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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