Sports of the winter olympics - List of Winter Olympic Sports

List of Winter Olympic Sports

This page is about the Winter Olympics. Go here for the list of summer Olympic Games sports.

Winter Olympic Sports for 2018

The list of sports at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics has not changed since skeleton was added in 2002. See list of sport changes.

The 15 sport disciplines of the Winter Olympics are categorized into three main categories: (1) ice sports, (2) alpine, skiing and snowboarding events, and (3) Nordic events. In each of these sports categories there are more specific events as listed.

Ice Sports

• Bobsled (Women's monobob, Two-man, Two woman and Four-man)
• Luge (Men's Singles, Women Singles, Mixed Doubles and Mixed Team Relay)
• Skeleton (men's and women's)
• Ice Hockey (men's and women's)
• Figure Skating (Men's singles, Ladies' singles, Pairs, Team and Ice Dancing)
• Speed Skating
• Short Track Speed Skating (500m, 1,000m, 1,500 m and Relays)
• Curling

Alpine, Skiing and Snowboarding Events

• Alpine Skiing (Downhill, Super G, Giant slalom, Slalom, Super Combined, mixed team)
• Freestyle Skiing (Aerials, Moguls, Ski Cross, Ski halfpipe and Ski slopestyle)
• Snowboarding (Parallel Giant Slalom, Halfpipe, Snowboard Cross, Big Air and Slopestyle)

 Cross-country skiing

Nordic Events

• Biathlon (combining cross-country skiing and target shooting: individual, sprint, pursuit, mass start & relay events)
• Cross-Country Skiing (individual and team sprint, freestyle, pursuit, classical and relays)
• 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. See more on discontinued Winter Olympic Sports.

• 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.
• Alpinism - an Olympic Prize for Alpinism was awarded in 1924, 1932 and 1936 for the most notable alpinism (mountaineering) feat accomplished during the previous four years.

Olympic Biathlon

Demonstration sports

The following sports have been part of the Winter Olympic program as a demonstration sport at some stage. See more on Demonstration Winter Olympic Sports.

• Skijöring (skiing behind horses): 1928.
• Winter Pentathlon (X-country & downhill skiing/pistol/fencing/horse riding) 1948
• Dog Sled Racing: 1932
• Curling: 1932 & 1988
• Ice stock sport (a German variant to curling): 1936 & 1964.
• Military Patrol: (Led to Biathlon in 1960) 1928,1936,1948
• Bandy: 1952
• Short track speed skating: a demonstration sport in 1988, becoming a full sport from 1992 onwards.
• Speed skiing: 1992
• Freestyle Skiing - Aerials (1988), Moguls (1988, 1992) and Ski Ballet (1988, 1992)

Future Sports

There are always a number of sports or events that are lobbying to be included on the Winter Olympic Games program. Such sports include: Team alpine skiing, Ski mountaineering, Ski-orienteering, Winter triathlon (involving running, mountain biking and cross-country skiing all on snow), telemark skiingand Bandy.

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 (in which males and females compete together): figure staking and luge. Only one sport is for males only: Nordic Combined. More about women at the Winter Olympics.
• Cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating have been on the program at every Winter Olympics since 1924.
• There were reports of Bandy being added to the sports program in 2014, but the IOC rejected their submission. Instead, Sochi hosted the 2014 Bandy World Championships around the time of the Olympics.