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  Read the selection and take the quiz to see how well you read. There are vocabulary-building words highlighted. If you click on the word, you'll see the definition. FEBRUARY 8 - 12, 2010 Winter Sports When you think of sports, what comes to mind? Sun-drenched runners dashing down a track? Sweaty basketball players wearing shorts and tanks tops? Swimmers? Baseball players? Bicyclists? All of these sports are great ways to exercise and have fun. If you live in a warm climate, such as Florida's, you can swim and ride your bike all year long, but some people live in cold places, like Minnesota, where the people wear winter coats from September to April. Even so, these people enjoy outdoor sports, too. People who live in cold climates play the sports that take advantage of the weather where they live. Skiing, ice skating, even sledding are sports! Newspapers, television and the Internet have made winter sports popular with audiences around the world. Millions of people in other countries follow the hockey season as avidly as people in the United States watch basketball, baseball or football. Winter sports fans travel for miles and pay thousands of dollars to see these competitions. This week, one such event takes place in Vancouver, Canada, when athletes from all over the world will compete to become international champions of popular winter sports. During these competitions, you have a chance to watch snowboarding, skiing and ski jumps, figure skating, hockey, bobsledding and curling and more! Skiing Skiing is probably the oldest of all the winter sports. Archaeologists have found skis that they believe to be 4,000 years old in Scandinavian countries. Central Europeans started skiing in the late 1500s. By 1850, Norway had started holding two-day ski carnivals featuring races and ski jumps. The principle behind skiing is simple. Athletes attach long, slim boards to their feet and point themselves down a hill. The boards serve two purposes. First, they distribute the skier's weight over a wider area, allowing him or her to ride on top of fluffy snow instead of sinking down into it. And second, the slick bottoms of the skis reduce friction and allow the skier to move more easily over the snow. Most skis today are made of a combination of glass fiber, Kevlar, titanium and other polymers. These are lighter and stronger than the wood originally used for skis. Skiers also use ski poles to help them control their speed and direction and to maintain their balance. There are several types of competitive skiing. The simplest form is downhill skiing, in which athletes try to get to the bottom of a ski slope, usually a mountainside, as quickly as possible. They race down the mountain one at a time, trying to better the times of their competitors. Downhill skiers steer by leaning their bodies in the direction they want to go and digging the edge of their skis into the snow. This creates friction, which helps them control their direction. Downhill skiers can travel as fast as 80 miles an hour. They wear tight-fitting clothes and ski in a crouched position to make their bodies more aerodynamic, allowing them to move through the air more quickly. Even the best skiers fall frequently, and falls can be very dangerous at such high speeds. So it's essential to ski with the proper safety equipment. Downhill skiers always wear helmets, goggles, and knee and elbow pads. Often, though, that's not enough. |
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