Olympic Science
The 2010 Winter Olympic Games are taking place in Vancouver, Canada this year. In honor of this prestigious athletic event, Imagination Station is hosting a Science of the Olympics event this weekend, called Go for the Au! (That’s gold, in chemical terms).
History of the Winter Games
The Winter Olympic Games are a winter multi-sport event held every four years. They feature winter sports held on snow or ice, such as Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, bobsledding and ice hockey.
Fewer countries participate in the Winter Olympics than the Summer Olympics. The first Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France in 1924. Prior to this, figure skating and ice hockey had been events at the Summer Olympics. The Games were held every four years from 1924 until 1940 when they were interrupted by World War II. The Winter and Summer Games resumed in 1948 and were celebrated on the same year until 1992. At that time the Winter Games split from the Summer Games, and began to be celebrated on alternating even years. The first Winter Olympic Games to be held on this new schedule was in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway.
Go for the Au! will feature these popular Olympic Games: Click on the topics below to find out interesting facts and an activity to do.
Hockey
Ice Skating
Aerial Skiing
Snowboarding
Ice Luge
Thank you to Yankee Doodle Flag Co. for sharing flags from around the world with Imagination Station for our celebration of the Science of Olympics.
