Every Winter Olympic Event Explained
The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are here. Over the next two weeks 109 gold medals will be given to the greatest athletes on ice and snow. The world is about to be filled with a blizzard of Winter sports content, and at the center of all of that will be the numerous events each athlete will compete in.
It’s been a while since PyeongChang 2018, so if you don’t actively follow or compete in the winter sports seasons you likely are a bit rusty on the in and outs of specific events at the games. This article is here to brush you up on each sport and event in the Winter Olympic schedule so no matter if you tune into a random alpine ski run or see a tik tok of a close curling throw you can enjoy the games with an understanding of what’s happening.
Snow Events
All snow events are competed on skis or snowboards. (Still holding out for a snowball fight event.)
Alpine Skiing
Alpine skiing has 5 individual events for men and women and one mixed team event. All events are a timed race down a mountain ski course.
This sport matches closest with the kind of skiing one would do on a weekend trip to the resort. That does not mean it’s easy, far from it. Don’t let the sense of familiarity mask the accomplishments at hand.
Slalom
Skiing down a short course of many quick turns around poles in the middle of the course. Athletes focus on agility to quickly move side to side. Like in all alpine events, missing a gate results in a time penalty.
Success comes in the form of peak control and balance. Snow conditions can change how much force to apply on turns and how much to release when switching sides. The best in the sport adapt as much as they master the fundamentals.
Giant Slalom
A medium length course of turns designated by gates. Balance is very important to maintain speed and move from one gate to the next.
Downhill
Skiing down a long, steep, and treacherous course. Turning technique takes a back seat to aerodynamics and courage over rapid slopes and massive air time sections. Skiers tackle downhill so quickly that they have to put full trust into muscle memory or else the course will fall right under you.
No where else are crashes more serious. Downhill is all about pushing control of the body to the limit. Breaking that limit is catastrophic as athletes will have to dissipate 80 mph of force somewhere that’s not their skis or poles.
Super-G
Super Giant Slalom takes the steep course from downhill and the frequent turns from giant slalom and puts it together. Downhill speed is the focus while still having to manage technical turns.
Combined
One run on the downhill course and one run on slalom. A test of mastery in both the most technical and most intense sides of alpine skiing. Alpine skiing does see athletes who can achieve on both sides of the sports and this is how they prove it.
Team Event
Two teams of four race each other (one member from both teams at a time) down a slalom course with parallel runs. Getting to the end first is a point. After winning a match teams move up a bracket of 16 total teams until there is one winner.
Cross Country Skiing
Cross country has 12 total events for men and women. Men and women compete in the same 6 events, however women’s events are shorter.
All cross country events take place on mostly flat courses with a mix of uphill and downhill sections.
There are two main cross country skiing styles and there are different events for both. Which event uses each style changes each Olympics.
15/10 Kilometer Classic
Classic cross country skiing looks like running on skis or propelling forward with poles. You’ll know your seeing a classic course if skiers are sticking to the cut out groves in the snow. On up hills skiers will step diagonally with the skis to push upwards. This is a medium distance race.
50/30 Kilometer Freestyle
Freestyle cross country skiing looks like skiers are skating over the snow, pushing the skis out to propel forward. This the the long distance race, the focus for athletes is on endurance. Every Olympics the long and short races switch styles. I imagine athletes are excited for this cycle as freestyle is a much faster and more energy efficient style.
30/15 Kilometer Skiathlon
Skiathlon refers to this events use of both the freestyle and classic style cross country skiing. Half of the course using one style and the other half the next. It is an endurance race that adds extra excitement as athletes try to get the most out of their stronger style.
4 x 10/5 km Relay
A classic relay event. Two team members run a classic course and two run a freestyle one. The first team to get end wins.
Freestyle Sprint
This is the 400m on snow (although it’s actually 1.4km for men and 1.2km for women.) the focus is on explosive speed across multiple heats.
Team Sprint Classical
Teams of two take turns running two laps of the sprint course. There are 12 total laps for a team, each going a combined ~7.5km
Biathlon
Biathlon has 5 events for men and women, and one mixed relay for a total of 11 events. Once again, women compete in the same set of events as men only on a shorter course.
Biathlon combines cross country skiing with rifle shooting. Rifle shooting is done in a standing or lying down position. There are 5 targets each round of shooting. Failure to hit a target in a round results in a time penalty in the individual race or a short penalty loop (150 m) has to be done. All events are timed races.
20/15 km Individual
The most basic race in biathlon. Athletes start is 30 second staggers and race around a circuit. Missed shots are a penalty added to the final time. This tests the pure skiing and shooting ability of athletes.
10/7.5 km Sprint
A race at half the distance of the individual. This event rewards medium distance skills and high energy racing.
