Reporting from IOC Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland – The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced event changes for the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games that include the addition of Curling Mixed Doubles, Speed Skating Mass start for men and women, Alpine Skiing Nations Team Event and Snowboard Big Air for men and women. To allow the extra capacity, Snowboard Parallel Slalom has been dropped from the program.
The changes are expected to boost female participation in the Games to record levels and to increase youth appeal and were implemented based on suggestions from the relevant international federations with input from PyeongChang 2018.
The revised program will result in the awarding of four additional gold medals – 102 in total, the first time the total has ever exceeded 100 at a Winter Games.
PyeongChang 2018 President Yang-ho Cho said “IOC Olympic Agenda 2020 opened the door to more flexibility with the events and we believe that adding new events will make the 2018 Winter Games more innovative and open New Horizons, inspiring and inviting more participation in winter sports.”
“They will expand and improve the Olympic Program encouraging more athletes to compete by reaching out to a wider audience.”
The IOC also approved Tokyo 2020 plans to add one or more new sports their Summer Games program according to a set process that has events being proposed to the IOC by the end of September. The IOC will approve any new sports at the Rio Olympics next year. Baseball and Softball are considered to be strong leading contenders as the sports are extremely popular across Japan; both sports were dropped from the Olympic program after the Beijing 2008 Games.
The decisions were made Monday, the final day of the IOC Executive Board’s two day meeting.
