BY DIANA SAVERIN

The Winter Olympics seems to exact a greater degree of audience participation than their summer counterparts. The athletes may be equally well trained, but the events they are participating in vary in one important respect: danger. The Winter Olympics have me on the edge of my seat, not necessarily hoping for gold, but with concern for the athlete’s life. Rolling my eyes to follow runners sprinting around a track may be exciting, but I have never found myself wondering if the whirling figures would trip and fall to their deaths. In the Winter Games, though, I gape at skiers’ countless flips through the air, triple axels on ice, unbelievable air on the half pipe, and 90 miles per hour speed down icy paths on what looks like a flimsy sled.

As a lifelong downhill and cross country skier and generally enthusiastic winter athlete, I am familiar with the sports in which the athletes participate. Despite my lifelong training, though, my skiing looks nothing like the skiing I have to look away from on the screen. I may feel free while I ski, but true freestyle skiers in the Olympics can perform triple back somersaults with five twists. I tend to keep my skis on the ground.

This contrast is different than the summer paradigm. I have run cross-country, on tracks, and a marathon, and while my running is (tremendously) slower, it’s the same motion and the same idea. Nothing I have ever engaged in or seen resembles what the winter Olympians do. Even for the safer events, like curling, the Olympians are participating in events that have nothing to do with what us lowly citizens attribute to be “sports.” So what is the goal of these events? Is this an NBC ploy to show us exceptional talent at exceptionally obscure tasks, or to give us an entertaining show by depicting human limits?

I enjoy the winter Olympics, and respect the hard work and dedication of the athletes, but sometimes find myself wondering the goal of some of the events. Especially when an athlete’s life ends, I question the battle for gold.

Diana Saverin is a freshman at Yale University and a Junior Editorial Associate for Global21.