New Year, New Sports

The Year of the Tiger roars in with 7 new Olympic events

The Beijing Winter Games have 15 sports and 109 events.¹

A moment on the distinction between events and sports.² Sports are exactly what you think they are - Ski Jumping, Snowboarding, Figure Skating, etc. Events are the individual medal competitions within each sport. Some sports have a lot of events (Biathlon has 11) and some have only two (mens and womens in Hockey and Skeleton).

This year’s Olympics will debut seven new medal events in five sports, focussed on creating greater gender parity and more mixed team events.

Here’s a preview of the 7 new Olympic events:

Women’s Monobob

The hottest new sport out of Shelbyville is the single new women’s only event. Monobob, as the name implies, is bobsledding for one. Its addition to the Olympics means men and women will now each compete in two events (four man/women, two man, and mono).

Monobob athletes must singlehandedly do all the jobs usually shared by teammates - push, steer, and brake - all while hurtling down an ice-tube at 70mph. And unlike bobsledding - where rich teams with superior equipment usually win - all Monobob athletes use a standardized sled, putting a greater emphasis on individual skill.

Freestyle Skiing Big Air

Following in the footsteps of it’s younger brother snowboarding in 2018, Freestyle Skiing Big Air makes the crossover from X-Games to Olympic Games this year.

Crazy people Olympic Athletes will ski down a 165 foot ramp, launch off a 60 foot jump, and perform unreal acrobatic feats. The competition will likely produce some of the biggest Wow! moments of the Games. (see What You Missed Last Night beow)

This event will take place at the brand new Big Air Shougang, the world’s first permanent big air venue.

Mixed Team Freestyle Skiing Aerials

Traditionally an individual sport, Freestyle Skiing Aerials is the more traditional big brother to the Big Air. Athletes ski down a small hill and perform tight aerobatic twists and flips off short, steep jumps.

This new event will feature teams of three. Each team must have one man and one woman but the third person can be either, which should add to the excitement. (Australia has won two world championships with a two woman team.)

All three skiers scores will be added together and the highest team total wins gold.

Mixed Team Short Track Speed Skating Relay

Nearly all Winter Olympics sports are dangerous, but this one with the high speeds, close quarters, and razor-sharp blades is particularly harrowing. Which makes this new relay event even more thrilling.

Teams of two men and two women will compete in an 18-lap relay race (each skater does legs of 2.5 and 2 laps), meaning there will be dozens of people on the ice at any one time. Unlike in track relays, short track speed skaters don’t pass a baton but instead give their teammate a push from behind, supercharging the exchanges on laps that last only 10-12 seconds.

Mixed Team Ski Jumping

This is pretty straightforward. Teams of two men and two women will jump in woman-man-woman-man order. All four scores get added together, and the highest team total wins gold.

Mixed Team Snowboard Cross

A new team format joins its solo counterpart. This high-speed event features teams of two racing head-to-head.

Each race begins with the men starting simultaneously on parallel courses. As soon as an athlete crosses the finish line, his teammate will start down the course, creating a staggered start for the woman. The first woman across the line wins, and her team advances in the bracket-style tournament.

A Record Number of Mixed Events

These Games will feature nine mixed gender events, a Winter Olympics record. Though none of these events are unique sports, I think they are great and I hope the trend continues. I love more opportunities to root for Team USA instead of just individual athletes, and I love that mixed events up-end gender stereotypes (such as with the Australian Aerials Ski Team). And for what it’s worth (and it should be a lot), the athletes love the opportunity to make individual sports into team competitions, and to compete alongside opposite gender teammates they have always practiced with.

And in case you’re already thinking ahead to 2024, the Paris Games will debut only one new sport: Breakdancing. C'est la vie!

What To Watch Today

Though the Games don’t officially start for another two days, the competition begins as this newsletter hits your inbox this morning. There are only three events today, but you’ve got two chances to catch Team USA as well as the formidable Canadian women’s hockey team.

(all times EST)

What You Missed Last Night

Nothing yet, but here’s American freestyle skier Alex Hall winning the 2022 X-Games Ski Big Air with a 2160° jump. That’s six rotations!

In Other Olympic News…

ESPN: Chinese-American Freeski star Eileen Gu's delicate balancing act between China and the U.S.

NPR: FBI advises athletes to leave their personal phones at home for the Beijing Olympics

Foreign Policy: U.N. Chief Rebuffs U.S. Request to Skip Beijing Olympics

Photo of the Day

Workers prepare the ice at the Yanqing National Sliding Center after installing a logo on the.

Don’t oversweep and miss the first day of competition!

(That’s a curling joke.)

1

By comparison, the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games featured 339 events across 33 sports.

2

The Olympics actually makes a distinction between sports, events, and disciplines. Technically speaking, the Winter Olympics have 7 sports broken down into 15 disciplines. Things most people would would consider separate sports - like Snowboarding and Ski Jumping - the IOC defines as disciplines within the sport of skiing. When I refer to sports I am talking about the 15 distinct disciplines.