12.5/10 km Pursuit
This is an interesting one. Competitors start based on their performance in the sprint event where after its a race to cross the line first. Overtaking is vitally important, rewarding proper racers amongst the skiers, and the extra distance makes repeat wins from the sprint difficult.
15/12.5 km Mass Start
The final race of the biathlon is the most dramatic. 30 athletes begin at the same time. Crashes, close jockeying for position, and racing to get the desired shooting lane. Race strategy is the key to winning this race.
4x7.5/6 Relay
As with any racing competition there’s a relay event in biathlon. One for men, one for women, and one mixed. These relays occur over very short distances for skiers so expect super sprints and high energy skiing. Shooting is also vital, although in the event there are 8 bullets for 5 targets, so a miss is more rare but extra impactful.
Ski Jumping
Ski jumping consists of 5 events: 3 for men, one for women and a mixed team event.
You might think that ski jumping is about pure distance, and it largely is, but there are additional scores for quality of jump and flight. This makes it difficult to watch as a competition, it’s hard to gauge quality beyond pure distance, but as a spectacle you’ll never get board of watching people fly.
Normal Hill
Both men and women compete on jumps off the ~80 meter tall hill, flying over 100 m to the landing zone. In other competitions there are smaller hills, about half the height, but normal is the smallest in the Games. The normal hill also hosts the mixed team event, new to the Winter Olympics in 2022.
Large Hill
The large hill measures in at 100 m, and propels skiers 130m down. This hill hosts a mens individual event, and the men’s team event. Where’s the women’s? This is only the 3rd time women will be taking part in ski jumping at an Olympics, so I imagine it will arrive in the coming games.
Nordic Combined
Nordic combined consists of 3 events, all for men. The sport combines ski jumping and cross country skiing (unfortunately not all at once.) The method of combination is that the better jump an athlete does the larger head start they’ll have in the race. (Every point above is 5 seconds ahead.)
Individual Events (Normal/Large Hill — 10km)
Both ski jumping hills sizes separate the two individual Nordic combined events. In both biathlon and Nordic combined skiers opt for the freestyle technique (skating) as its faster and more efficient then classic. (You can think of it like the freestyle swim stroke)
Team Event
The team event consist of a jumping round where a teams jumps scores are added together to make the start times for a rapid 4x5km relay. The delay times are much tighter in the team event, allowing a come back on the trail. Germany dominated this sport last year and looks to continue in 2022.
Freestyle Ski/Snowboard
There are 6 individual freestyle skiing and 5 individual snowboarding events, all events for both men and women. Both sports also have mixed team event in snow cross. There are four events that have a skiing and snowboarding competition, the general events are the same between equipment. Skiing has unique events in moguls and aerials while snowboarding has parallel giant slalom. We’ll start with the unique ski events.
Aerials
Aerials are the most simple of the freestyle skiing events. It involves skiing down a hill, doing a trick off a steep ramp, and sticking it. The style of tricks involved is similar to diving or gymnastics. There’s heavy focus on flips and turns with good posture along with quality of take off and landing. In the finals there are 3 rounds, the highest scored jump wins.
Moguls
Moguls are small bumps on a ski course that require very quick hoppy turns to traverse. In the early days of freestyle skiing moguls were the arena of tight racing and wild acrobatics. Moguls as a flashy completion Carrie’s that legacy. Skiers are scored on their speed, ability to keep stable on the turns, and quality of tricks done off two jumps in the course. The tricks come from the older generation of freestyle skiing, similar to aerials.
Halfpipe
Halfpipe was the first snowboarding event at the Olympics, back in Nagano 98. It took awhile for ski halfpipe to also be included but now the event is the headline of snow competition. Athletes go down a halfpipe running down a hill and do tricks off the sides. Amplitude and difficulty are large factors in scoring. The tricks are from a new generation that developed alongside skateboarding and BMX. That influence carried on to the next event.
Slopestyle
Slopestyle has competitors run a course that begins with small jumps, grinding rails, and boxes; ending with 3 massive jumps. This course emulates elements from terrain parks found in many modern ski resorts which itself are based on skateparks. There is extra focus on creativity as no two runs will be the same, different athletes will choose which lanes to run.
Big Air
Big air is the newest freestyle event (2022 is the first time for skiers, only second fir snowboarders.) As the name suggests the event consist of preforming one massive trick off a large hill. This competition is where you want to go to see things nobody has ever done, pushing the culture of extreme sports forward with every stuck landing. This event will not take place in the mountains, but rather at an urban snow jump in Beijing proper.
