The International Olympic Committee has approved the addition of five new events at a two day meeting in London this week. Women's ski jumping has been given the go ahead along with ski half-pipe, biathlon mixed relay and team events in luge and figure skating.
"The inclusion of these events on the Olympic Winter Games programme is sure to be appreciated by athletes and sports fans alike. These are exciting, entertaining events that perfectly complement the existing events on the sports programme, bring added appeal and increase the number of women participating at the Games," said the IOC president, Jacques Rogge.
The exciting half-pipe format for freestyle skiing will be a welcome addition to the games, though many people were hoping the IOC would also allow the incredibly popular, slopestyle competition to be added. Earlier in the week, high profile snowboarder Shaun White had added his support to the format's inclusion and all hope isn't lost yet, with the board expected to make a final decision in the next two months — after inspecting the facilities at Sochi.
GB freestyle team manager Simon Ashton remains hopeful that the IOC will include slopestyle in the Games. "We are very happy that half-pipe events have been included and although we are disappointed that the IOC couldn't agree on slopestyle, we understand that there is an inspection of the venue planned for April," he told BBC Sport. "We are hopeful that after this inspection, slopestyle will get into the games... Half-pipe and slopestyle are sports that are extremely popular with young people and attract massive crowd to events."
With the recent success of Jenny Jones and James Woods in the X Games series in the past couple of seasons, slopestyle in both ski and snowboard is seen as a medal prospect, throw in the ever improving Jamie Nicholls and Aimee Fuller and Team GB could be in with a shout on the podium.
After fighting for women's ski jumping to be included in the previous Winter Olympics the sport's competitors are excited about their inclusion for 2014. Lindsey Van, the 2009 World Champion said: "Women's ski jumping has been developing a lot over the past 10 years, but the Olympics is what our sport really needed to take the next step and it is a huge step in the right direction."
The new events are expected to bring an additional 150 athletes to the games and should add to what is becoming an increasingly exciting tournament.
Written by Stephen Adam
© Igluski