By Brendan Hinkle’16
THE ROUNDUP

The Sochi Olympics have opened and closed, and students watched a variety of events during the two-week span.

The Winter Olympics boasted 98 events this year, some new and old.

According to nielsen.com, the most watched Winter Olympic event is freestyle skiing, which has been an event since 1992. Skiing itself shows to be popular among students.

“I watched men’s slope style skiing the most, probably because I ski myself and I just think it’s really impressive the tricks they do,” said Alex Briestensky ’16.

Slope style skiing involves a variety of tricks and flips. They ski down a mountain and grind on rails and jump off ramps.

“I like to watch slope style skiing because it’s the only thing the U.S. is good at,” said Marvin Santos ’16.

In the men’s slope style skiing event this year the United States won bronze, silver and gold sweeping the podium.

“I watched the ski slalom the most because I like the pace of it,” said Bobby Dorris ’15.

The average speed a slalom athlete skies is around 40 to 50 miles per hour. There is one stretch where every skier reaches 85 miles per hour or more, according to David Currier, a former skier.

“I watched curling the most over the Olympics because seeing that guy face plant was priceless,” said Joshua Berum ’16.

The curler Berum mentioned was a Russian named Andrey Drozdov. The face plant occurred in Russia’s game against Switzerland, in which Russia emerged victorious.

The United States won a total of 28 medals this year at Sochi, nine of which were gold. Some of the favorites, such as Sean White who was favored to medal, didn’t get a medal at all in the Olympics.