Explainer | Winter Olympics: here’s everything you need to know about skiing and snowboarding at the Beijing 2022 Games

As one of the most recognisable winter sports, skiing will ring a familiar bell for many fans watching the Beijing 2022 Games, who may enjoy hitting the slopes on holiday. However, when it comes to competitive skiing, the sport is a whole different ball game. There are seven skiing events at the Winter Olympics, from classics that have been featured since the first Winter Games to contemporary additions with elements borrowed from extreme sports like BMX. Here’s everything you need to know about all the nuances of Olympic skiing. Alpine and cross-country skiing Alpine skiing and cross-country skiing are the most recognisable forms of this winter sport. Frequently referred to as downhill skiing, alpine skiing sees athletes ski down a mountain slope as fast as possible in a time trial format. Cross-country skiing, also known as Nordic skiing, is a long distance race that takes place on flat terrain, with skiers competing against each other. Events in alpine skiing and cross-country skiing are separated by different techniques. For alpine skiing, the main events are downhill and slalom. For cross-country skiing, the freestyle and classic techniques differentiate events. Downhill skiing, as the name suggests, has athletes ski down a natural slope as quickly as possible with minimum turns. This event features the longest course – and highest speeds – among alpine skiing events. Vertical drops on downhill slopes range from 800 metres to 1100m for men’s races, and from 450m to 800m for women’s races, while skiers can reach speeds of up to 130 kilometres per hour. Athletes get one chance to ski, called a run, in the competition. Slalom skiing features a shorter course and more turns, with skiers passing through “gates” made up of plastic poles on their way down the slope. There are two variations of the event – the slalom and giant slalom. Both require skiers to be fast and agile while navigating rapid changes of direction, but giant slalom allows for wider and gentler turns as the “gates” are set up further apart. Each skier makes two runs on separate courses on the same slope, with the times of both runs added up to determine the fastest athlete as the winner. Besides downhill and slalom, super-G and alpine combined are events that test athletes in both types of skiing. Standing for “super giant slalom”, super-G combines downhill and slalom into one run down a slope, with no training runs for athletes before the main run. Alpine combined includes two runs – a shortened downhill run and a slalom run, with a combined time determining the winner. For cross-country skiing, individual races are divided into those using the classic technique and the freestyle technique. The classic technique requires athletes to propel themselves forward with their skis moving back and forth in parallel motion. In the freestyle technique, skiers sway their feet from side to side in a motion resembling ice skating while supporting their movement with their skis. The skiathlon event combines both classic and freestyle techniques in one race, with a requirement for athletes to switch techniques midway through. Mass start, where the athletes begin the race together at a uniform point, is the longest cross-country skiing race and will adopt the freestyle technique in the Beijing Games. Team events in cross-country skiing consist of the team sprint classic and relay. Two athletes complete a six-lap race using the classical technique in the team sprint classic, while the relay race is split between two races in classical technique and two in freestyle. Biathlon and Nordic combined Both offshoots of Nordic skiing, biathlon and Nordic combined blend long distance skiing with another sporting element. Biathlon has its origins in hunting and military training in Norway. For the modern biathlon, athletes compete in a long distance ski race divided by rifle shooting rounds. The Winter Olympic Games between 1924 and 1948 included a version of the event called “military patrol”, which includes ski mountaineering, ski racing, and shooting. Athletes are penalised for missing targets in the shooting rounds with extra racing distance or time penalties. Nordic combined is a hybrid event of ski jumping and cross-country skiing. Athletes compete in a ski jumping round before starting a 10km cross-country race. Individual events are called “Gundersen” after the Gundersen method, which determines athletes’ start times after the ski jumping competition. The two individual events – Gundersen large hill and Gundersen normal hill – denote the different sizes of the jumping hill for the ski jumping component. Freestyle skiing and snowboard Both pioneered in the US in the 1960s, freestyle skiing and snowboarding are newer additions to the Winter Olympics. Freestyle skiing debuted at the 1988 Calgary Games, while snowboarding made its entry at the 1998 Nagano Games. The sports emerged as athletes started incorporating acrobatics tricks and jumps into skiing. Snowboarding was born in 1965 when American engineer Sherman Poppen stuck two skis together with a rope attached at the end for his children to glide downhill, with his prototype paving the way for the emergence of the modern sport. The two events share three competition formats – half-pipe, slopestyle, ski cross, and big air. Half-pipe takes place on a U-shaped course, where athletes ski or snowboard up the vertical sides of the course to perform tricks as they finish the entire pipe. Athletes manage to stay in the air for skilful twists using speed gained from scaling the slope in the course. Each run is judged by the difficulty of their trick, execution, height scaled by the athlete, and variety. Slopestyle takes place on a specially designed course with three sets of rails and three sets of ridges. Athletes ski or snowboard down the course, scaling the ramps and platforms of the course with various jumps and spins. Fitted with rails, ramps, boxes, and a 5m upwards slope called a “kicker” at the end, the course is designed to encourage a wide variety of tricks. Big air challenges athletes to perform complex tricks in the air after tackling a ramp. Athletes first speed down a slope before scaling a two-metre tall ramp called a “kicker” to launch themselves in the air. They then perform a series of flips, twists, or turns in the air. Ski or snowboard cross is another race format event. Athletes compete against one another on an uneven course with curves, waves, and ramps. Freestyle skiing features two more events which are judged on style and execution – aerials and moguls. Aerials is an event which challenges athletes to execute an acrobatic jump mid-air. Take-off, height and distance, style, and precision of landing movement are judged as athletes launch themselves into the air after skiing down a 70m in-run slope. Moguls refers to the shape of the course, which is covered in concave snow mounds called “moguls”. In this event, athletes ski down the rugged slope, launching into jumps as they go. Snowboard features one more race event called parallel giant slalom, a form of snowboarding that takes place in a race format rather than being judged for style and difficulty. Snowboarders slide down a slope with twists and turns at “gates” made of a plastic pole with a flag. Ski jumping In ski jumping, athletes strive to jump as far as possible after skiing down a hill of 85m to 109m for normal hill category, or 110m or larger for the large hill category. Ski jumpers push the limit of aerodynamics as they extend their limbs aggressively after skiing downhill in a crouched position to achieve as much flight trajectory as possible. Athletes are judged on the distance travelled and style points for their posture and landing in the jump.