Freeride Now an Olympic Discipline, PGS Saved... For Now, Nordic Combined Out

The International Olympic Committee's Executive Board (IOC EB) has signed off on the discipline and event programme for the Alpes 2030 Olympic Winter Games, introducing three new disciplines and 16 new events while dropping Nordic combined from the Games for the first time in Olympic Winter history.

The decision, taken on the recommendation of the Olympic Programme Working Group (OPWG) after reviewing 26 proposals from International Federations and the French Alps 2030 Organising Committee, is designed to boost gender equality, innovation and youth appeal, building on principles the IOC approved back in 2024.

New disciplines and events

• Four sports will see changes to their programme for 2030:

• Biathlon gains a mixed singles relay.

• Skating adds synchro9 in figure skating, plus men's and women's team sprint in speed skating.

Ski and snowboard sees the biggest expansion, with freeride introduced as a brand-new discipline (men's and women's ski and snowboard events), alongside a mixed team ski cross event in freestyle skiing, a mixed team parallel event in snowboard, and a women's super team event in ski jumping. Nordic combined, meanwhile, has been dropped entirely.

Ski mountaineering enters the Olympic programme for the first time, following its approval by the 146th IOC Session in June. The sport will feature two disciplines — individual (men's and women's) and sprint (men's, women's and mixed relay).

Freeride and synchro9 will be the true newcomers to the Olympic stage. Freeride, which traces its roots to the 1990s, has built a large youth following and uses natural terrain rather than purpose-built venues, limiting its impact on Games infrastructure. Its four events will create room for 44 athletes — 22 women and 22 men — to make their Olympic debuts. Synchro9, a team figure skating event recognised as a discipline by the International Skating Union in the 1990s, will be staged in the existing figure skating venue and is seen as a key contributor to gender parity.

Nordic combined dropped after years of scrutiny

The removal of Nordic combined follows IOC monitoring dating back to 2022, when the Board flagged both Nordic combined and snowboard parallel giant slalom (PGS) for close review after Milano Cortina 2026 due to concerns about participation and audience engagement.

The IOC's global popularity study, which tracks 14 indicators spanning broadcast coverage, digital media, public interest, ticketing and press across up to 50-plus markets, found that PGS had improved significantly since Beijing 2022 and will therefore remain on the programme, albeit without a standalone field of play.

Nordic combined fared far worse. The discipline ranked lowest among all Winter Games disciplines at Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, Beijing 2022 and Milano Cortina 2026, finishing last in 11 of the 14 indicators measured at the most recent Games. Only five National Olympic Committees have won Nordic combined medals across the last four Games editions, underlining ongoing concerns about universality.

The discipline will still feature at the Dolomiti Valtellina 2028 Winter Youth Olympic Games and remains eligible for a return at Utah 2034 through the candidate discipline pathway under the IOC's Fit for the Future framework. Nordic combined athletes will continue to have access to Olympian support programmes via Athlete365.

The IOC said it has shared detailed feedback from the 14 popularity indicators with all International Federations to help them improve ahead of future Games. It noted that the Alpes 2030 programme was assessed under the previously established evaluation criteria rather than the new framework approved by the IOC Session on 25 June 2026, which will only apply from Brisbane 2032 onward.

A first gender-equal Winter Games

With the new additions, Alpes 2030 is on track to become the first Olympic Winter Games to achieve full gender parity in athlete quota allocation, extending progress made at Milano Cortina 2026, previously the most balanced edition on record.

Female athletes will make up exactly half of the 3,046-strong overall quota (1,525 women and 1,521 men, including athletes in the newly added ski mountaineering). The event programme itself will be near-identical for both genders, with 56 women's events and 55 men's events, plus 15 mixed events.

Several sports will see notable gains in women's participation, with two reaching full parity:

• Luge: 44.3% → 50%

• Skiing: 48.6% → 50%

• Bobsleigh: 32.9% → 39.5%

• Ice hockey: 43.4% → 45.6%

Background on the sports programme

The seven sports that make up the core Alpes 2030 programme were approved by the 142nd IOC Session in Paris in July 2024, at the same time the Games host was elected. Ski mountaineering was added later as an eighth sport, approved by the 146th IOC Session in Lausanne in June 2026 following a proposal from the French Alps 2030 Organising Committee.

Venue plans updated

Alongside the programme decisions, the IOC EB approved further updates to the Alpes 2030 venue masterplan. Montgenèvre was confirmed as the host venue for ski mountaineering, allowing the sport to make use of an existing competition venue and share the Olympic Village in Briançon for operational efficiency.

The Board also approved adjustments to the Paralympic venue masterplan aimed at creating a more compact footprint and maximising the use of Olympic venues, pending sign-off from the International Paralympic Committee Governing Board.

Further details on the full Alpes 2030 event programme are available on the IOC's official website.