by Anna Bauman

This February marks an event we have all been anxiously awaiting, a special time that only comes every four years…the Winter Olympics!

Or maybe you just found out about it.

Many people overlook the winter games and consider them inferior to the Summer Olympics. More popularly watched sports like swimming, gymnastics, soccer and volleyball steal the spotlight and have a much higher viewership than the less common sports in the Winter games.

Cross-country skiing, bobsled, curling, figure-skating, luge and ski-jump aren’t sports we typically associate with high-level athletics. Maybe some people just aren’t very informed about the Winter Olympics, or maybe they genuinely aren’t interested, but the Winter Olympics should be taken more seriously.

Just like Summer Olympic sports, these sports require extreme dedication and skill. Winter Olympic athletes are some of the only few in the world who participate in these sports, making them all the more special.

Take ski-jump for example. In the ski-jump event, skiers fly down a nearly vertical ramp of snow at extremely high speeds, then launch into the air, positioning their body nearly parallel to their skis. The goal is to go as far as possible, usually about the length of two football fields, with points also awarded for style. Watching someone fly through the air on skis with their body bent in half is much more exciting than watching someone run around a track, right? Right.

Figure skating is another underrated sport. Some consider it unworthy of the name “sport,” but that statement is far from the truth. Figure skating involves a huge amount of strength and flexibility, more than is needed for many other sports. The skater jumps, leaps and spins through the air, all while essentially wearing knives strapped to their shoes. That is impressive, not to mention very entertaining to watch.

There are countless other Winter Olympic sports just like ski-jump and figure skating you may never be able to enjoy watching if you don’t give them a chance.

So don’t skip out on watching the Winter Olympics solely because it consists of sports you’ve never heard of. You might find you like it much more than you ever thought you would.