Winter Olympics

Since I've been watching the Winter Olympics as much as possible, I realized that there is quite a bit of physics involved in many of the events of the Winter Olympics. In fact, in some of the events, physics plays a major role in how well you do; one little mistake in your movements can cost you a medal. When I was watching Apollo Ohno in the speed skating final yesterday, he said that if he hadn't had that one little slip, then he could've won gold, but he came up short and got bronze because of that one mistake that slowed him down. In addition, in all the downhill sledding sports such as luge, bobsled, and skeleton, any little movements away from the center can cause air resistance and slow you down. The announcers even said that a little mistake at the top can be more costly than a smaller one at the bottom of the track because you don't have much speed yet at the top. While watching ski jumping, I was wondering why the skiiers bodies get so paralled to their skis, and I deduced that there is physics involved in this technique. I thought that they get as parallel to their skis as they can because it causes less air resistance, allowing them to jump farther. Overall, the Winter Olympic games involve a lot of air resistance, velocity, and momentum.