Downhill Alpine Skiing
Down The Ice We Go!
Downhill Skiing
Downhill alpine skiing is one of the most popular sports in the Winter Olympic Games. Ever since 1948, people from all around the world would come to the Olympics to compete for the gold medal. Alpine skiing is a sport where contestants slide down snow covered hills on skis. There are many different types of alpine skiing, but downhill is the most widely-known event. Many professionals have been training for their whole lives, but sometimes, even extremely skilled professionals can't control their speed when going down a snowy mountain at a rate of 140 km/hour.
Men Vs. Women
In the downhill alpine skiing event, men cannot directly compete against women, however, conclusions can be reached about the results of a mixed-gender match-up by collecting and analyzing stats and data from past years.
Purpose of the Project
The stats, data, and analysis of this project uses linear regression and mathematical predictions to find trends in the gold medalist finishing times for both men and women in the downhill alpine skiing event. These trends help us determine which gender is currently faster than the other and which gender will be faster than the other in the future.
The Stats and Data
The data begins in 1968, where x=0. L2 are the male gold medalist finishing times in minutes. L3 are the female gold medalist finishing times in minutes.
The Taste of Victory
Lindsey Vonn having a taste of victory in the Audi World Cup.
Data points
The plus signs represent the female winners and the square dots represent the male winners.
The Linear Regression
These 2 equations represent the lines of best fit for men and women. The equation on the top is the linear regression equation for the male winners. The equation on the bottom is the linear regression equation for the female winners and has a thicker line to easily distinguish between the two lines.
The Intersection
The intersection of the two trend lines shows plenty of valuable information that can help in moving forward with the study. The thick line shows the trend of times for females and the thinner line shows the trend of times for males. The graph shows that the male times (thinner) are decreasing, while the women times (thicker) are increasing. The women times are increasing at a certain rate, while the male times are decreasing at a certain rate. In other words, the women are getting a little slower as time goes on, while men are getting a little faster as time goes on. Currently, the women are outperforming the men, but the trends show that the men will be faster than the women after the intersection point.
X Coordinate
The independent variable (x-coordinate) represents the number of years since the first data point, which is 1968 (x=0). The x-coordinate is 59.8, which is approximately 60 years. About 60 years after 1968 is the year 2028. There is no Winter Olympics in 2028, but there is one in 2030. The trend lines show that men will start outperforming women in the downhill alpine skiing event starting from 2030.
Y Coordinate
The dependent variable represents the gold medalist finishing time when men and women finish at the same time. This coordinate is 1.76, which is approximately 1 minute and 46 seconds. This means that the gold medalist finishing time for both men and women will be 1 minute and 46 seconds if the event occurred in 2028. The Winter Olympics do not happen until 2030, and the trend lines show that men are getting faster and women are getting slower. Therefore, the gold medalist time for men will be faster than the gold medalist time for women by a small margin in the 2030 Olympics.
WOOOOOH!!!!!
Source Used
http://www.olympic.org/alpine-skiing
http://www.olympic.org/content/results-and-medalists/eventresultpagegeneral/?athletename=&country=&sport2=58171&games2=&event2=31863&mengender=true&womengender=true&mixedgender=true&goldmedal=true&silvermedal=true&bronzemedal=true&teamclassification=true&individualclassification=true&winter=true&summer=true&searchpageipp=10&searchpage=1
http://www.olympic.org/content/results-and-medalists/eventresultpagegeneral/?athletename=&country=&sport2=58171&games2=&event2=31857&mengender=true&womengender=true&mixedgender=true&goldmedal=true&silvermedal=true&bronzemedal=true&teamclassification=true&individualclassification=true&winter=true&summer=true
http://www.olympic.org/content/results-and-medalists/eventresultpagegeneral/?athletename=&country=&sport2=58171&games2=&event2=31863&mengender=true&womengender=true&mixedgender=true&goldmedal=true&silvermedal=true&bronzemedal=true&teamclassification=true&individualclassification=true&winter=true&summer=true&searchpageipp=10&searchpage=1
http://www.olympic.org/content/results-and-medalists/eventresultpagegeneral/?athletename=&country=&sport2=58171&games2=&event2=31857&mengender=true&womengender=true&mixedgender=true&goldmedal=true&silvermedal=true&bronzemedal=true&teamclassification=true&individualclassification=true&winter=true&summer=true