Ice is no simple matter at the Olympic games. There are five ice specialists for Vancouver’s Winter Olympics in charge of five very different slick surfaces. Figure skaters and short-track speedskaters share a 1.75 inch layer of ice at 24 degrees F. Long-track speedskaters get a harder track averaging 1.13 inches at 19.4 degrees. Curling takes place on a pebbled surface over 1.75 inches of ice at 20 degrees. And in the uncontrollable outdoors, the bobsled, luge, and skeleton track is kept at an average of 1.2 inches, 24 degrees. The athletes who are the least picky about the condition of their ice? The hockey players who get 1.1 inches at 20.3 degrees F, and whose medal chances don’t depend on a hundredths of a second time difference or a missed jump.