by Ron C. Judd


We are officially less than a year away from the twenty-first Winter Olympiad, the Vancouver Winter Olympics. Canada’s “own the podium” campaign has been swinging into high gear as of late, with athletes winning gold medals in various world championships as they hope to peak just in time for next February. With the Olympic torch scheduled to pass through Stratford next December, the Olympic spirit is sure to be high in this region, so you can prepare for the frenzy by boning up on Winter Olympic trivia from this new book. It covers the history of the games, of course, and if you’re actually going to the Vancouver Games there is plenty of information about the venues, tickets, transportation and other handy travel tips. But if you will be watching the games from the comfort of your living room you can skip all that and get right into the in-depth chapters on the sports themselves. Divided into two sections on ice sports and snow sports, each chapter gives a history of the sport in the Olympics, exciting narratives of memorable races or competitions, a ‘spectator’s guide’ to the rules and equipment of the sport, the records broken, a schedule of the sport events for the Vancouver Games and (YAY!) a thoroughly Canadian perspective highlighting our athletes’ accomplishments (as well as other ‘legends’ of each sport). There is even mention of the newest event at the Winter Games, the ‘ski cross’ – a freestyle skiing event that is described as “motocross on skis”, which should be interesting viewing! The Winter Olympics: An Insider’s Guide to the Legends, The Lore and the Games is a great book for any sporting enthusiast and is especially recommended for proud Canucks who will be cheering on our athletes.

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