Winter Olympic fans who may not be able to hit the streets of Vancouver to observe the games can at least play the official video game on Facebook.

Sega’s Vancouver 2010 Official Minigame on Facebook allows the user to “compete” in sports played during the winter games by using the arrow buttons on their keyboard. The four sports — snowboard cross, giant slalom, ski jumping and short track speed skating — allow you to compete with your friends, others in your country and players all over the world. Winners in the game may be awarded gold, silver or bronze medals.

The app is constantly asking users to invite their friends to play, as well. Once you’ve completed a game the app asks you to publish the results to your Wall so all the friends in your network can see you played the game. The ever-present faces of your friends follow you through your game trials, too.

The game on Facebook has grown steadily recently and currently has just over 14,500 monthly active users. The game is the Facebook version of games made for Xbox 360, PCs and PlayStation 3 and when played at olympicvideogames.com allows the winners of gold medals to enter into a contest for prizes.

When a user begins playing the game you’re asked to select a country and invite your friends to play; the game also shows your individual world ranking, country ranking and any medals you have won in the game.

To the sound of alternative-style video game music you’re asked to select a difficulty level — normal, hard or expert — and may elect to see a tutorial before playing. Once you finish navigating the course of your sport and arrive at the finish line, the crowd cheers you (no matter how badly you play).