IOC adds 4 events to 2018 winter games


The International Olympic Committee approved four new events for the 2018 Winter Olympics at their board meeting Monday, the Washington Post reports.
They're trying to lure more young viewers to watch the Pyeongchang, South Korea, games with additions like big air snowboarding and freestyle skiing, where athletes perform as many jumps as they can in a given time period. Mass-start speedskating may also liven things up, where up to 20 competitors race side by side and typically engage in physical contact. And all the curling fans out there are in luck: Mixed doubles is now on the table.
Say goodbye to snowboard parallel slalom, which the committee axed to make room for big air snowboarding.
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The committee said in a statement they hope the changes will boost women's participation in the games, which in 2018 are slated to feature a record-high number of women's and mixed-gender events.
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Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.
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