Alpine Downhill Skiing
For The Skilled and The Brave
All About Speed
Downhill, unlike the pther alpine skiing events, slalom, giant slalom, and combined emphasizes technique and turning, downhill is all about speed. Speeds up to 130 km/h
(80 mph) in international events like the olympics. Atheletes must have an aerodynamically efficient tuck position to reduce drag and increase speed. This sport is for the risk takers and the thrill seekers bevause one mistake, may be your last.
Battle of the Sexes
The reason of this article is to compare the times of the men and women in the downhill skiing event from previous Olympics. The purpose is to predict when/if womens times will be as fast as mens or eventually surpass them or vice versa. Although the men and women do not compete against eachother they do use the sam course which will make the comparison correct and true.
The Goal of the Study
I will be using linear regression to solve a system of equations to determine if womens performances will eventually surpass mens or vice versa.
The Data
The Table
The table above shows the year of the winter olympics and the gold metal times of the men and women who competed. This is the data I will be using for the project. List 1 is the Olympic years, list 2 is the mens gold times, and list 3 is the womens gold times.
Scatter Plot
The red markers represent the female competitors and the green squares represent the male competitors.
Linear Regression
These are the trend lines for the male and female times. The red line represents thefemale trendline andthe blue line represents the male trend line.
The Intersection Point
Each trend line, male and female, are increasing which means that the times are actually getting slower. Currently the women have been having faster times in the past, but because the mens trend line is increasing at a slower rate than the women's trend line, it is predicted that in the year 2028 mens times will end up being faster than women's.
The X and Y Coordinates
Currently the women are outperfoming the men in downhill skiing by having faster times. However, the womens times are increasing at a faster rate than the mens times. Based on the linear regression, in the year 2028(x-coordinate) the mens times will be equal to the womens times, although both genders are getting slower at the sport. Since 2028 is a Summer Olympic year the next Winter Olympics will be in 2030 where at that point the men will begin having faster times than the women. In 2028 the predicted times for both men and women will be 119 seconds(y-coordinate) or 1 minute and 59 seconds. Eventhough both genders are getting slower at the sport, by the Olympics of 2030 the tables will have turned and mens gold metalist times will be faster than the womens.