The Sochi Winter Games are now over, and it’s time to reflect on the addition of twelve new winter sports.
The new events, which are all added to the existing Winter Olympic disciplines, can be classified into three categories: men’s, women’s, and mixed events.
Three new mixed events have been added: a biathlon mixed relay event, a figure skating diverse team, and a relay luge team.
Four new men’s events have been added: snowboard slopestyle, ski halfpipe and ski slopestyle.
There were women’s events for each of these four sports, plus the addition of ski jumping (which almost made it to the 2010 Vancouver Games), which gave women five new events.
Demo sports are no more.
Not so long ago, adding new sports took a longer and more complicated process. Most often, the International Olympic Committee would first evaluate them as “demonstration sport” and, if they were popular, then they could be upgraded to permanent fixtures.
Rob Hess from Victoria University and Rachel Winterton from La Trobe University have documented the topic in a new publication, On The Periphery: A New Perspective on Olympic Movement.
These researchers looked at the history and development of demo sports. They also explained that the 1956 Olympic Games held in Melbourne featured baseball and Aussie rules as demo sports. However, as we all know, Australian Rules never made it to the Olympics.
Remember the ski-ballet’ that was performed in Calgary in 1988 and Albertville in 1992?
This is an outdated process. Sports are added or dropped from the Winter and Summer Games depending on what the IOC deems appropriate. The IOC is influenced by lobbying by sports federations, the “friendliness” of television, the appeal of events to the public, and other political and social factors.
Please, more medals
Carina Voigt, a German ski jumper, won the first gold medal ever for women in Sochi. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
In 1924, there were 16 events and only 49 medals. In 1988, the medal count had risen to 138. The 2014 Sochi Games featured 2,800 athletes in 15 sports competing across 98 events, awarding 294 gold medals.
Eric Chemi, in a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article, argued that this rapid growth has led to more medals being awarded, more countries (26 at Sochi), and a higher average medal count per country.
Winter Games will soon surpass 300 medals. There is still a huge discrepancy between the Summer Games in London, where 10,800 athletes competed in 26 sports (302 competitions) and received 962 awards. But the gap is rapidly closing.
There are basically four reasons behind the growth of the Winter Games.
The new Olympic cycle
Winter sports received a huge boost when the IOC decided to move the Winter and Summer Games from odd years, starting in 1992, in Lillehammer.
The Winter Games never looked back since the change in the schedule. They were able to gain more sponsorship, get increased television coverage, and not have to compete with the same event every year.
Gender balance
Modern Olympics’ history reflects the changes that have taken place in society in the last 75 years. A good example of this is the gender balance, which has led to a more equal playing field for women.
Torah Bright, a snowboarder from Australia, won silver in the halfpipe. Andy Miah/Flickr, CC BY-NC
We are moving closer to equilibrium with the addition of more women’s (and mixed) events. The IOC was slow to react initially in the 20th Century but has now been forced to keep up to date, and the number of female athletes at the Games has increased dramatically.
The 60-strong Australian Winter Games Team in Sochi was the largest team we have ever had. It consisted of 31 females and 29 men. Women have won 7 (three gold medals) of the 12 medals that we have won at the Winter Games so far, while men won 5 (one gold).
Television Appeal
Many of the winter sports have been added because they are popular on television. If more winter sports events interest viewers, advertising revenues will increase, and the Winter Games will gain a higher profile. The addition of a Team event to figure skating, one of the most popular winter sports, was an obvious choice.
A host of freestyle and snowboarding competitions – some of which are similar to roller derby but on ice — have also added an element of excitement due to their “extreme,” unpredictability, and luck factor.
Alex “Chumpy’s” Pullin’s dismal performance at Sochi is an example of this. He was a medal favorite before the event, but his hopes were dashed after he crashed.