The ice skates worn by this year's hockey players, figure skaters and speed skaters are vastly different from what were once used. Melissa Hines, the Director of the Cornell University Center for Materials Research, and Sam Colbeck, a retired scientist from the U.S. Army Cold Regions Lab, explain how innovations in boot and blade design help skaters perform better than ever before.

The Olympics are a unique chance to marvel at the physical abilities of these world-class athletes. But what makes them unique? After all, they're made of the same flesh and blood as the rest of us--how did they become Olympians? Dan Fletcher, an associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley has some answers.

Every four years, we watch the stakes for Olympic figure skaters get higher, as they try to increase rotation in the air with their triple axels and quadruple toe loops. How do they do that? It's a scientific principle that we asked Olympic hopeful Rachael Flatt, and Deborah King, an associate professor in the Department of Exercise and Sports Sciences at Ithaca College, to help explain.