Winter Olympic Games

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List of Winter Olympic Sports

Current Winter Olympic Sports (2010)

The Winter Olympics Sports are categorized into three main categories: (1) ice sports, (2) alpine, skiing and snowboarding events, and (3) Nordic events. In each of these sports there are more events. From the total of 15 sports, there will be 86 individual events at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Ice Sports

• Bobsled
• Luge
• Skeleton
• Ice Hockey
• Figure Skating (including Ice Dancing)
• Speed Skating
• Short Track Speed Skating
• Curling

Alpine, Skiing and Snowboarding Events

• Alpine Skiing
• Freestyle Skiing (Aerials, Moguls and Ski Cross)
• Snowboarding (Parallel Giant Slalom, Halfpipe and Snowboard Cross)

Nordic Events

• Biathlon (cross-country skiing and target shooting)
• Cross-Country Skiing
• Ski Jumping
• Nordic Combined (ski jumping and cross country skiing)
  

Discontinued sports and Events

Here are just some of the sports or events that were once part of the Winter Olympics.

• Military patrol (a precursor to the biathlon) was a medal sport in 1924. It was also a demonstration sport in 1928, 1936 and 1948.
• In figure skating, an event called Men's special figures was on the program only once in 1908.

Demonstration sports

The following sports have been part of the Winter Olympic program as a demonstration sport at some stage.

• Bandy (like ice hockey with a ball), 1952 (will return to the Winter Olympic Games in 2010).
• Ice stock sport (a German variant to curling), 1936 & 1964.
• Skijöring (skiing behind horses), 1928.
• Sled-dog racing, 1932.
• Short track speed skating started as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, before becoming a full sport from 1992 onwards.
• Snowshoeing, 2002
• Speed skiing, 1992 (may return to Winter Olympic Games in 2010)
• Synchronized skating (2002)
• Winter pentathlon (a variant to the modern pentathlon), 1948.

Other Winter Sports Trivia

• There are four Winter Olympic Games Sports that are held indoors: Speed skating, figure skating, curling, and ice hockey.
• Two sports have mixed events (males and females together): figure staking and luge. Two sports are for males only: Nordic Combined and Ski Jumping. More about women at the Winter Olympics.
• Cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating have been competed at every Winter Olympics since 1924.

Related Pages

• What is your favorite Winter Olympics sport? Take the poll.
• Women and Winter Olympic Sports
• Winter Sports Clipart
• discontinued Summer Olympic Sports