Alpes 2030 Olympic Winter Games Events Program Approved

Three disciplines and 16 events will be added to the 2030 Olympic Winter Games after receiving approval from the International Olympic Committee’s executive board, and a longtime staple of the Games will no longer be included. Freeride (ski and snowboard) and synchro9 (figure skating) will debut on the Olympic stage at Alpes 2030, while Nordic combined has been dropped from the program after ranking lowest in 11 of the 14 popularity indicators assessed in Milano Cortina earlier this year.

The International Olympic Committee Executive Board approved the full discipline and event program for the Winter Games after assessing the proposals of 26 new events submitted by the international federations and the Alpes 2030 Organizing Committee. There will now be 17 disciplines across eight events (biathlon, bobsleigh, curling, ice hockey, luge, skating, ski and snowboard and ski mountaineering) at Alpes 2030. Snowboard parallel giant slalom was retained after demonstrating significant improvement since the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games across various popularity indicators.

During each Games edition, the IOC evaluates sports, disciplines and events according to 14 popularity indicators across broadcast coverage, digital media, general public interest, ticketing and press to determine whether they should be retained or not.

New Program Inclusions

Ski mountaineering (officially known as Skimo) had already been officially included as an additional sport for the 2030 Olympic Winter Games, following a proposal made by the Alpes 2030 Organizing Committee. It made its Olympic debut earlier this year in Milano Cortina and has been retained for 2030.

Freeride has also been included, having benefited from its rapid international growth, strong youth fanbase and natural field of play usage. In total, 44 athletes (22 women and 22 men) will compete across four events, marking the first time that the event will have ever appeared at an Olympic Games.

In the meantime, the inaugural synchro9 team event will be contested in the existing figure skating venue at Alpes 2030. According to the IOC, the sport of synchronized skating demonstrated strong spectator appeal, having officially been recognized as a discipline by the International Skating Union (ISU) in the 1990s.

Elsewhere, other additions to the program include:

• Biathlon: Mixed singles relay
• Skating: Men’s team sprint and women’s team sprint (speed skating)
• Ski and snowboard: Mixed team ski cross (freestyle skiing), mixed team snowboard parallel (snowboard) and women’s super team (ski jumping)

Although Nordic combined has been dropped from the Alpes 2030 events program, it will remain on the program of the Dolomiti Valtellina 2028 Winter Youth Olympic Games and will be eligible for future inclusion at the Utah 2034 Olympic Winter Games.

A quota of 3,046 athletes has been cleared to compete at the Alpes 2030 Olympic Winter Games, including 1,525 female athletes and 1,521 male athletes.

Gender Parity

As a result of the changes, the IOC says that Alpes 2030 is set to be the first Olympic Winter Games to achieve gender parity. Milan Cortina 2026 was already the most gender-balanced edition to date, according to the organization.

Beyond the athlete quota, the program will also achieve parity in the number of events staged, with 56 women’s and 55 men’s events scheduled, in addition to 15 mixed events.

Four sports will increase women’s participation: luge, skiing, bobsleigh, and ice hockey.

It comes as the next Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028 is set to make history by featuring more female competitors than male athletes for the first time. A quota of 5,655 female and 5,543 male athletes has been approved, meaning that women will make up more than 50.5 percent of the 11,198 athletes competing in the Games.

Venue Masterplan Changes

Last month, the IOC Executive Board also approved sweeping changes to the venue masterplan for the Alpes 2030 Olympic Winter Games, including vacating the French Riviera cluster altogether.

The ice sports and disciplines — curling, figure skating, ice hockey and short track — will be relocated to a new cluster in Lyon, France. And Thialf Ice Stadium, located in Heerenveen in the north of the Netherlands, has been approved to host speed skating because of the absence of an existing, dedicated speed skating stadium in France.

The changes mean that the 2030 Olympic Winter Games will be the first in history to be held in multiple countries. The IOC said that the relocation would “support a more compact overall Games footprint and enable significant cost efficiencies.”