Winter Olympics, Skeleton Bob, Olympic Medal Biscuits and Piste Bashing Blue Peter

The 2014 Winter Olympics kicks off tomorrow

so today we're celebrating all things sporty and wintry.

You'll find out if I've got what it takes to control

a beast of a snow machine.

We'll show you how to make these medals,

which are so good, you're going to want to eat them.

Would you through yourself headfirst down an icy chute

on a tray at 60mph?

He did. Find out why.

It's coming up live on today's Blue Peter.

MUSIC: "Blue Peter Theme"

Yes, the ship has officially set sail. This is a live show.

Hi, how are you? Hello you two, how are you doing?

-Who are you talking to, Barney?

-Did I not tell you?

-No.

-I can see into people's homes.

-In there?

-Just by looking through the TV.

-Oh, right. Hi!

What about the girl having her tea over there as well?

-How are you?

-Looks yummy.

We are really excited in the Blue Peter studio because, of course,

it is the Winter Olympics,

so we're going to be linking up with

Sochi in Russia to find out just how Team GB are doing

ahead of the Winter Olympics tomorrow.

We will speak to my good friend Tim Warwood.

He's not just a man famous for CBBC presenting.

No, he is a former British snowboard champion. He is so talented.

He'll join us from the slopes

of a brand-new winter sport called snowboard, no...

snowboard slopestyle.

It's that new, we don't even know it ourselves!

The reason we've picked up on this is,

not only is it difficult to say,

it's also a great idea to get you involved

and design your own brand-new Winter Olympics sport.

What would it be? I'm thinking something like skiing and dancing.

"Scancing". It goes a little bit like this.

# Every day I'm shuffling. #

That's how cool I am.

I would probably choose

something like whitewater rafting over a frozen river.

-Ridiculous speed.

-Dangerous as well.

I would go for rubber ring ice jumping

because you sit in a rubber ring

and see how far you can glide and jump on the ice.

Everything is difficult to say on today's show, have you noticed?

-It's because we are cold.

-What would you invent?

A brand-new Winter Olympic sport.

Please get in touch.

We will read your suggestions out

later in the show.

If Lindsey's idea

was ever to come into fruition,

you'd need a really cool snow park in which to compete.

I've been lucky enough to go to such a place. Location, Austria.

The Stubai Glacier - some of Team GB even train there

and the slopes and jumps are pristine.

In order to get that, you will need a monster snow machine.

Welcome to the top of the Stubai Flacier,

3,210 metres above sea level.

Every year, millions of people head to snow parks,

like the one on top of this glacier, to have some wintry fun.

But behind every good snow park lies an army of these mighty machines.

They're called piste bashers. They are seriously powerful pieces of kit.

Their job is to help level snow

and create smooth surfaces for skiing and snowboarding.

But piste bashers also have another job, to create ski jumps like this!

I have been so lucky

because we have been given our own corner of the piste

and they are letting me make my own baby jump. Wish me luck!

This is by far the biggest machine I have ever been in charge of

and that means I need an expert co-driver.

Mattias, what do I need to do?

-You need this to stick and you can turn around here.

-OK.

A little bit more gas.

Yeah, fine.

We're indestructible!

Now, it's all very well driving around in circles,

but this isn't making a snow jump, so what next?

Now you can take it this way.

You can pull it down and you can take it slowly with you.

OK, we have lowered the snow.

-Here we go!

-Very good!

This piste basher really is a beast.

It has the power of 450 horses

and weighs the same as a double-decker bus.

It can deal with almost any condition the mountain can throw at it.

What's become really apparent

is that having only driven it for a little bit

and tried to lower the spade,

Mattias is constantly adjusting the lever because, actually,

the spade does not go down level, you can slightly tilt it,

and that's because obviously the mountain is not completely flat,

is not perfectly straight.

The skill involved in this,

it's not just a case of pushing a load of snow,

there are so many minor adjustments that he is making.

I've got a lot to learn.

Ski jumps are the big thing in winter sports at the moment.

In fact, at the Sochi Winter Olympics, athletes will,

for the very first time, compete in a sport called slopestyle.

