Sports At Politics

For the first time in the Winter Olympics, there will be a mixed team event in alpine skiing. The mixed team event is considerably different than traditional alpine skiing events, as, in the mixed team event, there are two competitors on course at any one time instead of just one competitor on course, and the competition format is that of an elimination tournament. A total of 16 countries will compete in the mixed team event, with each country entering a four-skier team consisting of two male skiers and two female skiers; each team is also able to enter an alternate skier of each gender who can replace a skier of the same gender. The Olympic format for mixed team alpine skiing will be a single-elimination tournament, with the final match, called the big final, being contested for the gold and silver medals, although the losers of the semifinal matches will compete in the small final for the bronze medal. Each team is seeded based on a ranking system by the FIS, which is the IOC-appro...

Unlike the new Olympic events in curling, long track speed skating, and alpine skiing, the new big air event in Olympic snowboarding, which will debut at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, replaces an event from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia that has since been dropped from the Winter Olympic program, parallel slalom snowboarding, although parallel giant slalom snowboarding will remain part of the Winter Olympic program. There will be separate big air events for men and women in Pyeongchang. Big air snowboarding is the only new judged event in Pyeongchang, and, for those of you who are ski jumping fans, think of big air snowboarding as more similar to the aerials event in freestyle skiing than ski jumping, although there are some differences between big air snowboarding and freestyle skiing aerials beyond the obvious difference of big air snowboarding competitors using a snowboard instead of a pair of skiis. In big air snowboarding, the ramp is a single...

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the third blog post in a seven-part series, titled Road to Pyeongchang, previewing the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is the second blog post of a seven-part series of blog posts previewing the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang County, South Korea.