Otto Nuovi Eventi In Milano-Cortina

While it's only been a few months since Beijing 2.0, planning for the next Winter Olympics in Italy is already well underway.  In fact, the event program for Milano-Cortina 2026 has been finalized.  There will be eight new events, including three in a new sport, while one event has been dropped.  So, the 2026 Games will once again offer the most medals in Winter Olympic history.

The event that's out is the alpine skiing team event.  That, frankly, is a little surprising because (a) it only debuted in 2018 and (b) the IOC loves its mixed-gender events, and the team event was the only one on the alpine skiing program.  I'm not exactly sure what the IOC's reason for dropping it is.  Maybe it's because the men's and women's alpine skiing events are scheduled to be held at completely different resorts in totally separate parts of Northern Italy.  Either way, I won't miss it.  I'm just indifferent.  I would've been fine had it stayed, but I have no problem with it being out.  

They also only provisionally included the men's and women's alpine combined, which is an event I do enjoy.  I can't even imagine not having the alpine combined on the Olympic program.  Downhill and slalom are completely different disciplines.  That's what makes the combined so entertaining.  It's kinda like the IM in swimming!  You have to be good (or at least good enough) at both if you want to medal.  It's the event that determines the best all-around skier.

Apparently part of the reasoning with the combined is because not that many people entered it in Beijing (there were only 20-something competitors in both the men's and women's events).  It's also not held that much on the World Cup circuit (which is generally only one discipline at each stop, so I'm not sure how/where a combined would fit in), but is a part of the World Championships. 

If the alpine combined is taken out in 2030, it would potentially be replaced by a parallel event, which has become popular on the World Cup circuit.  Which has me a little confused.  Since the team event, which they just removed, is a series of parallel slalom races.

Another event at risk of being removed after 2026 is Nordic combined.  The IOC has even called it a "very concerning" situation about Nordic combined, the only sport on the Olympic program that's only open to men.  Women's Nordic combined was rejected for 2022 because it's not developed enough.  There's only been one World Championship, with only 10 countries represented.  For Nordic combined to survive past Milano-Cortina, they have to increase participation of women.

All of the new events will ensure that the Milano-Cortina Games are the most gender-balanced in Winter Olympic history.  They won't get to the straight 50-50 split that we'll see in Paris, but it'll be close.  The projection is 47 percent of the athletes will be women, and, including the new events, there will be 50 women's events.

One of those new women's events will be the large hill in ski jumping.  So, the men and women will both be jumping off both hills.  It's not completely gender-balanced since they didn't add a women's team event for some reason, but that might be coming next.  After all it took to get women's ski jumping into the Olympics (remember the lawsuit prior to the Vancouver Games?), seeing it continue to grow is tremendous.

Doubles luge has also been separated into men's and women's events.  Frankly, I didn't even know that there were women's doubles teams, but evidently there are.  And there's enough of them to have their own competition.  Which probably just means Germany will be able to add another gold medal to its tally.  How the doubles team in the luge team event will work is a different question, but I'd imagine countries will simply be able to choose a doubles sled from either gender.

Luge won't be the only sliding sport with a mixed team event in 2026.  A mixed team event in skeleton has been added.  I'd imagine it'll be similar to the luge team event where the man will go, then the woman will start once he gets to the bottom (or vice versa).  If it's anything like the luge mixed team event, it could be cool.

It seems like forever ago, but there was a time when moguls was the only freestyle skiing event in the Winter Olympics.  Since then, so many freestyle skiing and snowboarding events have been added, while moguls has still had just the men's and women's events.  That'll change in Milano-Cortina, when men's and women's dual moguls make their debut.  I'd imagine dual moguls is two athletes going down the course at the same time head-to-head, which could be interesting.

Ski mountaineering also looks interesting.  It's the only new sport on the program for Milano-Cortina, and it may only feature at the 2026 Games.  This is the first Winter Olympics that will include that same provision where host countries can add sports popular in the country for their Olympics.  Japan added the five sports in Tokyo, and the French have added breaking for Paris.  For Milano-Cortina, the Italians have chosen ski mountaineering.

There will be three ski mountaineering events, the men's and women's sprints and the mixed relay.  Why they felt the need to point out that the men's and women's individual events are "sprints," I don't know, but having a mixed relay included, as well, is a big deal.  And who knows?  Maybe ski mountaineering will prove to be popular enough to keep its place beyond 2026!

That's my hope at least.  Because, as you know, I'm not a big fan of sports being in or out depending on where the Olympics are.  Either they're Olympic sports or they're not!  The same could also be said for events.  Although, I've got no problem with the new events for Milano-Cortina 2026, which hopefully don't go the way of the alpine skiing team event and go from added to dropped over the span of just two Games!