# Fly high, let me go. #

Slopestyle sees competitors tackle jumps and obstacles like these,

to attempt the most difficult tricks and moves possible.

Great Britain has genuine medal hopes in the sport,

through Jenny Jones in the women's competition

and James Woods in the men's.

Wow! When else would I get to drive a snow basher?

Check out our motorway of snow and we have made this. Look at it!

It's a mountain of snow!

That's only part of the process.

Creating the perfect jump now needs some expert crafting

and that's where snow shapers Manuel and Bernie come in.

Fantastic job, what can I do to help with the finishing touches?

You can get a shovel. Try to make the snow here in front compact.

That is the point where the rider is going to jump over.

Shapers like Bernie and Manuel are in high demand.

During the ski season, they will tour the ski parks of the world,

building top-class jumps like these.

The Sochi Winter Olympics are just around the corner.

How much detail would go into building those jumps?

They need to be perfect. It is a world jumping competition,

a really important competition. Everything has to be perfect.

Lots of sculpting later and our mini jump is about there.

We finished the ramp and all we need is somebody to try it.

I can't ski.

But I know someone that can.

Paddy Graham, nicknamed "Legs of Steel",

is one of Britain's top three skiers.

He's just the man to try out my jump.

Yes, how cool is that!

Not a bad day at the office!

-Radzi, that was a mammoth machine.

-It was like a tank on snow.

-It is unreal. What a day!

-I don't know how you did that.

Now, something we are really excited about in the Blue Peter studio.

Of course, the start of the Winter Olympics tomorrow

in the Russian city of Sochi.

We've even got a map to show you because Russia is a huge country

and if you look down at the bottom left, you can just see Sochi.

We are now going to speak to a man who is a CBBC Wild presenter.

This man is so awesome, he has "woo" in his name.

Tim Warwood, how are you, sir?

I am absolutely amazing. Look at this place!

It has been incredible so far.

The sun is shining but don't let that lie to you

because it is actually freezing cold here.

We are amped here, you must be excited off the charts.

-What are you getting up to?

-Would you believe it?

I used to be a professional snowboarder but now,

because I'm not very good at snowboarding any more,

I'm behind the microphone and I'm doing the commentary

for BBC Sport for the snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

You can probably see behind me here,

practice is happening as we speak, you can see the riders coming over.

It's ladies practice. And you can see...

And, oh, what a beautiful frontside 360 there.

I'm not quite sure who it is but that is a long way away.

There, into a nice backside 360.

So, women's practice happening right here.

Never mind the qualifications

because Jamie Nicholls has already made it into the final,

so how good is that?

It was the men's earlier on

and Jamie made it straight through to the finals.

Billy Morgan put down a really good show for the men's

so Team GB, at the moment, doing very well indeed.

We're feeling proud in the studio here.

That's a new sport called slopestyle so can you tell us

a little bit about that, Tim.

Slopestyle is a brand-new sport

and it's essentially a skate park but on a hill.

So at the top of the course, you've got three rail sections.

And then after the three rail sections,

you've got these three big jumps.

And the riders come down

and they do loads of tricks on the boxes and the rails,

and then they do three big tricks over the jumps

and get some, pretty much, sweet air, to be honest.

Jenny Jones has been doing really well for the girls.

She's a snowboarder that thrives well under these conditions,

on these big jumps.

And she did really well earlier on, in her heat.

And actually skiing slopestyle is also in the Olympics

and we've got one of the favourites for the men,

we've got Mr James Woods.

And he is going to be throwing down on that course.

Again, another rider that loves these big conditions.

So expect a lot from Woodsy.

Tim, I didn't know a lot about it before.

You've convinced me. I'm going to be tuning in, my friend.

Now, there are other sports as well where Britain have medal hopes,

like Elise Christie in the speed skating.

How much of a chance have people like her got?

Oh, absolutely. I mean, she won a bronze medal not too long ago.

Team GB are positively frothing at her prospects.

That's actually going to be happening down in the ice skating arena,

which is down the coast there, Adler...or Sochi.

But we're up here in the mountains.

And this is the mountain arena up here.

You can see the freestyle section.

But as you look across the mountains,

you can see where the Boardercross course is going to be.

