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Snowboarding at the 2022 Winter Olympics

Posted at 2:50 PM, Sep 10, 2021
and last updated 2021-10-12 05:48:45-04

Snowboarding at the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games will be contested from Feb. 5-12 and 14-15, with medals awarded in 11 events.

Events

Mixed team snowboard cross will make its Olympic debut in Beijing, the sport's first mixed-gender event in its 24-year-old history at the Games. Big air is the program's most recent individual event to be introduced, appearing for the first time at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. Individual snowboard cross was added in Torino, and slopestyle in Sochi.

Giant slalom (GS) and parallel slalom (PSL) remain the only two disciplines to be discontinued — GS was featured at the 1998 Nagano Games before morphing into parallel giant slalom (PGS) in Salt Lake; while PSL, which differs from PGS in its extremely tight turns, was contested just once at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

  • Women's Slopestyle (Feb. 5-6)
  • Men's Slopestyle (Feb. 6-7)
  • Women's Parallel Giant Slalom (Feb. 8)
  • Men's Parallel Giant Slalom (Feb. 8)
  • Women's Snowboard Cross (Feb. 9)
  • Women's Halfpipe (Feb. 9-10)
  • Men's Snowboard Cross (Feb. 10)
  • Men's Halfpipe (Feb. 9, 11)
  • Mixed Team Snowboard Cross (Feb. 12)
  • Women's Big Air (Feb. 14-15)
  • Men's Big Air (Feb. 14-15)

Halfpipe

Making its Olympic debut at the 1998 Nagano Games, halfpipe, also known as a superpipe, is a U-shaped course with 22-foot walls. Riders traverse through the halfpipe, executing multiple tricks on both walls of the pipe.

Parallel Giant Slalom

Making its Olympic debut at the 2002 Salt Lake Games, parallel giant slalom (PGS) replaced the men's and women's giant slalom (GS) events contested at snowboarding's inaugural Games in Nagano.

Two snowboarders at a time race side-by-side down parallel courses, with the fastest rider ultimately advancing onward. The lone Alpine snowboarding discipline represented at PyeongChang 2018, parallel giant slalom has been on the Olympic program since 2002. Past Alpine events have also included giant slalom (1998) and parallel slalom (2014). 

Snowboard Cross

Making its Olympic debut at the 2006 Torino Games, snowboard cross, also known as boardercross, features up to six snowboarders at a time racing on a downhill course, with the top three finishers each advancing to the next round. The course and its features are heavily inspired by motocross tracks and include obstacles such as jumps, banked turns and rollers.

Slopestyle

Making its Olympic debut at the 2014 Sochi Games, slopestyle features a course with a mix of jumps and rails that riders use to execute tricks as they make their way down the course. Most typically have a total of six features — three jumps and three rail sections.

Big Air

Making its Olympic debut at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, big air setup features just one single jump. On each run, riders have one shot to land one of their biggest or most difficult tricks. In the final round, each rider must land two different tricks over the duration of the contest, as a best-two-of-three format is utilized.

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