While most of us in the Southeast are used to getting our athletic fixes from sports such as football, baseball, basketball and soccer, a much different sporting spectacular has been on our television screens for the past week.

Yes, it’s Olympics time again. But not just any Olympics — it’s the Winter Olympics, where we can see sports in which most of us could only dream of participating while living in a climate where one single snowflake can cause mass panic and a run to the local grocery store.

I have always been a bigger fan of the Winter Olympics than Summer Olympics, simply because the sports are not ones that are common to those of us who live below the Mason-Dixon Line.

The scenery is also spectacularly beautiful, as skiers careening down a mountain or snowboarders flying through the air with snowy peaks in the background is breathtaking stuff, and something you just don’t get in the Summer Olympics.

My personal favorite Winter Olympic sports are speed skating and cross-country skiing. While I prefer long-track speed skating, where athletes are traveling long distances around the rink against the clock, short-track speed skating also gets the blood pumping, as four or five competitors compete in close quarters against each other on the speed skating equivalent of Bristol Motor Speedway. The sport has a very NASCAR feel to it, complete with crashes and wipeouts.

While most people probably prefer the thrills and danger of high-speed downhill skiing, I prefer the strength and endurance that cross-country skiers must have in order to compete.

It is a sport that takes so much out of the body, skiing up hills, pulling yourself forward with ski poles, your body aching until you get to a downhill portion where you can relax for just a few seconds before heading uphill again. And this goes on for miles.

It might not have the danger and speed of the downhill racers, but seeing an athlete push him or herself to the absolute limit is riveting in its own way.

One of the most prominent Winter Olympics sports is figure skating. The figure skating competitions are some of the most highly attended and most watched of the Games.

The team competition and pairs competition has finished, with the individual men’s and women’s competitions coming up next week. I’ll admit I’ve never been much of a figure skating fan, but the gold-medal-winning performance of the German team in the pairs competition Wednesday night was breathtaking.

While the first week of the Winter Olympics have gone by in a flash, there is still much more to come in the second week. The hockey tournament is just getting cranked up and downhill skiing is finally going after being delayed several days due to high winds.

Bobsledding and short-track speed skating will also highlight the second week of the Games along with the individual men’s and women’s figure skating competitions. The Olympics only come around every four years, so let’s enjoy them while we have a chance.

Then we can get back to our usual Southern sports.

Jeff Edwards can be reached at jeff@athensnews-courier.com.