The 2010 Winter Olympics are set to kick off in Vancouver this Friday, featuring 15 winter sports. While that sure is a bag of fun, are you aware of the weirdest Olympic sports of all time? Learn about it below. Oh, and be prepared - a bunch of them involve animals.

The 7 weirdest Olympic sports

1. Biathlon.

   Biathlon: Sounds like a contest to see how much biology you know. In general, it’s a sporting term for one event with two disciplines. In relation to the Olympics, it’s a winter sport combining-cross country skiing and… rifle shooting. Yeah… I’ll stay a safe distance away from that one.

2. Pigeon racing.

   Imagine a time when there was no Internet. No Super Bowl. Not even World Wars to look back on. That was the year 1900 - a year when pigeon racing was an Olympic sport.

   And, well, the only year that it was an Olympic sport.

3. Skeleton.

   Dare to believe in a whole new take on sledding. No, this is not the Rosebud from your childhood, folks. This is skeleton, a one-man face-down sled race on an ice track. I shudder to think why it’s called skeleton.

4. Skijoring.

   How much do you really trust your pet? Would you let Rover take the lead while attached to him with a rope… on skis? That’s skijoring, and it’s ski-aring the bejesus out of me. In the 1928 Winter Olympics it was a demonstration sport, using horses.

5. Curling.

   

   Curling, to me, sounds like it should mean something completely different - like some kind of salon Olympics. It’s anything but: the game involved two four-person teams sliding heavy stones towards a circle drawn at either end of an ice court. It originated in Scotland; somehow that makes sense.

6. Handball.

   You may be familiar with handball as a school recess favorite, but an older version of the game known as field handball did play a role as a sport in the 1936 Summer Olympics. It even had six teams contesting.

7. Korfball.

   Korfball is a version of netball played in outer space… Kidding! It is, however, a mixed-gender version of netball played in 57 countries. It was a demonstration sport in the 1920 and 1928 Olympic games. Each team consists of four men and four women… but no mixed duels! Keep it clean, kids.

The sky is a little bit closer now that the 250+ titles on ReferenceAnswers include an Illustrated Dictionary of Aviation.

The new reference book provides definitions and illustrations for the entire spectrum of aviation: aerodynamics, navigation, meteorology, aircraft equipment and maintenance, aerial photography, avionics and more.

So where else are you going to learn the science of the reflex camber, check out an illustration of an absolute angle of attack, or learn that ‘eyelid’ is a term for… wait, what?

Once upon a very long time ago, I was a cheerleader. And of course, everyone knows it’s the job of a cheerleader to pump up the crowd and get them standing on their feet. So pull out your pom poms and get ready to cheer for this week’s Featured Contributor: Give me a J. Give me a J. Give me a J. Give me a J. No. I haven’t gone wacky for the letter J. I’m just giddy because this Contributor Corner rock star is 4Jays (Get it?). He’s a Floating Supervisor, Gold Contributor and Mentoring Program graduate who once worked at Walt Disney World as a monorail driver! Wut wut? Yep. Read on for more:

What is your Answers.com user name and the history behind it?

4Jays refers to the first names of my family members: Jeff (me), Julie (wife) and two daughters, Jessica and Jennifer. Once we started with the J’s there was no turning back!

What is your first name?

Jeff

What is your age?

50

Would you care to tell us about your family?

Wonderful wife and two lovely daughters.

Do you have any pets?

Two Westies (Scruffy and Sophie) and a cat (Stormy).

Where do you live, how long have you lived there and why do you like the area?

We live in Maryland, about 20 miles from Washington, D.C. Our families are all within an hour’s driving time, and that’s a great thing, especially around the holidays.

Where did you grow up and do you have any special memories of your childhood?

I was born in Frankfurt, West Germany and lived in Munich for about three years before coming to the U.S. in 1961.

What educational information would you like to share?

I attended James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

What are some of your past and/or present occupations?

I once worked at Walt Disney World - I was a monorail driver. Ever since, I’ve joked with my subsequent employers that I’ve gone from one Mickey Mouse organization to another. I became a police officer and served 22 years, retiring in 2004 as a commander. I took one week off, then took a job at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland where I still work.

