New Events Added to the 2022 Winter Olympics
December 3, 2021
Do you love winter and enjoy sports? You’re in luck! The Winter Olympics is right around the corner. The 2022 Winter Olympics will take place at the National Stadium in Beijing, China, from Friday, Feb. 4, through Sunday, Feb. 20. Six new events will make their debut this year. The goal of adding new events is to promote an increase in the number of athletes that participate.
On Jan. 25, 1924, the International Olympic Committee approved the first Winter Olympics to take place in Chamonix, France. 16 nations took part in the games, including a total of 258 athletes that competed in 16 events. In 2018 Winter Games, 1,664 male and 1,169 female athletes, for the total of 2,833 participants, competed in 109 events.
The Olympic Charter explains that the purpose of creating the Olympics was based on the principles of Olympism by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic games. The Charter states, “The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of humankind, a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity.” This ideal signifies the importance of maintaining peace by sharing value in international competition. Throughout history, the Winter Olympics continuously added new sports and entertained millions of fans.
Some well-known events in the Winter Olympics are figure skating, ski jumping, ice hockey, speed skating, biathlon, and freestyle skiing, just to name a few. What’s entertaining about the Olympics is every nation is trying to be the best in the world. So, who will be next year’s finalists? You will have to watch the games to find out. The 2022 Winter Olympics will air live on NBCOlympics.com, NBC Sports, and Peacock.
New Events (Information found on nbcolympics.com)
For people new to skiing, freeski is similar to big air events; skiers must slide down a huge ramp performing tricks in the air. Previously Freeski Big Air has been popular in Winter X game competitions. Participating athletes will have three attempts to try their best tricks on the ramp.
The event is new because it is a single-woman Bobsleigh. Bobsleighing is the sport of sliding down an ice-covered natural or artificial incline on a four-runner sled, that carries two to four people. Athletes must push their sleds and maneuver through a given course. Before, the event consisted of teams of two to four participants; now sleds are built to hold one person. This makes it more difficult because usually this event is team orientated. For the 2022 winter Olympics, the international Olympic committee agreed to add a Women’s Monobob to the program alongside the Men’s Monobob.
One man and one woman from each participating country are paired together in the snowboard cross. Snowboard cross is a competition in which four to six competitors race down a timed course. Men race first, then as each rider finishes, their teammate’s starting gate will open, setting the start for the women. Once the women have run down the course, the judges will base individual scores on a team total.
The Mixed Team Aerial event is the same as freestyle skiing. Freestyle skiing is made up of aerials such as moguls, crosses, half-pipes, slopestyle, and a part of big air competitions. An aerial is a type of maneuver used in gymnastics, skiing for freestyle jumps, and somersaults. Each team consists of three athletes, with a requirement of one man and one woman on a team. The scores of all the athletes on the team are added together for a team score, which is set throughout multiple rounds.
This event will be a 2000m relay added along with the men’s 5000m and women’s 3000m relays. This relay team includes four skaters -two men and two women – per country. In this event, two women start with 2.5 laps each. They will be followed by two men individually doing 2.5 laps. After, the women will then do 2 laps and the same goes for the men. If an athlete cannot continue, a teammate of the same gender can sub in for that participant and finish their laps.
Since 1988, Ski jumping has been featured as a men’s team event. Ski jumping is a winter sport where athletes try to attempt a long jump off a designed ramp on their skis. Have you ever seen “Eddie the Eagle”? Now a mixed team event will be added to the program. Each team has four athletes and jumps in the following order: woman, man, woman, man. Individual jump scores will be added together to make an overall team score.
Which nation will come out of top in 2022 Winter Olympics? Please wish team USA and other nations good luck. With the greatest athletes coming from all over the world participating, the upcoming events will be electrifying to watch.
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