The sport disciplines that are played during the winter months are generally termed as winter sports. Generally, winter games are played in ice or snow. It is popular in countries where the climates are cold.

The popular winter sport disciplines include figure skating, skiing, ice hockey, snowboarding, and sledding. There is a separate Olympic Game for the winter sport disciplines. Winter Olympics too take place once in 4 years. Ice hockey is an Olympic sport. It is slightly different from field hockey, which is played in an astro turf field. But it is similar to field hockey in many ways. Like hockey, ice hockey too has two goal posts in two corners and the objective is to score as many goals as possible.

Ice hockey is played on a ground full of ice. The players of ice hockey use a puck instead of a round ball. The players were ice skates in their shoes for the smooth movement on the snow surface. Ice hockey players wear many protective gears including Helmet with mask, elbow pads, shoulder pads, knee pads, throat protector, chest protector, Gloves, Jock Strap, and shin pads. Figure skating involves dancing on the ice surface with music in the background. The figure skaters wear skates while doing the routine. A panel of judges watches the proceedings and gives the participant points depending on the fluidity of movement and the difficulty of the moves. The points are given on routines on artistic and technical merit. The participants are given a time limit to perform the routines. The events include men, women, and pairs. The figure skating techniques include axel, the jump, toe jump, landing, edge jumps, the pirouettes, Ice dancing, Flip, the Loop, the lutz etc.

In alpine skiing, the competitors are required to ski down a course. Olympic Alpine Skiing has 5 variants. Downhill and Super-G tests the speed of the competitors. Giant and Slalom are 2 technical events. The fifth event is called mixed or combined. Snowboarding can be termed as the winter version of surfing. Snowboarding is different from skiing as it involves the use of a snow board instead of skis. The snow boarders use the body and the feet to direct the board. There are three recognized events in the Olympics—parallel giant slalom, Snowboard cross, and half pipe. The course where snowboarding events take place is littered with jumps, sharp turns, and moguls. Freestyle skiing has two disciplines in the winter Olympics. They are moguls and aerials. Cross country skiing is a popular discipline at the Winter Olympics. It can be termed as the marathon of the winter.

The winter sport disciplines require a lot of physical fitness and skills. Injuries are frequent and every event is specialized. The competitors undergo many years of dedicated practice to participate in winter sports. The disadvantage of the winter sports is that they can only be played in the cold countries across the world, that too in winter only. Therefore, the popularity of the winter sports is not throughout the world.