1. Big Air Snowboarding

Big air snowboarding features an athlete’s ability to perform in-air acrobatics. The snowboarders launch themselves off 140-foot-long ramps to perform complex acrobatic tricks in the air. The goal is to perform tricks with a high-level of difficulty and land the jump cleanly and safely. However, when the athletes use their hands, they lose points, making core strength imperative. The athletes get to showcase two jumps, each featuring different tricks, such as off-axis flips and complex spins.

2. Luge

Luge is the fastest sport in the winter Olympics, because of the athletes exceeding 90 mph on the tracks. Athletes place themselves on their backs in small, feet-first sleds to navigate down an icy track. The icy tracks include steep, icy, banked curves without the luxury of mechanical brakes, meaning the athletes are required to use small shifts in body weight and leg pressure to steer themselves. This event can be competed in singles or doubles, in a women’s, men’s and mixed category.

3. Bobsled

Bobsledding is an extremely high-speed sliding sport, where teams of two or four race down a mile-long ice track. On the turns, the sledding track turns completely sideways, helping to prevent the sled from flying off the track because of its high speed. Bobsledding requires a 50-meter push before beginning to race to gain momentum. The speed that these bobsleds reach is what raises the danger rate, with some speeds exceeding 90 mph, making it incredibly difficult to control and steer down the thin track.

4. Alpine skiing

Alpine skiing involves flying down snow-covered, steep and very dangerous slopes. It requires very intense precision, speed and agility. Alpine Skiing has many different sections of events. Characterized by a long, steep course with wide turns, Downhill and Super-G are the safer of the two sections. The athletes on these courses must fly between flags on the course, making precision important. On the other hand, Slalom and Giant Slalom courses have more closely spaced flag markers, designed for athletes to perform quick, short and rhythmic turns, leading to the use of extreme precision to complete the courses.

5. Ice hockey 

Ice hockey is one of the most dangerous team sports because of its intense speed in a confined rink. The players must control a puck using sticks around the rink and work as a team to shoot that puck into the goal post. The dangers in this sport include intense speed, strategy and body checking. Players are often thrown against the shielding of the ring. Hockey is notoriously known for having the highest rate of fighting, above any of the other winter Olympic sports.