Interesting Facts

Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada is considering flooding 11km of cycle paths to provide a route for residents to commute through the city on --- wait for it --- ice skates. (With winter temperatures of -12C (9.5F) the paths would soon freeze over and the Freezeway would be born. Organisers say they’ll give the project a try, as early as winter 2016.

The world's first indoor curling match, on artificial ice, took place in Manchester, in 1877. ( Unfortunately the rink closed soon after the match was played. Curling made its Olympic debut in Chamonix in 1924, but it didn't become a permanent Winter Olympics sport until  Nagano in 1998 . The UK has gone a bit nuts over curling, as we have won a medal, and should win another later today.  After these Olympics I doubt we will hear of it again for 4 years.)

Allegedly, some Winter Olympic contestants are turning over their social media accounts to sponsors. (They are agreeing to quotas of postings on their Twitter and Facebook accounts, letting other people send commercial messages in their name. If you are shocked by this, you probably think that your favourite pop star / film star sits tweeting away all day. That said, it's not really the spirit of the Olympics, is it? I can promise you, this though.  This is me. Sitting at my keyboard with my fingers tapping the keys. Of course you only have my word for that, and I'll admit I feel a little jealous. I can't imagine having assistants.)

In the world of romance one of the difficult things to do is pluck up the courage to ask someone out. No longer! So called "Hook up" apps are seemingly all the rage amongst young singletons. (One of the breed, Tinder, claims to be responsible for 150 marriages; it is a location-based dating app which highlights fellow singles in your area, sort of virtual speed dating. Now I know that sounds kind of sweet, but (there's always a but) there are 450,000,000 Tinder profiles worldwide, which means their "meaningful relationship rate" is pretty low. So how does this tie in to Valentine's Day and the Winter Olympics? Well, romance aside, a news story claims that Olympic athletes in Sochi are hooking up using Tinder. Now this could just be clever marketing by the owners of Tinder, but there's no doubt that the market is booming, Smeeters, Down, OkCupid, and Grindr, to name but a few, are all aimed at pairing us up in different combinations.)

Jenny Jones has won Britain’s first ever Olympic medal for a snow based event. (Of course she's not the first Brit to be given one, but  Alain Baxter, who won a slalom bronze medal at the Winter Olympics in   Salt Lake City in 2002 , had to hand it back after testing positive for a banned stimulant.)

7th February The start of the Winter Olympics. "The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play." The Olympic Charter

When filming summer scenes in winter, actors suck on ice cubes just before the camera rolls - it cools their mouths so their breath doesn't condense in the cold air. (Beats sucking on a lemon.)