MODERN OLYMPIC EVENTS — SKIING

 

 
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Freestyle skiing, where skiers perform aerial manoeuvres while skiing downhill, was a demonstration event at the Calgary Games in 1988. Mogul skiing was added to the official programme of the Albertville Games in 1992 and aerials were added at the Lillehammer Games in 1994.

Competition
Moguls

The moguls competition consists of a run down a heavily moguled course with two jumps. The Olympic format is a one-run elimination round followed by a one-run final of 16 women and 16 men. In the finals, competitors ski in the reverse order of their finish in the elimination round. The skier with the highest score in the final round wins.

Aerials
The Olympic aerial format consists of a two-jump elimination followed by a two-jump final. Aerialists are divided into two groups depending on their World Cup ranking, with those seeded lower jumping first. The combined scores from the two jumps in the elimination round determine who moves to the finals, with 12 men and 12 women advancing to the finals. Scores from the elimination round do not carry over to the finals.


Nordic Combined

Nordic combined has its 5000 year-old roots in Norway. It involves ski jumping, which requires physical strength and technical control, and cross-country skiing which demands endurance and strength.

Nordic combined individual events have been included since the 1st Olympic Winter Games in Chamonix Mont Blanc in 1924.

Competition
All three Nordic combined events consist of a ski jumping competition and a cross-country skiing competition. For the individual and team events, ski jumping takes place on the normal hill (90 metres). For the sprint event, ski jumping takes place on the large hill (120m). The cross-country portion of the individual event has a 15km race, the sprint event has a 7.5km race, and the team event has a 4x5km relay.

Individual
Each competitor in the individual event takes two normal hill jumps during the first day of competition. Each jump is scored for length and style. On the second and final day of competition, each competitor participates in the 15km cross-country event. The start order for this race is determined by the ski jumping results. The leader after the jumping portion will start first, with others starting according to the Gundersen Table

Sprint
The sprint event also is contested over two days, with the large-hill competition on the first day and the 7.5km cross-country race on the second day. Unlike in the individual and team events, the jumping portion of the sprint event is performed on the large hill and includes one jump instead of two. On the second and final day of competition, each competitor will compete in the 7.5km cross-country event. The start order for this race is determined on the basis of the ski jumping results. The leader after the jumping portion will start first, with others starting according to the Gundersen Table.

Team
Each team consists of four jumpers who take two jumps off the normal hill on the first day of competition. The team's score in the jumping portion is the total score of the eight jumps. The same skiers who participate in the jumping must compete in the 4x5km relay, which is held the day after the jumping portion of the team event. As in the individual and sprint events, the Gundersen Method is used to determine the start times in the relay. The winner is the team whose final skier crosses the finish line first, and each skier is timed to a tenth of a second.


Ski Jumping

Ski jumping is one of the most spectacular discipline at the Olympic Games. It has its roots in children playing on skis in northern Europe. Legendary Norwegian Nordic athlete Sondre Nordheim is credited with the first officially measured ski jump in 1860. The first ski jumping contest was held in Trysil, Norway, in 1862. Throughout the mid-1800s, ski jumping was part of ski carnivals in Norway, but the sport gained added prestige when, in 1892, the Norwegian royal family decided to donate the "King's Cup" trophy to the winner of the annual meet held in Holmenkollen.

Ski jumping has been part of the Olympic Winter Games since the first Games at Chamonix Mont-Blanc in 1924.

Competition
Three ski jumping events are held at the Olympic Games:

Individual normal hill
The only ski jumping event from the normal hill, which is 90 metres high. Each athlete takes two jumps, and the one with the greatest total score is declared the winner.

Individual large hill
This event is contested on the large hill, which measures 120 metres. Each athlete takes two jumps, and the one with the greatest total score is declared the winner.

Team large hill
This event is contested on the large hill, which measures 120 metres. There are four members on each team, and each athlete takes two jumps. The team with the highest total score over the eight jumps is declared the winner.


Snowboard

For the first time in the history of the Olympic Winter Games, snowboarding was introduced as an official skiing event with Giant Slalom and Halfpipe featured at the Nagano Games.

Snowboarding was developed in the United States in the 1960s as people across the country began to seek out new winter activities. Over the next decade, different pioneers boosted the production of boards and the overall interest in snowboarding. Surfers and skateboarders become involved, and by 1980, snowboarding was a nation-wide activity. Competition was the next logical step.

Competition and national and international federation influence began in the 1980s. The United States held its first national championships in 1982 and hosted the first World Championships in 1983. In 1987, a four-stop World Cup tour was established, with two stops in the United States and two in Europe. The International Snowboarding Federation (ISF) was formed in 1990 to govern international competition and the International Ski Federation (FIS) followed suit in 1994, making snowboarding an officially sanctioned discipline eligible for the Olympic Games. The FIS pushed for snowboarding's inclusion in the 1998 Games and remains the International Federation for the sport.

Competition
There are four snowboard events: men's halfpipe, women's halfpipe, men's parallel giant slalom and women's parallel giant slalom. Both halfpipe events were staged at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games, where the sport of snowboarding debuted.

The parallel giant slalom events appear on the Salt Lake Olympic programme for the first time, replacing the two giant slalom events that were contested in Nagano.

Halfpipe
The halfpipe competition takes place in a half-cylinder-shaped course dug deep into the hill. Using speed gained on the slope, snowboarders come up over the rim of the pipe and perform acrobatic aerial tricks. The object of the halfpipe is to perform difficult tricks with perfect form.

Alpine - Parallel giant slalom
An exciting version of Alpine snowboarding, parallel giant slalom features head-to-head matches on the mountain. After the qualification round, a 16-person tournament is established and competitors battle it out on two side-by-side courses until there is a winner.

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