Snowboard/Ski Cross
Do you like the alpine events but wish there were 3 other athletes shooting down the course? That would be immensely dangerous on the steep downhill course; please don’t attempt that. What we can do is take a cue from BMX and create a jump filled, tight, winding course. That’s Snow Cross. The course does make things a bit safer, crashes happen at pretty low speeds on flat sections, but there’s still many crashes. That’s part of the fun, crashes give extra drama.
Parallel Giant Slalom
Due to the generation snowboarding developed it has more connections in the sport world to skateboarding than skiing. That is why there is only one alpine snowboard event. It’s an exciting one though, two riders face off side by side on a winding hill. The dueling nature allows for a tournament final where riders are knocked out one by one. It’s also interesting to note the very long and sharp board giant Slalomers ride on: used for extra grip.
Sliding Events
Sliding events all use different sled types to race down a specialized track. There’s only 16 sliding centers on earth, China has the newest.
Bobsleigh
Bobsleigh is the longest and fastest of the sliding events, using the entire length of the sliding center on heavy and aerodynamic sleds. There is a 4-man and 2-man competition for men while women have 2-woman and a new solo “monobob” competition.
4-Man
In this large team event 3 of the 4 athletes are mostly along for the ride wile the front steers. The value for the back three comes from the explosive force at the start. This is why track athletes are common in sliding sports. The Jamaican bobsled team (making their return after 24 years) comes from the track to bobsleigh pipeline.
2-Man
2-Man bobsleigh is a more technical event compared to its larger iteration. Advantage is more likely to come from navigating the multiple turns smoothly as the pushing power of two cannot contribute as much as four.
Monobob
New this year is the monobob, one athlete riding a personal sled. I have yet to see what one of these craft looks like but with only one person in charge of pushing, steering, and that’s providing mass aerodynamics will play a huge part.
Luge
Luge is a sledding competition using a feet-first back-down position.
I would say Luge is the closest to how one might sled down your local hill — if you’re local hill got you pulling 5 gs of force going down it. Luge has 4 events: mens, wonen’s double’s and team’s.
Doubles
Doubles luge is what it sounds like. Two athletes lying on one luge. It’s odd to say the least. I see no reasonable reason why this is done. Truly a grand expression of humanity’s hubris. The crashes (there’s many crashes in sledding events) are worth the price of admission.
Team
Luge has a unique team event where runs of the three other events are tallied together, the fastest combined team winning out right. The team event and doubles event come as a pair. Skeleton does not have a team event likely because it’s just the solo race. Doubles existence lends credence to the team event, and the team event makes doubles more prestigious. A chicken and the sled situation. (For the record, doubles came long before team)
Skeleton
Skeleton is a sledding competition using head-first belly-down sleds. There is a men’s and wonen’s competition.
It’s a wonderful name. Truly makes you step back and consider what the event entails. That said, skeleton starts much lower on the track then the other sliding events, so going truly dangerous speeds happens for less time. Personally I would rather do this then luge. Luge always seemed like too much work to keep the posture.
Ice Events
Most ice events are competed on ice skates, either to play games, race, or dance. The exception is curling which has its own special shoe.
Speed Skating
We have descend from the frigid mountains of Hebei and now find ourselves in Beijing proper for the ice sports. We start with the the winter version of running and track cycling: speed skating.
Speed skating takes place on a 400 m long oval (the same lap distance as an athletics track.) There are 6 distances which make up the standard speed skating program. Rounding out is the mass start event and team pursuit.
500, 1000, 1500, 3000, 5000, 10000 m
A regular speed skating event has two athletes skating next to each other, each lap they switch lanes, one going in and the other out. Although there are two athletes on the ice the event is purely a race against the clock.
The 500 m has athletes take both lanes as there’s not a full enough lap to make a switch. The inside turn is also much more technical then the outside at sprinting speeds so balance of lanes and of athletes is necessary.
3000 m is only slated by the women, and 10,000 m only by the men. Women speed skating might need a Katie Ledecky type to force the governing bodies hand and have everyone compete at the same distances.
Mass Start
The mass start event is a 16-lap (6,400m), 16 athlete event where all skaters race against each other. The event has a similar structure to the point race in cycling as it’s not purely about who gets to the end first but also the position every 4 laps. This keeps the race competitive throughout.
Team Pursuit
Team pursuit is another event with a parallel in track cycling (this might be why the Dutch are power players in both sports.) Teams of 3 skaters start on opposite sides of the track and race opposing each other over 8/6 laps.
Pacing and energy usage are vital to success in this event. The front skater drops back to rest in the draft of the front. This is the only speed skating event that is knockout, the only goal is to beat the opposing team.
Short Track Speed Skating
Short track speed skating is the chaotic little brother of speed skating. The big difference between the two sports is the rink size. Short tracks are the size and shape of ice hockey rinks. That means one laps is a minuscule 113m. As soon as an athlete exits a turn the next one is only meters away.
