Athletes at the Winter Olympics posses some wildly different skills. Some can hurtle head-first down an ice track at 90 miles per hour. Others can rotate four times in the air in a fraction of a second — and make it look easy. Many perform death-defying flips and jumps while strapped to skis and snowboards.
These athletes do have one thing in common, though: When they're competing and training, they all burn calories.
This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in.We looked through data from the Compendium of Physical Activities (CPA) — a research-backed list of calories burned by different activities — to learn how many calories are burned performing Winter Olympics sports.
Note that all the following calculations are based on a 150-pound person. If you weigh more or less, use this simple formula to get a more accurate calculation for you. Also, for some sports, the CPA only has estimates of calorie burn rates — all those sports are noted below.
Vigorous downhill ski racing burns an estimated 540 calories per hour.
Downhill skiing with moderate effort burns 360 calories per hour.
Vigorous downhill snowboarding burns an estimated 540 calories per hour, just like skiing.
The CPA doesn't have data on freestyle snowboarding, which is seen at the Olympics.
Cross-country skiing is a calorie torcher: An elite racer going 8 miles per hour or faster burns 1,020 calories an hour.
One Olympian told INSIDER that it's basically the equivalent of a Chipotle burrito per hour.
Cross-country skiing at 4 miles per hour, with moderate effort, burns 610 calories an hour.
Bobsledding could burn 475 calories an hour — though bobsled races typically last less than a minute.
Source: Olympics
Luge would also burn 475 calories over the course of an hour.
The CPA doesn't have data on skeleton, the sport that looks like luge except that athletes race head first down the track.
An hour of curling burns an estimated 272 calories.
If all the sweeping and yelling still confuses you, here's a simple guide to how curling works.
Ice dancing — one discipline of figure skating — burns 950 calories an hour.
For non-Olympic athletes, general ice skating burns roughly 475 calories an hour.
Competitive hockey burns an estimated 680 calories an hour.
Non-competitive play burns 540 an hour.
Ski jumping can burn an estimated 475 calories an hour — as long as you climb up to the jumping point while carrying your skis.
Competitive speed-skating burns roughly 900 calories an hour.
Plain old fast skating — faster than 9 miles per hour — burns an estimated 610 calories an hour.
Want more? Read all of our coverage of the Winter Olympics here.
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