Part one of a six-part series
The 2015 Canada Winter Games are coming to Prince George on Feb. 13 and run until March 1. The Games feature 19 sports: alpine skiing, archery, badminton, biathlon, cross-country skiing, curling, figure skating, freestyle skiing, gymnastics, ice hockey, judo, ringette, snowboarding, speed skating, squash, synchronized swimming, table tennis, target shooting and wheelchair basketball. Every Monday from today to Feb. 9, Ask Arthur will profile three sports being played at the Games and answer some common questions about them.
Q: What's the difference between the slalom, giant slalom and super-G in alpine skiing? Why do skiers smash into the gate poles, aren't they supposed to ski around them?
A: The Canada Winter Games will be hosting competitions in four alpine skiing disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, super-G (short for super giant slalom) and ski cross-as well as slalom and giant slalom para-alpine events for both males and females. The alpine disciplines of single-pole slalom, downhill and super combined won't be featured at the Games.
The exciting sport of ski cross is fairly straightforward: skiers race down a course featuring jumps and banked turns in groups of four, and the first across the finish line wins. After a series of qualifying rounds, the top two skiers in each of four quarterfinal rounds advance to the semifinals. The top two skiers in both semifinal rounds get to ski in the final to determine gold, silver, bronze and fourth place -while the losers of the semifinals ski in a small final to determine fifth through eighth place.
The disciplines of slalom, giant slalom and super-G, however, have quite a bit in common: skiers race down a course one at a time, passing through a series of gates -marked by coloured poles -trying to set the fastest time. Unlike many freestyle skiing events, there are no points for style, speed is all that matters.
A racer that fails to pass through one of the gates in any of the disciplines is disqualified. Gates can be set up vertically, horizontally or diagonally along the hill slope.
According to the Alpine Ski Canada officials' manual and Canada Winter Games alpine skiing technical package, the main differences between the disciplines are the length of the courses, width of the gates, number of gates and how close the gates are together.
Also, in slalom and giant slalom, skiers race in two runs and take the best time of the two. In super-G, skiers only get one run.
Slalom, the oldest of the three disciplines, features a short course (120 metres of vertical drop minimum at the Canada Winter Games) and lots of narrow gates, placed close together. It's the slowest, but most technical, of three disciplines.
The number of gates on a slalom course is equal to the vertical drop in metres, multiplied by 0.3 or 0.35 - plus or minus three. So, if the Games features a 120 metre vertical drop course, it should have between 33 and 45 gates.
The gates are marked with single poles on each side, are four to six metres wide and six to 13 metres apart (measured from turn pole to turn pole). However, slalom courses also feature delay turns -two gates 12 to 18 metres apart that force the skier to change their speed and rhythm -and vertical and hairpin combinations. The combinations feature multiple gates placed 75 centimetres to one metre apart, requiring very quick turns.
In giant slalom, the course is longer (200 metres minimum vertical drop at the Games) and has fewer gates. The gates are four to eight metres wide, marked with double poles on each side, and a minimum of 10 metres apart with no combinations.
Only gates that require the skier to change direction to pass through them are counted. The number of direction-changing gates is equal to the vertical drop in metres, multiplied by 0.11 to 0.15. So a 200 metre vertical drop course would have between 22 and 30 gates.
The baby of the disciplines is super-G. While slalom and giant slalom debuted on the international competitive scene in the 1920s and '30s, super-G wasn't recognized at the international level until the 1980s.
Super-G is similar to giant slalom, except the course is even longer (minimum 250 vertical drop at the Games) and has even fewer gates. Like giant slalom, only gates that require a change in direction are counted, but the gates must be six to eight metres wide.
The number of gates on a super-G course is based on the vertical drop in metres, multiplied by 0.06 to 0.1. So a 250 metre vertical drop super-G course would only have 15 to 25 gates.
Super-G is a hybrid between downhill and slalom, and is the fastest of the three disciplines.
But if a skier is disqualified for missing a gate, why is it common to see skiers crashing into the poles? The rules used by the International Ski Federation say a skier is counted to have passed through a gate if their skis and boots pass through between the poles -the skier's body is not required to pass through the poles.
Since the 1980s, alpine courses have used lightweight plastic poles mounted on universal joints that allow them to easily be bumped out of the way by a skier - unlike the rigid bamboo poles previously used.
Since then, alpine skiers have started using a technique called cross-blocking - using their outer arm to knock the flexible poles out of their way as they ski as close to the poles as possible. Cross-blocking allows a skier to ski a tighter, shorter, faster route through the gates.
Q: What's the difference between the recurve and compound categories in archery? How is archery scored?
A: Of all the sports at the Canada Winter Games, archery is by far the oldest. The bow was the most predominant ranged weapon for hunting and warfare for 10,000 to 11,500 years.