If that scale wasn’t wild enough; all short track events have 4 athletes on the ice and there is no room for lanes. Crashes are as common here as in demolition derbies.
Individual
Distances are 500, 1000, and 1500 m. 500 is a all out sprint that leaves athletes turning at angles where the can taste the ice. Of course there’s a few relay events as well.
Relay
The relay distances are 5000 m for men, 3000 m for women, and a very condensed 2000 m in the all new mixed event. The rest of the team waits for their turn to race in the center of the ice. This results in a chaotic jumble of 16 athletes on ice all trying to keep from falling over. I would argue it’s the peak of spectacle.
Figure Skating
It’s likely if you are American, Canadian, or Russian you have a working knowledge of our next two sports. In both sports. figure skating and hockey, there are many layers to unpack beneath the rules. Figure skating is as much a cultural force as any Olympic event. There’s a true majesty and satisfaction understood by many watching figure skating. A casual fan can marvel at a quad with a perfect landing as much as a professional.
Figure skating has two solo events, duo, ice dancing, and a team event.
Every skater has a short and free program. Short programs are 1. Shorter and 2. has more required elements. Part of scoring the quality of such elaborate performances comes from comparing the same skills and rewarding difficulty.
Singles and Duos
These events are a land ruled over by those who can conquer the air. Difficult jumps and throws add significant parts to a programs score and it’s in the palpable tension of each moment figure skaters fly where the sport connects with us. Ice skates are not a natural thing to jump off of and by all logic no one should be able to jump off one, spin 4 times, and land on another. That is not a reasonable expectation and yet the top athletes do it multiple times a set. There are spills, they are tragic, but it’s from tragedy we have catharsis and sympathy.
Ice Dancing
Ice Dancing is the odd one out of the figure skating lineup. It has a different feel and vibe to it that can be off putting or magnificent. Ice dancing has its roots in ballroom dancing and the world of dance sport. There are still acrobatic segments the form of lifts and spins, but no airborne feats. Focus here on the choreography and synchronization of the dancers.
Team
If the chance of falling was too stressful in individual events the team event might not be worth a watch. 10 teams compete with points given on the ranking of each program. Crashing and getting last essentially dooms an athletes entire team and nation. What’s more, after the short program only 5 teams advance. It’s a cruel pursuit of perfection but those who come out on top can know they are the greatest in the world.
Ice Hockey
The summer Olympics are chock full of team sports. Soccer, basketball, rugby, baseball, volleyball; many of the worlds most popular sports (and handball) are games played between two large opposing teams on dry and room temperature land. Ice Hockey is the only one the colder games got and they are proud of it.
The basic game is very easy to understand: teams try to score goals using sticks and a puck while skating. At some point in that premise arises the most visceral and physical game humans play at a professional level only after combat sports. It’s likely the skates, which maintain momentum towards the goal, the wall, or an enemy team member. The game has a tempo that at the macro level is a gentle flow around the rink but at the micro level is full of agitated encounters.
What I’m trying to get at is that’s it’s an interesting sport. A change of pace in the normally individualistic February lights.
Curling
The simple goal of curling is to slide stones as close to a target as possible while keeping the other team from getting closer. It’s a cerebral sport with a vocabulary, culture, and pace at a stark contrast to all other sports at the Olympic level. (Boccia, played in the paralympics, is the one exception there.)
The lexicon of curling is unique and I think makes it all the more fun to watch with curiosity. The game is lovingly nicknamed chess on ice although the actual gameplay matches bowling with the strategy of gridiron football. Still, like chess, curlers have a trained sense of situation and can make tactical calls quickly. That’s only half the battle as a curler then must execute the it throw managing power, spin, and ice conditions. That’s then where the sweepers come into play, they can modify the ice to control the stone dynamically. Curing sheets are covered in ice droplets that define the way a stone travels before sweepers arrive to augment the ice. There is no sport like curling, although curling can be found in many sports.
You should go watch some now. At the best it will have you locked in to the readings of a pressure gauge while looking up the nearest club to you.
In Beijing there are a 4 team women and men’s event along with a mixed doubles competition.
So goes the games
You are now equipped with a sense of context of sport for the weeks ahead. Of course there are larger contexts at play at these games. Try to exhibit care and support for the athletes and their sports. This will likely be a turbulent games but not due to the competition at hand. Those remain spectacular wherever they are.
Enjoy the games when you run into them.
Follow my page. I will be writing more about the games including a longer meditation on curling’s universal qualities, the evolution of figure skating music, and and exploration of the new sport for 2026: ski mountaineering.
(If anyone needs someone to write about the Olympics, I’m open.)
