Starting on February 16th, millions of individuals throughout the world will tune into the events taking place at the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. For the first time in four years, many will take interest in fairly uncommon sports events as bobsleigh, curling, luge, and skeleton. To help aid you in your Olympic viewing experience, The Cracked Pot has pieced together a special Olympic preview to brief you on some of the competitors and countries to keep an eye out for as you watch this year’s Winter Olympics.

Biathlon

This event, wildly popular in Europe, combines cross-country skating and rifle shooting in races of several different formats and distances. Seemingly operating in peak performance at the moment, Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen stands as the favorite to repeat as the gold medalist champion in the men’s competitions. In the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, he earned all four gold medals in the biathlon category. Since then he has maintained strong showings in the World Biathlon Championships over the past three years, where he has finished top three in 10 of the 15 races in which he has participated.

For the women, in a more crowded field, Kati Wilhelm and Andrea Henkel of Germany each seek to defend individual gold medals which they won at Salt Lake City and a gold medal they earned as members of the same relay team. To do so they will most likely face tough competition from Russian Olya Pyleva, who worked her way to a gold medal and bronze medal at Salt Lake City and finished in the top six in all categories at the World Championships in 2005.

Bobsleigh

Team Germany will look to continue its dominance of the bobsledding event after winning gold medals in the past three Winter Olympics. They bring back veteran driver Christoph Langen, a three-time Olympic gold medalist. After finishing second and third in the four-man bobsleigh event last time, the United States will look to build upon its strong showing and attempt to knock Germany off the pedestal in that category. Similarly, Switzerland, which finished second and third to Germany in the two-man bobsleigh event in 2002 will look to challenge Germany in that event for gold as well.

After the first ever two-woman bobsleighing event in 2002, the United States will look to defend its title in that event. However, Germany, which finished second and third in that event, will seek to extend its dominance to the newest of bobsledding’s three categories.

Curling

In Salt Lake City, Canada ended up with the best round robin, but lost to Norway in the Men’s Curling Final at Salt Lake City by edging out Canada by a score of 5-6. After dominating the World Men’s Curling Championship in 2005 en route to a first place finish, in Torino Canada will once again seek to finally capture the gold medal in curling which has eluded them for years.

Similarly, in women’s curling, the Canadian team faltered in 2002 after finishing the round robin with the best record and lost in the semifinal. Yet after finishing second and first in the 2004 and 2005 World Women’s Curling Championship, respectively, they will seek to win gold in curling for the first time since 1998. In their way stands Sweden, which Canada had to defeat to win its world title in 2005 and finished one place behind Canada in the past two World Championships.

Skeleton

Skeleton racing returns as an Olympic Sport for the second consecutive Olympics, following its triumphant return as an Olympic Sport in Salt Lake City for the first time in 54 years. After winning gold in both the men's and women's skeleton in 2002, the United States will seek to follow up on numerous first place finishes in World Championships by various representative athletes over the past two years.

Figure Skating

Johnny Weir, Tim Goebel, and Michael Weiss, strong and weathered competitors from previous Olympics and World Championships, will once again seek to challenge for medals in the men’s figure skating, but have mostly struggled with the new scoring system instituted since the Salt Lake City Olympics. Three-time world champion, Evgeni Plushenkov of Russia stands one of the favorites to win gold this year, but just recently came back from an eight-month layover stemming from a groin injury.

After fighting against injuries and also struggling with the new scoring system, Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen hope to regain their previous Olympic-caliber form and challenge for medals this year. In what will most likely become as her last Olympic competition, Michelle Kwan will have her last chance to win a Olympic gold medal and will once again face off with her old nemesis and a favorite for gold, Irina Slutskaya of Russia, the reigning world champion.

In ice dancing, the Russians field yet another strong competitor for gold; the duo of Tatiana Navka and Roman Kostomarov, who won the world championships in 2005. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, who finished second in the World Championships this year, may serve as competitors for gold in Turin if granted citizenship by the United States.

Ice Hockey

Hockey Canada stands as the strong favorite to repeat as the men gold medalists, following their triumph in the Salt Lake City Games. Regardless of their past success the Canadian team features a team loaded with NHL superstars from top to bottom. Assistant Executive Director Kevin Lowe partially spoke the truth when he joked that Canada could field two Olympic teams and probably still win the gold; Eric Staal and Jason Spezza, the two phenomenal forwards relegated to their taxi squad, would play on the first and second line on almost any other Olympic team.

Although missing several key players to injury, the Czech Republic will compete for gold with a core mixed with the old and young, led by the rejuvenated Jaromir Jagr and savvy goaltenders Dominik Hasek and Tomas Vokoun.  Led by young offensive dynamos Alexander Frolov, Ilya Kovalchuk, Evegny Malkin and Alexander Ovechkin, Russia will also look for a medal with a solid defensive front largely compose of veteran NHL goalies and defenseman. Featuring star forwards Peter Forsberg, Markus Naslund, Daniel Alfredsson, and Mats Sundin, Sweden will look to erase its embarrassing showing in 2002.

As usual, in women’s hockey it will most likely boil down to the United States and Canadian, with each team bringing back players from previous Olympics who possess plenty of international experience. Canada will play 13 members from its Gold Medal team in Salt Lake City and and 20 members of the Canadian team which finished second in the 2005 Women's World Championship. Meanwhile the United States will feature a roster with 14 returning Olympians and 17 members of the United States team which won gold in the 2005 Women's World Championship.

Luge

German Georg Hackl, a three-time gold medalist and the first person to ever win five medals in the same event, looks to add to his spiffy pile of medals in the luge event. After a defeat last time relegated him to a silver medal, he will once again stand as a dangerous competitor, despite injuries which have kept him out of competition most of the year. Yet to do so, he will have to compete with Italian Armin Zoggeler, the same individual who unseated him in 2002 and recently won the World Cup for luge.

At Salt Lake City, a dominant Germany, for the fifth time, swept the podium for woman’s luge. In Torino, with four world-class competitors in Tatjana Huefner, Silke Kraushaar, Barbara Niedernhuber and Sylke Otto, the Germans once again have a strong chance at performing a sweep and earning the gold medal.

Short Track Speedskating/Speedskating

For the men’s short track speed skating, Apolo Ohno, the three-time World Cup Champion who won two medals amidst much controversy in the last Olympics, will look to maintain the excellence which he has enjoyed in international competition. In the meantime, Yang Yang (A) and Yang Yang (S) of China will look to lead their country to medals in women’s short track speed skating, both in the individual and relay competitions.

In speedskating, Jochem Uytdehaage, who earned three medals at the Salt Lake City Olympics, will once again seek to lead a strong Netherlands team to triumphs in the men’s speed skating. Long-distance speedskater Claudia Pechstein and short-distance speedskater Sabine Volker of Germany will seek to lead Germany to victory once again in woman’s speedskating. Pechstein, the four-time gold medalist, will seek to add to her seven Olympic medals, and Volker will seek to continue her winning ways after winning three medals in Salt Lake City.

Undoubtedly, as the Olympics unfold, many unsung heroes will step up and make their names and feats known internationally, and many heroes from past Olympics will most likely once again work their magic. As the Olympic Fanfare blares in the background, people from nations around the world will put aside the differences between their countries and participate in athletic events, seeking to inspire us all with the Olympic spirit.