It is a truth universally acknowledged that both spectators and announcers of the Winter Olympics have no clue what’s going on. During the US-Canada hockey game, an announcer told me that the game was “ridiculously ridiculous.” In order to actually understand what these athletes go through, one must turn to…flash games!

Ski Run, developed by ikon, has taught me more about . This realistic physics engine forces you to set up your line gates in advance, and doesn’t fall prey to the “just hold accelerate and you’ll win the race” flaw found in many flash games. You’ll have to go in and out of your crouch to avoid the painful animation of hitting into the gates.

Too often, sports games rely on simple key combinations to do moderately well-animated tricks that aren’t nearly as fun to pull the second time. Ski Run breaks the Super G down to its essentials, and gives you a better sense of the challenges of flying down a mountain than any telecast can.