How the Winter Olympics became the X Games

The Games have become obsessed with death-defying stunts — but at what expense?

Czech Republic's Jan Zabystran at the Winter Olympics.
(Image credit: JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images)

In some ways, alpine skiing is the perfect sport. While there was no giant slalom at the original Olympic Games, downhill skiing shares the same poetic combination of classical athleticism and the grace of the human body as the staid footrace of the 1st Olympiad in 776 B.C. Clipped into her skis, a professional skier slices through the snow with the same razor-sharp precision and artistry as a master itamae might slip a blade through the soft flesh of a fish.

It is a high-speed sport where disasters are not altogether uncommon: Skis can catch an edge, as Lindsey Vonn's did at her first World Cup competition of this Olympic season, at Lake Louise in Alberta. While training ahead of the same competition for downhill, a sport in which Olympic-level competitors can hit more than 80 miles per hour, French skier David Poisson tragically died following a crash.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.