Obscure Winter Olympic Sports

The XXV Winter Olympic games started this weekend in Milano Cortina, Italy. While sports like figure skating, skiing and ice hockey will take the top billing, there are some obscure sports games which will take place.

Some of the lesser-known Winter Olympic sports:

Biathlon 

What is it?  It combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. The sport of biathlon involves many different types of races, with the commonality being contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds called bouts. The shooting rounds do not have a time limit, but depending on the competition, missed shots result in extra distance or time being added to the contestant's total.

Olympic favorites:  France, Norway, Sweden

Curling

What is it? Players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across the ice curling sheet toward the house, a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones, with each player throwing two. The goal is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the center of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones once. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends.

Olympic favorites:  Great Britain, Canada, Switzerland

Short-track speed skating

What is it?  It is a form of competitive ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters (typically between four and six) skate on an oval ice track with a length of 111.111 metres (364.54 ft). The rink itself is 60 metres (196.85 ft) long by 30 metres (98.43 ft) wide, which is the same size as an Olympic-sized figure skating rink and an international-sized ice hockey rink. Related sports include long-track speed skating and inline speed skating.

Olympic favorites:  South Korea, China, Italy

Ski mountaineering

What is it?  It is a skiing discipline that involves climbing mountains either on skis or carrying them, depending on the steepness of the ascent, and then descending on skis. There are two major categories of equipment used: free-heel telemark skis and skis based on alpine skis, where the heel is free for ascents, but is fixed during descent. The discipline may be practiced recreationally or as a competitive sport.

Olympic favorites:  France, Italy, Spain

Skeleton

What is it?  It is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled (or bobsleigh), down a frozen track while lying face down and head-first. The sport and the sled may have been named for the sled's resemblance to a ribcage.

Olympic favorites:  Great Britain, Germany, United States