The China Mail - IOC shuffle 2030 Winter Games events and promise gender parity

The Games, due to be held in and around the French Alps, will also be the first Winter Olympics to achieve gender parity among athletes with a total of 3,046 participants expected across 126 events, the IOC said.

After confirming last week the continued inclusion of ski mountaineering that made its Olympic debut at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games in February, the IOC has added new disciplines affiliated with existing Olympic international federations.

Meeting in Lausanne on Tuesday, the IOC Executive Board opted for freeride —- a discipline involving lines and tricks performed in powder snow on skis or snowboards —- following a long lobbying effort that began thirty years after the sport's first competitions.

Synchronised skating which held its first world championships in 2000 will introduce an Olympic audience to routines performed simultaneously by nine skaters.

However, Nordic combined is being dropped, despite having been part of the Olympic programme since the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix in 1924 and remaining the only discipline restricted to men.

The International Ski Federation (FIS) expressed its disappointment at the decision to drop the sport which combines cross country skiing and ski jumping.

“Our first reaction is, inevitably, one of disappointment,” said FIS President Alexander Ospelt.

"Nordic Combined is also a discipline that has been observing clear and tangible growth and an ever-broader international participation over the last few years thanks to the inclusion of women’s competitions."

The FIS said the IOC had declined its application for the inclusion of women's Nordic combined at Milano Cortina 2026 citing a lack of involved nations and interest outside of Europe.

Ospelt added they would "work hard to see Nordic Combined back in the Olympic Winter Games in 2034".

V.Fan--ThChM