Colder, higher, faster: The Winter Olympics’ most extreme moments in three charts

By Alex Leeds Matthews, CNN

(CNN) — Competitions at the Winter Olympics are defined by extremes: extreme air, extreme speed and extreme temperatures.

On sliding tracks, athletes in luge, bobsled and skeleton break highway speed limits. In the halfpipe and big air competitions, snowboarders hit huge jumps, completing dizzying numbers of spins while airborne. They complete these feats often at elevations of more than mile high, where air is thinner, and at temperatures below freezing.

These charts show just how extreme the Winter Olympics can get.

Speed

In the summer, Olympic sprinters and swimmers try to push the limits of the human body alone on land and in water.

But in winter sports, athletes test those limits even further with the aid of gravity or vehicles such as skis and bobsleds to reach or exceed highway speeds.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympics saw some of the fastest-moving Olympians at the Whistler Sliding Centre — one of the fastest tracks in the world for bobsled, luge and skeleton.

The maximum speed reached on that course during the Olympics was by Austrian Manuel Pfister, who exceeded 95 mph (more than 150 km/h) during a luge training run. The next day, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili fatally crashed on the course, a tragic reminder of the sport’s danger.

The most recent Winter Games at Beijing in 2022 had the fastest alpine skiing race in Olympic history, where gold medalist Beat Feuz of Switzerland won gold cruising at an average speed of 68.7 mph (more than 110 km/h). On that same course, Norwegian Adrian Smiseth Sejersted hit the fastest maximum speed: 86.8 mph (about 140 km/h).

Jumps

While alpine skiers race downhill, the jumpers turn their skis into wings, remaining airborne for distances of more than 100 meters, or nearly 330 feet – almost as long as an NFL football field. The men’s large hill record is more than 160 yards, set when Austrian Gregor Schlierenzauer jumped 146.5 meters in Vancouver.

The focus of snowboarding halfpipe and big-air competitions is often the tricks and landings. But the amplitude of the jumps are equally impressive. In Beijing, Japanese snowboarder Kaishu Hirano set the world record for halfpipe air: 7.41 m, or nearly 24.5 feet.

Two-time snowboard halfpipe gold medalist and 2026 silver medalist Chloe Kim has also gotten big air in the event: During the American’s third run of the 2022 halfpipe final, she exceeded 4.1 m, with a jump of 13.5 feet.

Elevation and temperature

The Winter Olympics are usually held in mountainous areas for easy access to ski events. While some host cities, such as Sochi and Vancouver, are close to local mean sea level, the venues for alpine skiing are typically higher.

This year, men’s skiing events will be held at Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio, roughly 1,500 meters (almost a mile) above sea level. The feels-like temperature at the Stelvio venue has averaged just over 20 degrees F, below freezing for the first week of the Games, while the city of Milan has felt about 20 degrees warmer.

And, naturally, with snow and mountains come cold temperatures. Sochi and Vancouver, at their lower elevations, were among the warmest Games in history, while Pyeongchang (South Korea) and Lillehammer (Norway) were regarded as the coldest host cities.

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