Cultures around the world developed their own types of bows and styles of archery to meet their needs -with the materials available to them. Organized archery competitions date back at least to the Zhou Dynasty in China (1146 to 256 BC), and possibly further.
The development of effective firearms in the 15th and 16th centuries eventually saw the decline of archery. But it returned as a recreational sport from the 17th century onward.
The archery competition at the Canada Winter Games is indoors, with archers shooting arrows at a 40 centimetre diameter target 18 metres away.
There will be male and female individual events in recurve archery and compound archery, plus mixed team events for both styles. Each mixed team is made up of one boy and one girl.
Recurve bows used in competition are typically comprised of a handle section, plus two limbs that curve back and then forwards, so the bowstring touches part of the limb at each end. Recurve bows have existed for thousands of years, and are more mechanically efficient that bows that don't have a recurve - like the traditional English longbow.
Today competition recurves, according to Archery Canada and World Archery rules, can have modern gadgets like stabilizers, arrow rests and non-electronic, non-magnifying sights attached.
There is no maximum draw weight -the amount of force needed to draw the bow back - for recurve bows. A bow with a higher draw weight takes more strength to use, but shoots an arrow with more force - potentially allowing a faster, flatter trajectory for the arrow.
Compound bows were invented in the 1960s. They use a system of cams and pulleys to provide two main advantages over conventional recurve bows: they use shorter, stiffer limbs that are more mechanically efficient, and the draw force of the bow "lets off" when it approaches the fully-drawn point.
This "let off" means it takes between 50 per cent and 90 per cent less force to hold the bow fully drawn than a recurve bow with the same draw weight, making it easier to hold the bow and arrow steady to shoot.
Competition compound bows can use all the same gadgets recurve shooters can, but because of the "let off" advantage, compound bows are limited to a maximum 60 pounds of peak draw force.
An archery target is circle divided into coloured rings. The innermost circle is worth 10 points. The first ring around the centre circle is worth nine points, the second eight, the next seven, etc. until the outermost ring is worth one point.
The design of the target always stays the same, it simply gets bigger for competitions at longer distances - up to 122 centimetres in diameter for 70 metre and 90 metre competitions.
At the Canada Winter Games, archers in each category will shoot a 120-arrow qualifying round. The 16 archers with the best cumulative scores will advance to an elimination round. If there are less than 16 qualifiers, than the top scorers will get byes into the final.
In the elimination round, the archers are pitted against each other. With the top scorer facing the lowest-scoring qualifier, second highest against second lowest, etc.
At this point, recurve and compound archers are scored differently.
Compound archers will shoot five sets of three arrows, and whomever has the highest cumulative score wins.
Recurve archers are scored on each set of three arrows. If one archer has a higher score, they receive 2 set points. If they are tied, they each get one set point. The first archer to score six set points wins the elimination match.
The individual finals and medal matches will be scored in a similar way.
The mixed teams will shoot elimination matches, with each archer in the team shooting four ends of three arrows each. Cumulative scores will be used for both recurve and compound archery teams.
Q: How does the new rally point system work in badminton?
A: The 2015 Canada Winter Games will feature five competitions in badminton: men's and women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed teams.
The Games will use the rally point system approved by the Badminton World Federation in May 2006. The individual competitions will use an elimination format, while the team competitions will be a round-robin style competition.
Matches in badminton are played in a best-of-three format, with each game in the match played to 21 points. However, a minimum two-point lead is needed to win.
So if a game is 20-20, one of the opposing players or teams needs to score two points, before the other team scores one (for example, a 22-20 lead, or 24-22 lead, etc.)
According to the 2006 rules, a player or team scores a point if the opposing player or team makes a fault -such as knocking the shuttle out of bounds or into the net - or the shuttle hits the court in the opposing player or team's court.
If the team or player serving wins the rally, they score a point and keep serving. If the team or player receiving the serve wins the rally, they score a point and the serve rotates - either to the opposing player in singles, or to the server's partner in doubles, if that person did not serve immediately before the current serving player.
Traditionally, in rules for badminton used since the 1870s, only the player or team that was serving -making the initial shot to start the rally -could score a point. If the player or team serving won the rally, they scored a point.
But if the player or team receiving the serve won the rally, all they did was force the serve to rotate to the next serving player.
Under the traditional system, men's and all doubles games were played to 15 points and women's games to 11 points.
In 2002 the International Badminton Federation, now knows as the Badminton World Federation, changed the match format to a best-of-five system, but games were only to seven points. The federation was concerned about the long and unpredictable matches that could happen under the traditional system.
In 2006, the current system was adopted, although the Badminton World Federation did experiment with a new scoring system last year that used the rally point system, but had best-of-five matches with games only to 11 points.
Do you have questions about events in the news? Are you puzzled by some local oddity? Does something you've seen, heard or read just not make sense? Email your questions to awilliams@pgcitizen.ca, and award-winning investigative reporter Arthur Williams will try to get to the bottom of it.