Then we've got the moguls at the top.

And then you might just be able to make out the top of the halfpipe.

And then sprawled, positively looming over the mountain there

is the down hill course for the alpine skiing.

And let me tell you something, if, well,

the steepness is anything to go by, it's going to be pretty crazy indeed.

Tim, thank you so much for joining us in the studio.

I hope you have the absolute time of your life out there.

You deserve it. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Well, thank you very much. It's been a pleasure.

Thanks for having me on. Radzi, Lindsey, you guys take care.

And enjoy the Winter Olympics. Make sure you tune in.

-Will do. Bye-bye, Tim.

-Bye-bye! We definitely will be tuning in.

That looks so exciting and we're very jealous.

And remember, if you head to our website...

you can check out some exclusive interviews we've got

with Billy Morgan and Katie Summerhayes.

And we even got to see Billy Morgan in action. Have a look at this.

MUSIC: "Unbelievable" by EMF

My question is from navybluetinypuffin,

"What goes through your mind when you go over the big jumps and ramps?

"It must be scary."

Yeah, it is quite scary, for sure.

You kind of get used to it,

the more and more snowboarding you're doing.

You start off on the small ones and move up to the big ones.

It's all fun in the end, really.

And there is plenty more where that came from.

So make sure you head to the website after the show and check it out.

Over to you, Radzi.

Lindsey, I am so excited!

Good luck to all of our hopefuls.

Now, one Olympic sport which we haven't spoken about

is actually quite dear to my heart.

It involves this.

Now, this is not what you might think it is.

It's not a sledge you'd slide down a snowy hill.

In fact, it's a sledge that you lie on

and you slide headfirst down an icy track

at speeds of well over 60mph.

It feels the most extreme water slide

you've ever been on, in your life.

It's called skeleton bobsleigh

and I love it.

Oh, my goodness! My heart is absolutely pounding.

Ah...

And it's this that's got my blood pumping.

I've just hurtled headfirst down an icy skeleton bob track.

Skeleton is one of the fastest and most exciting sports

in the Winter Olympics.

And when I was a student, I had ambitions of becoming a top slider.

But I haven't been near a track for three years.

So to help me realise my dream of sliding on ice,

World Champion Shelley Rudman is taking me back to basics.

Let me just show you. If you're going to lift your head up,

it'd be like that. Feet up a bit higher.

-Hold on really tight.

-OK.

-It's a bit wet today

-so it might be a bit slippy as well.

-OK.

I'm definitely a bit rusty

but I've still got some of the noisiest skeleton skills!

-HE WAILS

-After my training,

I asked Shelley for some top tips.

For anyone who doesn't know what skeleton is, what exactly is it?

Skeleton bobsleigh is where you race headfirst, on your front,

on a sled, down ice chutes.

-And how fast do you go?

-You can go up to about 85mph.

There aren't any brakes, so you can't stop.

You could drag your feet to slow you down

but that's not advisable.

And the curves coming up are coming at you quite quickly.

And you start to almost navigate them instinctively.

The first time is really unusual, though. So it's...

It's very breathtaking and it's a unique experience.

'4.99! That's a tremendous start from Shelley Rudman.'

What do you think it takes to be world-class at skeleton?

I think you have to have a really good instinct.

You need really good spatial awareness.

You need to be quite strong, quick, powerful.

And all of those components can make you

the start of a good athlete.

And if you are, say, ten years old perhaps, at home, thinking,

"Skeleton looks brilliant!"

Perhaps you see it at the Olympics and want to get involved,

what advice would you have?

Try lots of different sport.

So speed sports, maybe balance sports,

and try and build up their abilities that way.

So lots of transferrable skills from other sports

-that could in the future help you with skeleton?

-Exactly, yeah.

'This is going to be good from Shelley Rudman.

'She will go into the lead, surely.

'Big hit there but it doesn't matter,

'she's in first place.'

-Shelley, thanks so much for joining us.

-Thank you.

-And good luck for the rest of the season.

-Thank you.

But my challenge isn't to TALK about skeleton.

So I'm heading to Igls Sliding Centre

in Innsbruck, Austria,

to link up with Team GB's development squad

and make a high-speed run down the world-famous track.

