Yay, it's the Winter Olympics

I love watching the Winter Olympics. Thinking about why, I've come to the realization that I prefer it to the Summer Olympics. Why? It's not because I'm Canadian. It's not the crisper weather that makes for better pictures.

It's the way that most of the events push the limits. In most summer sports brute strength and endurance dominate, and the limits are pushed in these areas. For most winter sports, the limits are how far you can push your control until things spin off into chaos. Think of the luge, where tweaking your foot can keep you off the wall, or short track speed skating, where you've got to figure if you can squeeze through, keep you footing, or go twirling into the boards.

The winner of last nights men's downhill captured this perfectly. He had the perfect run, combining speed and finesse. All the other skiers had greater loses of control (think Bode Miller) or else weren't pushing close enough to losing control to be fast (think Daron Rahlves).

I also love that so many of the events are the kind of thing a cheesy Sci-Fi show would have. I can totally imagine the Enterprise crew competing in biathalon, and hockey only needs razor blades or laser beams on the sticks to push it into Farscape. The Summer Games? Most events are throwbacks to a bunch of preliterate Greek feats of strength.

Finally, I like to imagine my self squeezed into the women's bobsled. That'd be hot.