Olympic Briefing: Spectator ClickPack Update

Press Clippings: About a week ago, we posted the first Spectator ClickPack. The idea was to gather, in one spot,lots of the key information necessary to get the most/see the most/learn the most from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Time marches on and since we’re in continual research mode here in the Media Bunker, we have discovered even more sites and information worthy of your time and your clicks. Below, the Sochi Spectator ClickPack Update.  Enjoy–and a reminder: coming up this weekend, the first Olympic Film Festival, something to fill in the time between big events. Some of the videos you might have seen before; most you have not. All made the podium.
 
The 2014 Winter Olympics Overview
An Interactive Map of the Sochi Winter Olympics
How to Watch The Olympics on A Phone or Tablet
The 2014 Olympics NBC Schedule 
The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Schedule 
The Cult of Mac Guide to Cutting The Cable on The Winter Olympics 
The New York Times Coverage of the 2014 Sochi Oympics
The Wall Street Journal Olympics Coverage
The NBC Olympics Site
The NYT Photography Firehose   (continuous live digital photo streams from the game)
BBC Coverage of Winter Olympics
CBC Coverage of 2014 Sochi Games

Olympic Briefing: The Cresta Run

Deep Background: In the previous post, I mentioned the legendary Cresta Run, (the previous link to the wiki is repeated)  located in St. Moritz, Switzerland. It was, for a time, the only place where the skeleton sleds ran (1928 and 1948) as an Olympic sport;prior to Olympic inclusion (Skeleton became a permanent Winter Olympic Sport in 2002), skeleton sledding on the Cresta was a unique sport in St. Moritz and taking a run was considered a right of passage of  men of any age, a high level social and athletic celebration.   In doing Olympic research, I uncovered a brilliant film that covers the 125 year history of the Cresta Run. The film was produced for the town of St. Moritz by the St. Mortiz Tobogganing Club (SMTC); it was premiered at the Swiss embassy in London earlier this year.  Since the Cresta Run has such a deep association with the sport’s ultimate inclusion in the modern Olympics, it seems appropriate to include the video as a special addition to the Olympic Briefing series.

Olympic Briefing: Skeleton

Press Clippings: The Olympic Skeleton run is a more traditional type of sledding in which the athlete rides lying face down on a prepared sled run. The sport was put into the Olympics on a permanent basis in 2002; previously, it had been featured in the 1928 and 1948 Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland only. St. Moritz is, not coincidentally, the home of the famed “Cresta Run“, which is built and maintained by the town of St. Moritz and the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club, one of the better athletic clubs in the world and one that is 100% amateur. The fact that it’s located in one of the great ski resorts of all time only adds to its glamour but the focus of the SMTC is the Cresta Run. The sleds are steered by a combination of weight and balance shift and using the toes of the sledder as “rudders”.  Modern skeleton’s are made primarily of metal and have no brakes or steering mechanisms . Here’s a really great–and appropriate–overview of the skeleton, from the Russian Bobsled Federation. And, if you want to know even more about how a skeleton sled actually works, check out this study by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which is exhaustively scientific (of course) but massively informative. View one of the Official Olympic videos on skeleton for a more visual introduction to the sport. But…with all of these references, you get the point: this is quite a sport and a very exciting one at that.

Olympic Briefing: Slopestyle Skiing

Paying Attention: Slopestyle Skiing is new to the Winter Olympics in 2014.  It’s the skiing equivalent of slopestyle snowboarding, a multi-facet aerobatics competition which has already run. Depending on your coordination, you might consider slopestyle skiing an order of magnitude more difficult than the snowboarding version simply because you have  two boards under your feet to maneuver and be aware of versus one bigger one. In the prelims, one thing we’ve seen that’s pretty spectacular is the slopestyle skiers’ skiing backwards down the course–that trick is made possible  by the fact that skiers face “forward” on their skis and have the ability to turn 180 degrees to ski backwards and snowboarders face sideways (in relation to  the snowboard), so there really isn’t a “backwards” component in snowboarding technique (“backside” in snowboarding is not the same as backwards on skis). Both slopestyle disciplines require amazing ability. Here’s a written brief on slope style, both skiing and snowboarding and heres the  Official Olympic Video on the sport. You’re now fully briefed. Settle in and enjoy the show.
 

Olympic Briefing: The Luge

Press Clippings: One of the more unusual downhill sports at the upcoming Olympics is the Luge. No doubt you’ve seen it before and said…”what the hell?”.
The luge is a small sled that can hold one or two people and is used to run a prepared course, down an icey chute, much like a bobsled run. The luge is best known as the sled on which the riders go down the course feet first, unlike the Flexible Flyer sleds that some people used growing up in which you went head first down the course.
Steered by flexing the sled’srunners by shifting body weight and nimble application of calf muscles, the luge seems like an accident waiting to happen. Hence our fascination.
The feet- first body position puts a premium on “visualizing” the course prior to making your run (it’s too late to make corrections when you’re going down the shaft) and mistakes can be fatal–in the 2010 Olympics held in Canada, Luger Nodar Kumaritashvii,  who represented the Republic of Georgia at the games,  was killed on his last practice run down the course.
So it’s serious business, no matter how funny it might look (especially the doubles, where one luger lays on top of another…wonder how the Russkies will handle that).
Luges  can hit very high speeds: Austrian Manuel Pfister went 95.69MPH on the same track in Canada at Whistler prior to the 2010 Olympics.
There will be four classes of luge competition at the Sochi Olympics: mens’s singles and doubles, women’s singles, and a new discipline, Team Relay (new for 2014) which I have no clue about how it looks or works (it’s new ). More detail on the luge in this luge wiki
Anyway you look at it–and I’m going to give you a total immersion course– luge is a very exciting and  very scary sport.  But to really get into the spirit,  take a look at this POV(point of view ) video (above) shot a few years ago on a luge run. It will give you a great appreciation to what the athletes are experiencing in their sub-2 minute runs.
And finally–check out this luge video that covers the necessary training for an Olympian. If you like what you see–maybe you could be/should be a luger.

Olympic Briefing: The Firehose

 

The Firehose: Brilliant and revolutionary photo stream from the Sochi Olympics
The Firehose: Brilliant and revolutionary photo stream from the Sochi Olympics

Press Clippings: The New York Time has an incredible advanced still photography initiative going on at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. It’s call The Photo Firehose and it provides a continuous stream of photos from the games, not just from Times photographers but from AP, Reuters, Getty Images,European Press Photo Agency, Agence France-Press and others. It’s a photo stream and it doesn’t stop and the photojournalism is amazing. There are two reasons to be amazed: first, the sheer number of images that are being streamed to the world for viewing  and enjoyment, and, second, how a supposedly “sunset” technology like DSLR still photography can grab and maintain massive world-wide relevance  (really, iPhone photography is great for snaps and selfies but…it can’t deliver this type of stuff) once some new thought is applied. Check it out. It’s highly recommended.