Seven new events included in Beijing Winter Olympics program

Seven new events will be included in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics which witnesses the highest representation of female athletes at a single winter games to date.

Logo for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Game, Beijing, December 15, 2017. [Photo: VCG]

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board on Wednesday approved the addition of women's monobob and freestyle ski big air, as well as dynamic mixed team formats including short track mixed relay, a ski jumping mixed team event, mixed team aerials and a snowboard cross mixed team event.

"The addition of these new events for Beijing 2022 reflects our continued commitment to make the Olympic Games programs more youthful and gender balanced," said IOC Sports Director Kit McConnell.

"I am very pleased to see the increase of female athletes, especially in such exciting, ground-breaking events. At the same time, we are sending a message that the size of the Olympic Winter Games is being directly addressed," he added.

Beijing 2022 will see more female athletes and women's events than any other Winter Olympics, with female quota positions increasing from 41 percent to 45.44 percent.

With this decision, skating joins the International Federations of Biathlon and Curling in reaching gender equality on their Olympic programs, while the Bobsleigh and Skeleton, Hockey, Luge and Ski federations have all increased female participation.

The overall number of athletes has been reduced by 41 to reach 2,892, which is within the Olympic Charter framework.

With no new venues or fields of play needed for the new events, the program is in line with recommendations set out in Olympic Agenda 2020 and is another step to reducing the overall size of the Games.

Also on Wednesday, the IOC Executive Board approved the Tokyo 2020 competition schedule by session, offering Olympic fans around the world gripping action across 17 days of competition.

Several youth-oriented events, such as basketball 3x3, skateboarding, surfing and sport climbing, will feature throughout the Games schedule.

The IOC Executive Board also approved a two-phase timeline, as well as the process and principles for the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee to put forward new sports.

The number of athletes and events in any new sports proposed by Paris 2024 should be considered within the Olympic Charter framework of approximately 10,500 athletes and 310 events.

Paris 2024 will contact IOC-recognized International Federations whose sport has been assessed as fitting within the existing Paris 2024 venue plan.

The sports proposed by Paris 2024 will then be presented for approval at the IOC Session in 2019. After the session in 2019, and following observations at the Tokyo 2020 Games, the final event program and athlete quotas for new sports will then be finalized in December 2020.