The IOC has announced new events to be included in the upcoming Alpes 2030 Olympic Winter Games set to take place in The French Alps and also a reprieve for some of the events that had been threatened with the axe.
Meeting today, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board (EB), carried out a discipline and event review. As part of the review, it was decided that freeride (ski and snowboard) and synchro9 (figure skating) athletes will feature for the first time on an Olympic stage.
The IOC EB also confirmed the retention of snowboard parallel giant slalom; said the Games would be fully gender neutral for the first time and that Russian athletes would provisionally be allowed to compete again..
The Alpes 2030 discipline and event programme was approved by the IOC EB following the recommendations of the Olympic Programme Working Group (OPWG), which assessed the proposals submitted by the International Federations (IFs) and the Organising Committee with regard to ski mountaineering.
New Ski and snowboard events will include:
• Freeride (discipline) with men's ski, men's snowboard, women's ski, women's snowboard (events)
• Freestyle skiing: mixed team ski cross (event)
• Snowboard: mixed team snowboard parallel (event)
Ski mountaineering (sport proposed by the French Alps 2030 Organising Committee and approved by the 146th IOC Session in June):
• Individual (discipline): men's individual and women's individual (events)
• Sprint (discipline): men's sprint, women's sprint and mixed relay (events)
"Freeride has experienced rapid international growth, benefitting from a strong youth fanbase and visually spectacular competition. It uses a natural field of play, which minimises its impact on the Games. Comprising four events, it will provide an Olympic opportunity for 44 athletes (22 women and 22 men) to compete at the Games for the first time. Freeride started in the 1990s to develop as a discipline," an IOC press statement says.
In addition, ski mountaineering has now been officially included as an additional sport on the programme for the Alpes 2030 Olympic Winter Games. The decision was taken by the 146th IOC Session in Lausanne in June 2026, following a proposal from the French Alps 2030 Organising Committee. Montgenèvre will be the host venue for this sport. This IOC says this allows for integration with an existing competition venue and the Olympic Village in Briançon, ensuring operational efficiency and athlete convenience.
The 2030 Winter Games will also make history, the IOC says, as the first Winter Games with gender parity. The athlete quota places. Some 3,046 athletes (1,525 female and 1,521 male, including athletes in ski mountaineering proposed as an additional sport) are set to compete across 126 events – 56 for women, 55 for men and 15 mixed.
Four sports will increase women's participation, with two reaching full parity, one of them, skiing, moving from 48.6% to 50%.
"These changes reflect the IOC's commitment to ensuring that gender parity is achieved, and that the Olympic programme continues to evolve and remain relevant to future generations of athletes and fans, while controlling cost and complexity," the IOC statement adds.
The full event programme is available here.
https://stillmed.olympics.com/media/Documents/Olympic-Games/Alpes-2030/Alpes-2030-Event-Programme.pdf