What are your key area(s) of knowledge, interests or expertise?

I have a love of all things automotive and an interest in movies, television and the Internet. I enjoy proofreading and seem to have a knack for it which I try to put to good use on Answers.com.

Do you have any collections or hobbies?

Cars and computers are my hobbies.

What do you like to do for recreation?

Swim and travel

What are a few random facts about yourself?

6′4″ tall. I memorized Pi to 22 places in grade school to get extra credit for a class. I remember it to this day.

Do you have any special talents you’d like to share?

I am an emergency vehicle driving instructor, scuba diver and writer.

What accomplishments are you proud of?

My family.

What are your special goals or dreams?

Continue to move up in my workplace and retire in good health.

How would you describe yourself or personality?

Outgoing with good humor.

What brought you to Answers.com?

I began when I looked for an answer, then found myself correcting grammar and spelling errors. After a while I received an email from Answers.com asking if I’d like to be a Supervisor, based upon my contributions.

What keeps you coming back to Answers.com?

It’s very satisfying to contribute to providing helpful information to such a large and diverse audience. I have much to learn about the intricacies of being a good Supervisor but I look forward to the challenge. Additionally, there have been some great folks here who have been very supportive and helpful to me.

What is your favorite Answers.com activity?

Correcting grammar and spelling errors and providing informative answers whenever I can.

Last week Answers.com sponsored VatorSplash, an event showcasing emerging technology, organized by Bambi Francisco at Vator TV.

Robert Scoble hosted the event, where start ups demoed and Mark Pincus of Zynga gave a talk.

You may have happened across Sophie200’s last contribution to the Poetry Cafe, Wait for me. It was so great we’re welcoming back Sophie for an encore.

When it comes to answering on Answers.com you’ll often find her in the Hamsters section. Sophie wishes she had an unusual hobby like trainspotting or skydiving but, alas, she does not. But don’t think that makes her easy to understand. She’s complicated to decode, just like the essence of her poems. One of her favorites is published below.

[If you would like your original poetry profiled on this blog, please e-mail it to poetry @ wikianswers.com (no spaces) and include your WikiAnswers username!]

My Voice, by Sophie200

Flood in the light to block out the dark,
break down the walls that guard the heart.

Reveal the secrets to cover the lies,
identity drowning in the tears of my eyes.

Innocence gone at the flick of a switch,
To love or to hate - I can’t decide which.

Imagination glows fiery and alight,
Passion lives in me, gone is the night.

You make me laugh, you make me smile,
time spent with you, seems so worthwhile.

True love kicks the heart and tears at the soul,
Finally motivation, I’m left with a goal.

To live or to die is not a hard choice,
when happiness speaks out love is my only voice.

Colts? Saints?

Unicorns? Leprechauns?

Whatever.

Yeah, that’s right - I’m a girl, so what? I join friends at Super Bowl parties and cheer along with the team I like better. And no, it’s not always dependant on the color of their uniforms.

As a girl, though, my favorite part of the Super Bowl isn’t the commercials. I happen to think you’re a sucker for spending 4,328,968 trillion dollars for 25 seconds of marketing. My favorite part of the Super Bowl isn’t sweaty men ramming each other, either. And I can take or leave the betting - swimming pool over office pool any day.

No, what I love… is the grub. You take the football, I’ll take the food-bowl.

First thing’s first: The chicken wings. Take a buncha wings, slather them with your favorite sauce and bake, deep fry or brown ‘em. Answers.com has a great recipe for the Buffalo wings variety, including a video for making the dip.

Once that’s out of the way, make sure you have the right crunchy snacks. It’s all about the chips: potato chips, tortilla chips, sour cream and onion potato chips, corn chips, rippled potato chips, pita chips, barbecue potato chips… and pretzels.

With the chips come the dips. Salsa, guacamole, cheese, mustard, sour cream, humus… Whatever your spread, make sure there is plenty of variety.

And what would a Super Bowl party be without the football-shaped cookies (with frosting laces)? Oh, c’mon, boys - a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

But, whether you’re a die-hard football fan or just along for the advertisements, check out the Super Bowl Q&A on WikiAnswers and make sure you have all your facts straight. Or at the very least, the colors of the uniforms.

