Tag: Skiing

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2026 Winter Olympics add eight events, cut Alpine skiing team event

2026 Winter Olympics

Eight events have been added to the program for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.

Ski mountaineering, a new sport added to the 2026 program last year, will have a men’s sprint, women’s sprint and a mixed-gender relay.

New events in existing sports include men’s and women’s dual moguls in freestyle skiing, breaking up the open luge doubles event (where only men have competed) into men’s doubles and women’s doubles, a mixed-gender skeleton team event and a women’s large hill event in ski jumping to match the men’s ski jumping program.

The Alpine skiing team event, which debuted at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, has been cut. Also in Alpine skiing, the combined events are being included provisionally on the 2026 program and are subject to further review with a final decision no later than April.

On the Alpine World Cup, there were no combined events either of the last two seasons and there are none planned this upcoming season. The combined is still on the biennial world championships program.

The IOC said that Nordic combined is in a “very concerning situation” for staying on the Olympic program beyond 2026.

The IOC said Nordic combined “had by far the lowest audience numbers” over the last three Olympics. It noted that the 27 medals won in the sport among 2014, 2018 and 2022 were spread across “only” four nations.

Its inclusion in the 2030 Winter Olympics depends on significant developments in global participation and audience.

Nordic combined is the lone Olympic sport without female representation.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) began holding women’s Nordic combined World Cups in December 2020. A women’s event debuted at the world championships in February 2021. FIS hoped it would help lead to 2026 Winter Olympic inclusion.

The IOC chose not to add a women’s event for 2026, citing having “only one world championship to date” that had 10 nations represented and the medals won by one nation (Norway). Karl Stoss, chair of the IOC Olympic program commission, said those numbers do not meet universality criteria.

Nordic combined officials believed that their sport was in danger of being dropped from the Olympic program if the IOC opted against adding a women’s event.

The decisive argument for keeping men’s Nordic combined on the 2026 program without a women’s event was the proximity — male athletes are already preparing for the Games.

Men’s events in Nordic combined, which includes ski jumping and cross-country skiing, have been on the program since the first Winter Games in 1924 in Chamonix, France.

The IOC said the overall event changes will make 2026 the most gender-balanced Winter Games in history, upping female participation from 45.4 percent in 2022 to 47 percent.

Due to event quota changes, the overall number of athletes is expected to remain around 2,900.

ON HER TURF: Women’s Nordic combined shut out of 2026

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More Gold for Eileen Gu? Skiing Phenom Has 2 More Events at Winter Olympics

More Gold for Eileen Gu? Skiing Phenom Has 2 More Events at Winter Olympics

One of the biggest athletes to emerge from these Winter Games has two more changes to add to her medal count before the Olympics come to a close.

After earning a gold medal for China in women’s freeski big air, Eileen Gu will compete in the slopestyle and halfpipe competitions.

The San Francisco native is coming off two gold medals at the 2021 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships in Aspen — one in the halfpipe and one in the slopestyle.

The women’s slopestyle qualification runs begin Sunday, Feb. 13 with the finals taking place the next night. The halfpipe begins on Thursday, Feb. 17 and will conclude the following night.

Freeskiier Eileen Gu was born in San Francisco but represents China when competing internationally. Here’s five things to know about the freeskiing star.

Here’s a breakdown of the skier’s schedule for her final two events:

  • Women’s freeski slopestyle qualification: Saturday, Feb. 12, 9 p.m. ET
  • Women’s freeski slopestyle final: Sunday, Feb. 13, 8:30 p.m. ET
  • Women’s freeski halfpipe qualification: Wednesday, Feb. 16, 8:30 p.m. ET
  • Women’s freeski halfpipe final: Thursday, Feb. 17, 8:30 p.m. ET

Gu earned the first of what she and her many fans in Beijing hope could be three gold medals for China by cranking out the first 1620 of her career in the Olympic debut of women’s freestyle skiing big air.

Her trick in her final turn stunned Tess Ledeux of France, the only other woman to ever land a 1620 in competition. Ledeux finished second.

Nicknamed the “Snow Princess,” Gu has already reached hero status in China. Even star tennis player Peng Shuai, who has rarely appeared publicly since accusing a Chinese official of sexual assault, was in the stands.

What are Gu’s plans for after the 2022 Winter Olympics?

The Olympian graduated high school in two years, so her next step is college.

She has been accepted to her mother’s alma mater, Stanford University, and plans on attending classes in the fall of 2022.

But she is also a fashion model, already appearing on the cover of Elle and Vogue China. She is currently signed to the IMG Models agency.

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‘Skiing Out’ Explained: Why Mikaela Shiffrin Was Disqualified in Two Events

'Skiing Out' Explained: Why Mikaela Shiffrin Was Disqualified in Two Events

It’s been a difficult Winter Olympics thus far for Alpine skiing great Mikaela Shiffrin. The 26-year-old American has twice done something she hardly ever does in international competition: “ski out” of a race.

It’s a dreaded term for elite ski racers, one that is usually accompanied by the letters DNF – did not finish – meaning a skier failed to complete the course and register a valid run.

Making the gates

Alpine skiing courses are lined with brightly colored markers, called gates, which athletes must ski through as they navigate the slope. In the downhill, super-G and giant slalom disciplines, gates are marked by pairs of flags anchored to the snow by flexible plastic poles. Making contact with a flag is allowed, provided that every part of the skier’s body and equipment stays inside the inner-most pole.

Gates on a giant slalom course.

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Slalom is a bit different. For starters, the gates are made up of single poles rather than larger flags. The poles, alternating in color, indicate various turns the skiers must perform down the hill.

Gates on a slalom course.

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A common misconception is that the color of each pole indicates whether the skiers must go to the right or left of it. While this might often appear to be the case when watching a slalom competition, the color of each pole is simply meant to let the skiers know which gate is up next. It falls upon the athletes to learn the proper combination of turns outline by the course, which happens during set inspection periods in the hours or days before a race.

SEE MORE: Alpine Skiing 101: Competition format

What does it mean to ski out?

Simply put, skiing out means missing a gate at any point during a ski race. The consequences of doing so are instant disqualification from the event even if it spans multiple runs, as slalom, giant slalom and the combined event do at the Winter Olympics.

Sometimes, especially in the speed disciplines of downhill and super-G, ski outs happen when an athlete loses control and crashes off his or her skis. Shiffrin suffered a minor crash – and was uninjured – during her giant slalom run.

However, skiers can also ski out even without crashing if they stray too far outside the racing line, as Shiffrin did two days later in the slalom.