Fast and Furious Street

Here are the wildest, most grueling winter sports you should be watching at the Beijing Olympics

By Robert Edelstein, Photography by Getty Images

BOBSLED

WHY IT'S HARD Pushing the four-man bobsleigh (which is a minimum of 460 pounds) toward the track's slippery slope takes power and precision. Then you must climb inside and stay absolutely still except the pilot, who makes tiny steering moves with a rope in each hand. You're going 90 mph and traverse 16 curves, and after the first 50 meters, there are no more track grooves, meaning you could flip.

WHO MAKES IT LOOK EASY Francesco Friedrich has long been the king of making sure his German teams (two-man and four-man) don't go off the rails. He won gold in both events in 2018 at PyeongChang.

ALPINE COMBINED SKIING

WHY IT'S HARD One needs to master two of the speediest disciplines in winter sports. In the downhill, skiers must travel over a mountain course with a vicious vertical descent at upward of 80 mph, and not fall. In the slalom, there are gates, or sets of poles, you strategically squeeze past in your hip-swerving journey to the bottom. Men use 55-75 gates; for women, it's 45-60. Add up the times for both runs and the quickest person wins.

WHO MAKES IT LOOK EASY Colorado's Mikaela Shiffrin won a record-breaking 47th World Cup slalom race in January and a combined silver at the 2018 Olympics.

Cool Rider: Gerard has the moves and the swag to repeat

SNOWBOARD SLOPESTYLE

WHY IT'S HARD Well...if you can complete a backside quad cork 1800-translation: flip backward in the air four times and land cleanly at excessive speed—it's a cinch. Or, not really, because that's only one of the six tricks you'll attempt on the downhill course, which includes rail features to ride and jumps that make you fly. Amplitude and unique style rate high here.