What are your favorite Super Bowl snacks?

Shiny new answers. Perfectionistic edits. Categorization after categorization after categorization. Contributions are the pulse of our Q&A community. We record them, search them, filter them, revert them, reward for them and – sometimes – block for them.

There are dozens of ways to contribute on WikiAnswers, and until recently, they were all bundled together into one big contribution total, which looked like this box here.

(This is my stats box, by the way. And I like that number, 22,353. It’s not like Steven Keyman or HisPowr4U, but it’s still something to be proud of.)

What if you could see the breakdown of your contributions, and where you stand within the community in each grouping? Yeah, that’s what we thought, too. So the boys in the back room did some magic, and today we are rolling out a new contribution system that will let you shine in five new ways:

• Answers: first answers
• Edits: edits to questions, answers, alternates, related questions and related links
• Organization: categorization, flags, features, merges, splits, protects and more…
• Questions: questions asked
• Community: messages, discussion posts and bio page edits

Read on to find out where you’ll see the changes.

Bio pages: more transparency

Visit your bio page to see your current stats. Check out the new features:

• If you’re in this month’s top 100 for a specific contribution type, you’ll see a little starburst next to it. Click on the starburst to see the top 100 list.
• Hover over a contribution title (e.g., “Organization”) to see what type of action is included in that group.
• Click “Total” to see all of the user’s contributions.

Category pages: getting to the heart of matters

It takes a lot to keep a category clean, organized and full of good answers. And it takes a lot of curious people to fill it with the questions that keep our minds buzzing.

We now recognize all types of category contributions on a monthly basis, so whether you’re an intrepid new contributor rising through the ranks or a community leader watching from the sidelines hoping to recruit a supervisor, this page has it all.

Missing the forest for the trees? Click the Hall of Fame link to return to the sitewide leaderboards…

Check it out by visiting your favorite category homepage, or see Animal Life for an example.

Leaderboards: being #1 never looked so good

It seemed like a shame to upgrade the contribution system and then send it down the red carpet on the arm of an old leaderboard. A little like being presented at the Inaugural Ball in an Armani suit… and ratty Converse All-Stars from 1977. So we gave the leaderboards a makeover, and there are oh, so many sweet new ways to be #1. See for yourself:

• This month’s top 10s by action type and top 100 overall
• Statistical blasts from the past
• All-time top contributors by action type, by category and overall

Click the arrows to see the top 100.

You’re probably wondering…

• What will happen to my old contributions?
  Old contributions will not be affected. All of the points from old contributions have migrated to the new system. That’s how loyal they are. (Even if they’re wearing ratty old shoes. That’s how loyal we are.)
• What are Historical points?
  Historical points are a record of some very old contributions that didn’t fit into the new system (it was a bit like putting a video cassette into a DVD player). We didn’t want you to lose them, so we created a special category for them. The number won’t change. You can view it as a little contribution nest egg.
• Yesterday I was #1 in answers. Today I’m not even on the list. What happened?
  Monthly leaderboards start fresh on the 1st of every month. This gives all great contributors a chance to shine!
• What about the all-time leaderboards? I’ve been on WikiAnswers a long time.
  They’re still around. We gave them a makeover. Winter colors.
• Where are the new leaderboards? Take me there!
  This is the URL: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Special:Tops. Bookmark it, favorite it, share it with your friends. Hug it like you’ll never let it go.

Testimonials

“This feature ROCKS!” – Ganderton

“I want to cuddle it.” – Eliesheva

“It will make me want to answer more, and that’s a good thing.” – Kmac

“I don’t know how I lived without it before.” – Brave3

“That’s hawt.” – Anonymous

“Split contributions makes me want to be a cheerleader again! Go SCs!” – Crystal

“It looks so pretty and shiny that I could stare at it all day!” – Stupid Little Genius

“The engineers have surpassed themselves… Possibly the best feature I have seen with my time on site.” – Mike 2

“I’m so excited about split contribs that my OCD is going to go into hyperdrive!” – An8thg

What do you think of the new contributions system? Add your own testimonial in the comments section below!