But before I'm allowed to slide, skeleton ice coach Mark Wood

wants me to take in each bend and bump of the track

and some important safety advice.

You'll feel these little waves, nothing to worry about.

You're going to feel it want to go.

-That's OK, don't worry about it.

-OK.

-It's fine.

Just making you aware of what could possibly go wrong.

-There's a lot could possibly go right, as well.

-Yeah,

I appreciate that.

One of Mark's coaching techniques

is to encourage sliders to visualise the course in their minds,

helping commit every twist and turn to memory.

Big corner two...

down, almost immediately into three.

-Feel the first pressure, shoulder down.

-Yeah.

-Release as the shade comes off.

-Yeah.

Squeeze this pressure and then just let it come out.

This is the major area.

The key to get through.. down the track is right here.

If I'm going to come off my sled,

it'll probably happen here -

corner nine.

You've got to try and keep hold of the sled.

If you lose the sled, push it away from you and then keep tight in.

The reason we're pushing the sled away from us

is so that it's accelerating and we're slowing down.

If you don't get anything else on this apart from this,

-that's all I'm really worried about, is this part.

-OK.

-All right?

He's going to be nervous.

I mean, he hasn't been on a sled for quite a while, right,

and it's all going to be brand-new to him again.

And you've got to imagine -

you're two inches off the ice, your face is really, really close

and you're going to be doing about 60mph.

We can't guarantee anything.

Once he's gone, he's on his own.

And if anything goes wrong, he's got to get out of it himself.

Not many people choose to take up this sport.

It's fast, furious and dangerous,

and that's exactly why it appealed to me.

But at this moment in time, I'm not so sure.

There's a huge part of me that's actually scared.

I haven't done this for a very, very long time

and just crossing that finish line is going to be an exhilaration

that's going to be off the charts.

But to be honest with you, number one is be safe.

I can't think about that too much

cos that actually does really make me scared.

Now it's my turn.

I'm about to go at the same speed as a car on the motorway,

except I'm going face first, down the ice.

After just a couple of hundred metres,

I'm really picking up pace.

Before I know it,

I'm hurtling around the longest bend in the course.

And once I'm clear of that, I'm approaching the danger corner -

corner nine.

And I'm through, on the sled in one piece.

And now I'm on the home straight...

and loving it!

Oh, my goodness!

Yes!

Oh, on the top of that run I was thinking to myself,

"Am I going to do this?

"Come on, Radzi! Come on, Radzi! Let's do it, let's do it."

And I am so pleased I just did that.

Oh, my goodness, my heart is absolutely pounding.

I actually loved that.

Oh, that was so good.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Radzi, I like going fast, you know that.

In a car, on a motorbike - no problem at all.

But 2cm off the ground, on ice, that must be terrifying.

Do you know what? If you do it, you'll get addicted. Trust me.

It's so good! But I couldn't have done it without the help

from British Skeleton and Mark Wood, so thank you so much.

And also, a huge good luck to Dom Parsons, to Kristan Bromley,

to Shelley Rudman and to Lizzy Yarnold.

They're going to be competing for Team GB in skeleton. Good luck.

I'd love to be able to give you a gold medal cos you deserve one

but I don't have any. I have biscuits that look like medals.

-Good enough for me.

-Let's go and make them.

-Hello, guys. How are we? ALL:

-Good.

-We're good?

We've got Nate, Brady, Scott and Lewis. Welcome to the show.

Now, we're going to be talking about the Winter Olympics

cos it all kicks off tomorrow.

So favourite sports? What do you like?

-Snowboarding.

-Freestyle snowboarding.

-I can tell you're a freestyler.

-Slopestyle and bobsleighing.

-Yeah, bobsleigh.

-Slopestyle and bobsleigh.

And if you could compete in any of these sports,

-you'd want a medal, wouldn't you? ALL:

-Yeah.

-We're going to make some.

Take a look at the cushion of joy.

It's got a gold, silver and a bronze on it.

-We're all going for gold, let's be honest.

-Yeah.

-Gold!

It's dead easy to make these.

They're just biscuits that have been decorated in a pretty way.

