News of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics
In October 2016, the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced plans to begin sanctioning women’s competitions in Nordic combined, with the objective of contesting the discipline at the Olympic level for the first time in Beijing. In November 2017, a further three events were put forward by the FIS for possible Olympic inclusion: a ski jumping mixed team competition and men’s and women’s big air in freestyle skiing.
At their May 2018 Congress at the Costa Navarino resort in Messenia, Greece, FIS submitted several additional events for consideration, including a proposal to make telemark skiing an Olympic discipline for the first time in Beijing, with proposed competitions to include the men’s and women’s parallel sprint and a mixed team parallel sprint. The Congress also approved to submit the aerials mixed team event and several new snowboarding events: the men and women’s snowboard crossteam event; a mixed team alpine parallel event; the men’s and women’s parallel special slalom; and a mixed team parallel special slalom event. The individual parallel special slalom events were featured at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, but were dropped from the Olympic program in 2018 to make way for the snowboarding big air competitions.
The International Luge Federation (FIL) has proposed the addition of six new events, including natural track luge (men’s and women’s singles), a women’s doubles competition on the artificial track, and sprint events (men, women, and doubles) on the artificial track.
The International Skating Union (ISU) continues to campaign for the addition of synchronized skating as a new event within the discipline of figure skating. They are also proposing a new short track speed skating mixed team event.
In biathlon, a single mixed relay has been proposed by the International Biathlon Union (IBU) to complement the four-person mixed relay which featured at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Also, a new team event has been proposed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF), and asumedly the women’s monobob event, despite the recommendation from the federation’s executive board to propose a four-women event.
In July 2018, the IOC announced the addition of seven new events: women’s monobob; freestyle skiing big air (men and women); mixed team events for freestyle skiing aerials, ski jumping, and snowboard cross; and the mixed relay in short track speed skating. This means a total of 109 events will be held.