Since the first edition in 2012, the Winter Youth Olympic Games have been used as a testing ground for innovative sporting developments, and Lillehammer 2016 will be no different.
The YOG, which will run from 12th-21st February, will showcase a host of new and innovative events, in which young athletes form teams, that are not only split along national lines.
In the Nordics, the disciplines of Cross-Country Skiing, Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined will be merged into a spectacular competition dubbed the Nordic Mixed Team Event. Teams – 20 of which are expected to compete in Lillehammer. The team will be composed of five athletes from the same country: a male and female Cross-Country skier, a male and female Ski Jumper and a male Nordic Combined specialist. The competition begins on the normal jumping hill, where three of the athletes (the two Ski Jumpers and the Nordic Combined specialist) have a trial round followed by an official jump. The jumping results are then converted into time differences to establish the starting order of the 3x3.3km Cross-Country component. The Nordic Combined athlete also participates in this race, along with the two Cross-Country skiers. The first team to cross the finish line secures the gold medal.
Meanwhile, Cross-Country Cross Free is a men’s and ladies’ Cross-Country Skiing event that will make its YOG debut. The distance is similar to a sprint race, but the course features several technical aspects such as jumps and turns to increase the difficulty level. Competitors, skiing freestyle technique and departing every 10 to 30 seconds, start with individual time trials. The quickest 30 then move on to three semi-finals of 10 athletes each, and the first two of those plus the next four fastest finishers qualify for the final, in which all 10 participants set off at the same time.
In the Freestyle Skiing and Snowboard disciplines, they will be combined to create the Team Ski-Snowboard Cross Event. Each team will be made up of four athletes, and they set off down the combined cross course in the following order: female snowboarder-female skier-male snowboarder-male skier. The competition consists of three heats and a final. The second, third and fourth team members only start after the teammate ahead of them has completed the course, at which point the starting gate will open automatically. If a team member does not finish or finishes outside the set time limits, the subsequent relay participant must wait until a penalty time elapses before he/she can start. The top two teams from each round advance, with four teams reaching the final.
Source: fis-ski.com