All you've got to do is go to the website...

You'll find everything you need for this make on there.

But don't go just yet, cos I've got to show you how to make 'em.

We're going to preheat the oven at 150.

That's gas mark 2 for those of you that have an oven from the '70s.

OK, butter and sugar go into a bowl, just like that.

And then what've got to do is mix them. So, boys, mix away.

It's all yours. And while you're doing that,

let's talk about your photograph, Brady.

Tell us more about this.

Well, we were at a competition in Canada

and we were just waiting for my run.

-And you just thought you'd just pose for a photo?

-Yeah.

It's one of those moments

-where you want to get your best side on film for ever. I like it.

-Yeah.

Don't forget to start decorating these, by the way.

We've got glittery pens, silver balls, gold balls, glitter,

you've got icing. Just go for it.

Once you've mixed your butter and your sugar...

Fabulous job, boys. ..you need to put your flour into it.

Save a bit of flour cos you want to put that on the table

so you call roll the dough out in a minute.

All the measurements for this are on the website, by the way.

So now, I think, boys, you've been far too clean.

Get your hands in there. Give me that.

Go for it! Make your dough.

And I need to come down there if I can, Lewis.

You want to keep mixing that for as long as you can,

till it starts to look something like this -

a dough ball.

Oh, yeah! I like this.

Now, lots of flour on the table.

Of course we've all washed our hands, before you ask.

All right.

Flour on the rolling pin. Where's me rolling pin?

Excuse me, boys. Thank you.

I need some of that flour off there.

The reason you're doing the flour on the rolling pin and the table

is cos you do not want it to stick to the table,

like that.

I'm showing you how not to do it!

OK. So, as you can see here,

putting flour down first means that your dough

will not stick to the table or the roller

and that is very important to remember that, OK?.

Nobody wants flour and dough stuck to their rolling pin.

So once you've rolled it out into a nice, flat, circular,

1cm thin bit of dough,

you need to cut it out.

And here you can use a cookie cutter if you want to.

Really simple to do.

If you haven't got one of those, you can use a cup.

Just turn it upside down and cut round it. It's dead easy.

Now you also need to make a little... How are you doing, boys?

You look like you're getting tired.

I'm only making you do it cos I didn't want to.

You're doing a great job.

You need to make a little hole for your ribbon to go through.

To do that, you can use the end of a paintbrush, like that.

Just go through

and then chuck it on your trays, which I'm going to do now.

Now make sure you grease the baking tray as well,

cos we don't want anything else sticking!

And you can just add to the other cookies on there.

It's dead easy.

And while we're doing this,

let's talk about Scott's amazing photograph.

Have you seen this? This is amazing. Scott, talk us through it.

Well, it was at an event at Chill Factore.

And yeah, I love backflips and front flips

so I decided to do that flip.

And they were just dead easy to do.

You thought you'd pose and do a back flip, why not?

I understand. Now, don't forget our oven has been preheated to 150.

Chuck the ones on top that you're going to be cooking,

And here's some somebody else made earlier.

Don't forget these are going to be hot when you take them out,

so make sure you leave them to cool. Excuse me, hot tray coming through.

There you go. How are yours getting on?

You're decorating them with glittery pens.

What style are we going for? Tell me.

-I'm going for a snowboarder.

-Yeah.

You could do one like Scott, back flipping. That'd be wicked!

-How about you, Brady?

-A mountain.

-A mountain?

Well, there's icing sugar there,

-you could use that as snow on top.

-Yeah.

-Go for it.

There's a great thing about these glitter pens

that not many people know,

you can't tell what flavour they are.

Close your eyes and put your hand over your mouth,

you've got to tell me what flavour you think this is.

What flavour is that? Can you tell?

-Any idea?

-Banana.

-Banana!

Well done, you got it right. Congratulations.

-So once you have decorated them... What, you've got a little...

-Yeah.

..chuck the ribbon through the hole in your now-cooked biscuit

and there you have it.

As long as you decorate it the way that you want,

which is gold, silver, bronze or any kind of sparkly design,

everyone's going to be happy.

There you go. All the details are on the website.

Head over there and have a look for yourself.

-Lindsey!

