Oddest Skills Combination
V E RSUS
Inside the Rings
SUMMER
BY CHAD FINN The 2018 Winter Olympics are underway in Pyeongchang, South Korea, but the contest we want to see is Winter Games against Summer Games. Both are highly watched extravaganzas. But only one can stand atop the podium.
Steeplechase, essentially a 3,000-meter obstacle course with a giant puddle. Sort of like jogging alongside the Charles in the spring.
Sports Played with Brooms WINTER
Top speeds
Curling, a sport popular in Canada that somehow makes sweeping on ice look fun.
Best Picture
WINTER
WINTER
Bobsled: ~95 MPH
SUMMER
David Broome, a Welsh show jumping champion, competed in five Olympics.
SUMMER
Cycling: ~45 MPH WINTER
SUMMER
Speedskating: > 30 MPH SUMMER
100M Dash: < 24 MPH
Miracle (2004). Kurt Russell channels 1980 US men’s hockey coach Herb Brooks’s guile and glare. But why does Easton’s Jim Craig have a New York accent?
Number of Sports
Chariots of Fire (1981). Actually won Best Picture, along with three other Oscars. Admit it: When you run on the beach, its theme song plays in your head.
Regional Dominance WINTER
Andrea Mead Lawrence (VT-skiing), Mike Eruzione (MA-hockey), Nancy Kerrigan (MAfigure skating) SUMMER
Aly Raisman (MAgymnastics), Joan Benoit Samuelson (ME-marathon), Jenny Thompson (NHswimming)
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T H E B O STO N G LO B E M AGA Z I N E
Most Extreme Sport WINTER
Ski jumping. It gave Wide World of Sports viewers the visual for “the agony of defeat.” SUMMER
Eventing. This equine sport includes dressage, show jumping and cross-country. Accidents are sometimes fatal, which led Time to ask if it is “The Olympics’ Most Dangerous Sport?”
Verdict SUMMER
These Games have more variety . . .
WINTER ... but snow-capped scenery and frost-proof athletes win the gold!
S O U R C E S : I M D B . C O M , O LY M P I C . O R G , S P O R T S I L L U S T R AT E D , Y O U T U B E , S P O R T S - R E F E R E N C E . C O M , T I M E M A G A Z I N E , T H E N E W YO R K T I M E S , A B C N E W S , S P O R T S . J R A N K . O R G ; P H OTO G R A P H S A N D I M A G E S F R O M A P
WINTER
Biathlon combines crosscountry skiing and rifle shooting, something only a survivalist or Bond villain would need.