympics is sure to be a historic one as well with joint teams of North and South Korea competing together in events! Stay tuned!
Love winter sports?
How about skiing in North Korea?
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