Anyway, apparently the IOC got the memo that I was back in action, waiting until today to approve six new events for the 2014 Sochi Games from its executive board meeting. This will mean roughly 150 new athletes in 2014. Says IOC head Jacques Rogge:
“The inclusion of these events on the Olympic Winter Games program is sure to be appreciated by athletes and sport fans alike,” said IOC President Jacques Rogge. “These are exciting, entertaining events that perfectly complement the existing events on the sports program, bring added appeal and increase the number of women participating at the Games. I look forward to watching the athletes compete in these events in Sochi 2014.”Your new events:
- Women's ski jumping - This was the big one for women's sports advocates and was the subject of a lawsuit prior to the Vancouver Games as something of a last-ditch ploy to get the event added. Unfortunately for the potential plaintiffs, the IOC reports to nobody and its members serve at the pleasure of the IOC...but that's enough from my soapbox. Deedee Corradina, president of Women's Ski Jumping USA, let her feelings be known: "Sochi, Russia can proudly proclaim that it will be hosting the first gender-equal Winter Games in Olympic history." Well, kind of, anyway. The fine print is that the women will be competing in only what is known as the 'normal hill,' while men also compete on the normal hill, large hill, team and nordic combined. Hey, something's better than nothing.
- Men's and women ski halfpipe - This is actually somewhat controversial and Olivia Dwyer, who handles action sports over at ESPN.com, has a good piece on the inclusion or potential inclusion of this and other action sports in the Olympic program. Now, why would the inclusion of ski halfpipe be controversial? Well, the short answer is a that a whole bunch of stuff comes with that, things such as active management from an international body, the FIS in this case, as a prereq for being a part of the show. That doesn't necessarily thrill the freestyle ski/snowboard folks. Also, I'm sure there'll be concern from ESPN about what this means to its 'X Games' franchise, though I've not read anything about potential changes just yet. Also, and this is mentioned in the link, there is already some concern from participants about further compression of their schedule, with all the Olympic qualifiers, in addition to X Games prep and FIS events. Also, the Olympics aren't very cool. Of course, maybe they will be now.
- Figure skating team event - This was rolled out at the World Championships in 2009 and it looks like the format will remain the same, from everything I'm reading. Pretty simple: Male singles skater, female singles skater, a pairs team and an ice dance team. Most points wins.
- Luge team relay - This, for reasons I still can't determine, was lobbied for hard by many of the world's top lugers. The short version of team luge: the second luger starts when the first one finishes. That's it. That, apparently, is the entire event.*
- Biathlon Mixed Relay: Nobody, except for the International Biathlon Union, gives a shit about biathlon, so read about this over there.
*This is a bitch I have about a number of Olympic events, so it's not really fair to shit on lugers alone. Namely, the practice, most heinously applied to swimming, of chopping up a sport into a thousand component parts and awarding a medal for each of them. From Wikipedia cut and paste:
- Freestyle: 50 m, 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m (women), 1500 m (men),
- Backstroke: 100 m, 200 m
- Breaststroke: 100 m, 200 m
- Butterfly: 100 m, 200 m
- Individual Medley: 200 m, 400 m
- Relay: 4×100 m Free, 4×200 m Free; 4×100 m Medley
- Marathon: 10 km
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