-Yes.

Those look delish. Scrumptious, thank you.

And why don't you head online if you get a chance,

if you like the look of edible medals, bbc.co.uk/bluepeter,

and play our brand-new game.

It's for Sport Relief and it's called Athletes Vs Monsters.

It's so fun. You can make little tournaments with your friends

and if you come first, second or third,

you get to give out edible medals. Yum!

So make sure you go check it out.

And if you do make edible medals,

make sure you send us a photo of them.

Stop messing around, you lot!

It does not fit round my neck, does it?

-There's dough everywhere!

-Thank you.

-Check out the muscle in your neck!

-I'll just hold it, let's pretend I'm not here.

-Let's roll with it.

-Look at this big badge wall, by the way!

-It's packed. Caked!

Caked like this medal is in glitter,

-which is actually pouring down.

-LOUD RUSTLING

Look at this one, now. This is from Annabel.

-Let me move that. We can't hear your beautiful voice.

-Thank you.

-It was good while it lasted!

-Hopefully you can hear me now.

This is... Come and stand here and point to that on there.

That's from Annabel from Surrey and that's the Winter Olympics.

-I love that.

-But my favourite has to be from Ailsa.

Now, if you read that there, that's a door hanger. It says,

"Do not disturb, I am watching Blue Peter."

-Quite right.

-Rightly so, between 5:30 and 6 on Thursday on CBBC.

But when you're not doing that,

"Come in for some epic Blue Peter fun."

-Love it, Ailsa!

-That's what we're doing now -

epic Blue Peter fun, I like to call this.

And look at this, it's from Hannah and Nicole.

They sent in a little memory board.

You've got the dogs on there. You've got Radzi being gunged,

me jumping off a pier, Chris Hadfield.

It's looking brill. Thank you so much for that.

And last but not least, this is from Lily.

Have a look at it!

She's made a necklace of Blue Peter badges.

I love it and I'm going to wear it till the end of the show,

I love it so much.

-Thank you for that.

-I love that and thank you so much

for sending all of your post in. Please keep it coming. Barney?

Hiya. How are you doing?

Right then, let's talk about what you've sent us today.

We're asking you to get in touch

and tell us what Winter Olympic sport you would invent.

Lewis, do you want to read this one? It's a good one.

Snow cycle. You have to cycle on the snow, in the cold.

It's quite a nice one. It's from topazathleticstarfish.

A bike on the snow, I like that one.

Absolutely.

And why don't you read that one? Go for it.

"If I could invent a snow sport, I would invent hula-skate,

"where you have to ice skate..."

-That sounds difficult, doesn't it?

-"..and hula hoop at the same time."

You'd be wiggling everything. That's from topazviolinangel.

-Thank you for that.

-Sapphirecrumpetrockstar -

this is really simple but it works.

-Synchronised snowboarding.

-Like it.

-I like that a lot.

Sepiapepperyturkey... These names are getting better.

..had a similar thought - freestyle basketting.

-I like that one.

-It's very popular already!

And then last but not least, we've got purpleglowingsinger says,

"Snow carting, a mix between carting and snowboarding."

-Oh, that sounds quite fun.

-Yeah.

Thank you so much for getting in touch

and leaving your comments for us. If you are on the website,

head over there and check out Malorie Blackman's section.

She's an amazing person, we've known her for a long time.

And you can ask her any questions.

Lindsey's going to meet her and ask her your questions. Get involved.

That's just about all we've got time for this week.

But fear not, my friends, as next week we've got all this...

That's right, I'm going to be combining street art and origami

-in Paris.

-Yes, that's right, Lindsey.

And also, have you ever wanted to fly 2,000 feet in the air

in an aircraft with no engine?

16-year-old Alex is doing that himself and that's just his hobby.

It's amazing.

And I'm going to be showing you how to make this.

It is part card, part box, part perfect Valentine's present!

And it doesn't open but it does now! Look at that. It's very good.

It's beautiful. Thank you for getting in touch.

Have a lovely week. Say goodbye, guys. A big wave.

-Scott, do a back flip.

-Quick!

-No, don't!

-Oh, no, don't!

Can you imagine? I'd get told off!