2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games

Hottest Winter Athletes

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, ice skating, bobsledding, and ice hockey.

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC), as with the Summer Olympics, enters athletes to compete against other NOC's athletes for gold, silver, and bronze medals. Fewer countries participate in the Winter Olympics than the Summer Olympics, due largely to the reduced availability of winter sports in many countries nearer to the Equator, and where access to winter sport training facilities are quite limited or non-existent. Also areas in which the Winter Olympics are usually held, are required to be near a mountain range where it snows - for the Alpine skiing events. Outdoor natural snow is also a necessity for cross-country skiing.

The United States of America has hosted the Winter Games the most times, four, most recently in 2002. France has hosted the winter games three times, most recently in 1992. Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Japan, and Italy have all hosted the games twice. Canada will host for the second time in 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Germany and Yugoslavia have hosted the games once, and Russia is tentatively-planned to host the Winter Olympics for the first time in 2014. Three cities have hosted the Winter Games twice: St. Moritz, Switzerland; Innsbruck, Austria; and Lake Placid, USA.

Source: Wikipedia