No matter how much you might not care, no matter how hard you try to find something else on TV, more times than not in the past week you’ve found yourself watching the Olympics.

They’re inevitable – you can’t escape them. You can go about your daily lives, but they’re always on, waiting for you to give in and watch them. They’re on at 4 a.m. They’re on six local stations along with the 13 cable channels carrying them nonstop. They’re on secretly in the background of other programs, like subliminal messages.

I’ve found myself resorting to the Olympics during the past week. I’m a competitive spirit to the core, and even if that means watching speed skating, so be it. Anything to fuel my need for competition.

The Olympics have their share of standard, run-of-the-mill events that everyone knows and loves. Things like bobsleds are staples of the Winter Olympics.

Newer, more recognizable sports like snowboarding produce American favorites like Shaun White. The Olympics might be the only reason the name Sarah Hughes is even in my vocabulary.

But give me a choice between watching figure skating and the biathlon, where skiers wield guns and shoot targets every so often, and my choice is clear: I’ll take the biathlon.

On lazy afternoons and late-night breaks when I find myself watching the big O, it’s often the more obscure games I’m drawn to. In case you’ve missed them, here are three of the more fun events offered by the Winter Olympics:

Biathlon – the NBC Olympic Web site reads, “A combination of cross-country skiing and rifle shooting, the sport of biathlon imposes two contrasting challenges upon athletes: the aerobic demands of racing, plus the precision of marksmanship.” In other words, one of the greatest sports ever.

Where’s Bode Miller’s rifle? That’s what I thought. Very few Winter Olympic sports can live up to a sport that combines skiing and guns. I’m not an advocate of the NRA and I’ve never been hunting in my life, but you still can’t argue with a guy who skis for a little bit and then decides he’s going to shoot some stuff. You just can’t.

Curling – curling is by far my favorite Olympic event. Anyone who knows me can attest. If curling is on, I’m watching. It’s like chess with rocks and ice and brooms. For the most part, my time watching so far has been spent just trying to figure out the rules and scoring system, but once I get that down I will assuredly enjoy it even more.

I can’t even explain my attraction to curling. It’s possibly the least exciting thing I can think of to do with my time. I mean, did someone wake up one day and say, “I wonder how slowly I can slide a heavy rock across a sheet of ice? And what would happen if I swept feverishly just inches in front of it?” And still I watch. And I’m amazed every time the stone makes it to the other end.

Skeleton – I’ve come to the conclusion that skeleton was invented for people who want the rush of suicide without actually dying. I’m content with going down the waterslide head first and calling it a day. But these athletes want to hurl themselves down an ice track at up to 80 mph.

More tame versions of the skeleton exist – the luge is basically the skeleton, but feet first – but for my money it’s go big or go home. If I want to watch athletes put themselves in mild danger, I might as well watch ice dancing. Real danger is the way to go. And nowhere else is that more prominent than the skeleton.

Other events are fine if you like “gold medals” and “national heroes.” But if you’re like me, and you’re just a little bit weird, but you’d prefer to be called eccentric, then these sports are the place to be.

Nathan Grimm is a sophomore in ALS. He can be reached at [email protected].