It's offical. At long last, Lindsey Van is eligible to make her Olympic debut in Sochi in 2014. Not Lindsey Vonn. Lindsey Van, the 2009 world champion in women's ski jumping. In a long overdue decision, women's ski jumping is one of six new events that has been added to the Winter Olympic program, starting with the 2014 Games. And it's by far the most noteworthy.
Ski jumping had been one of two remaining men's-only sports (Nordic combined is the other) in the Winter Olympics. The women first applied for Olympic status for the 2002 Games, but the IOC said no, claiming that there weren't enough elite competitors worldwide. The application was rejected again prior to the 2006 Torino Games, but with the first World Championships held in 2009, it looked almost certain women's ski jumping would be contested in Vancouver. However, the IOC and the Vancouver organizers had already determined the Olympic schedule, so women's ski jumping was rejected once again. This prompted Van and some other ski jumpers to file a lawsuit against the IOC and the Vancouver organizing committee, but the Canadian courts said they had no grounds to force the two organizations to include the sport, so the women had to watch the Olympics at home.
Then on Wednesday, the long journey came to an end. The IOC announced that six new events will be contested in Sochi, headlined by women's ski jumping. There'll only be one event (as opposed to three for the men), but it's a start.
Of the other five events, the one that sounds as if it'll catch on the quickest is the ski halfpipe competition. This is exactly the same event as snowboard halfpipe, except on skis. They did the same thing in Vancouver with ski cross, which followed the successful addition of snowboard cross in 2006. The IOC has been trying hard to add some Gen-X appeal to the Winter Games, which is why a new snowboarding or freestyle skiing event (or two) joins the program every four years. This isn't a bad thing, and I think ski halfpipe is going to be a very popular event. They're also considering adding a "slopestyle" event in both skiing and snowboarding, but I think it's more likely that we'll see those debuts wait until 2018.
Another one of the new events is the mixed relay in biathlon. They have mixed doubles in a lot of Summer Olympic sports (they just added mixed doubles tennis for London, which will be at Wimbledon), but there aren't any in the Winter Olympics. (Ice dancing and pairs figure skating don't count.) I'm surprised it's taken this long to add a mixed event, which is simple enough. It's your standard four-person relay, but with two men and two women instead of four athletes from the same gender. I can easily see this same type of event in cross country skiing, biathlon's non-shooting cousin, speed skating, and even curling.
I have to admit that I was kind of confused about the other two new events--team luge and team figure skating--until I did some research. Now I'm only confused about one of them. At first I wondered how you can make a "team" event in luge when they already have doubles and you can only go down the track one at a time. Then I read the event description, and it actually sounds pretty cool. It's a doubles sled, a woman and a man from each country. They go down one after the other and the time doesn't stop until the third sled crosses the finish line.
I'm still confused about team figure skating, though. Figure skating is the biggest sport in the Winter Olympics. I get that. But I don't really know how this team format is going to work. It's a man, a woman, a pairs team and an ice dancing team, and they all get points. The highest combined point total wins. That's it. How the competition will actually work is a mystery. Will it be the same skaters that competed in the four regular events, or skaters who go to the Olympics just for the team event? Is the team competition a separate event, or do they collect team points in the four disciplines? How exactly is the schedule going to work? And how does it effect short track speed skating, which uses the same venue on figure skating's off days? This is the only one of the six that I'm not 100 percent on board with. This one seems entirely ratings-driven. I think they're reaching just to add another couple nights of figure skating to the Winter Olympic schedule.
Overall, I think these events are good fits on the Winter Olympic program. The biathlon mixed relay is the only one that doesn't translate directly to primetime TV, but the other five could be a ratings bonanza for NBC (or whoever ends up getting the U.S. TV deal). And I'm sure I'll figure out team figure skating by the time the 2018 Olympics come around.
Hello,
ReplyDelete1 year later, some ideas about the Figure Skating Team event...
- "Will it be the same skaters that competed in the four regular events, or skaters who go to the Olympics just for the team event?"
I think there will be both. Those who qualified for the regular event will probably also participate in the team event.
In Vancouver, only 5 countries (Canada, Germany, Italy, Russia and USA) had qualified skaters in all 4 disciplines. With 10 teams, I believe some skaters will go to the Olympics only for the team event, even though they didn't qualified for the regular events. And skaters who qualified may not be part of a team.
For example, South Korea has an olympic gold medal in figure skating, but will not be able to make a team because it has simply no pair team and no ice dancing couple.
- "Is the team competition a separate event, or do they collect team points in the four disciplines?"
It is probably going to be a complete separate event, so skaters will skate twice their programs. It's the equivalent of the World Team Trophy, held twice between the 6 top countries. The current World Team champion is Japan, even though its ice dancing couple didn't make the final at the last World Championships.
- "How exactly is the schedule going to work?"
The competition is due to happen before the single events.
- "And how does it effect short track speed skating, which uses the same venue on figure skating's off days?"
I think that one key answer is that the Ice Dancing competition was composed of three parts (compulsory, original, free) and it has now been reduced to two (short, free). So there is one event less, with all the training sessions that used to go with it.
I think that this is a way to add another event without spending that much money... much less money than introducing synchronized skating (the real team sport in skating).
Of course, this is also a new possibility for skaters that belong to a strong federation to take another medal. Skaters who participate in more than 2 or 3 olympics are quite rare, leaving very few opportunities to medal.