There's Way Too Many Skiing Events in the Olympics
For the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, there are 105 total medal events scheduled across 16 disciplines, with skiing-related disciplines (alpine, freestyle, cross-country, ski jumping, Nordic combined, and ski mountaineering).
Meanwhile there are only 20 medal events for hockey, curling, figure skating, bobsledding, skeleton, and luge.
Norway is first in the medal standings with 12 medals. 10 of these are from skiing. The medal standings are so skewed in favor of skiing, and to a lesser extent, speed skating, that it almost can't be taken seriously. A swimming is similarly overrepresented in the summer Olympics.
Skiing events are super varied. Nordic events are an ultimate test of fitness...contention is limited to nordic countries, but that's not much different than Kenyans dominating distance running and Jamaicans dominating sprinting. Biathlon is simply friggin awesome. We need more summer events that include shooting at near peak heart rate.
Alpine events are beyond reproach. Downhills are just ####ing nuts and under appreciated as feat of human's capacity for impressive levels of controlled stupidity.
Ski and snowboard cross are dope. Moguls are dope. Downhill snowboarding is kinda lame.
Halfpipe is a bit lame at this point, but it's fine. The other freestyle events are about as good as judged events can be. Aerials is basically the same as diving.
Ski jumping is pretty cool. Probably too many disciplines within it (I can't be bothered to understand) but who gives a ####. Those dicks aren't going to inject themselves.
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Saw this the other day in regards to nordic skiing
So triathlon is swimming, cycling and running, right?
Yes
So biathlon is just running and cycling then? I could do that.
Youd think so but no...
Heres your cross country skis and a gun
I’d like to see an alternative standings where team medals are worth more points.
Methods for Alternative Standings
Total Medal Count (Total): Ranks by total number of medals won (Gold+Silver+Bronze), placing higher value on teams that appear on the podium frequently.
Weighted Point System (e.g., 4:2:1): Gold=4, Silver=2, Bronze=1. This keeps the importance of gold but gives more weight to the total haul.
"Every Athlete" Count (Team-Heavy): Instead of counting a team gold as 1, this method counts all 12-24 players as having won a medal. This causes nations with strong team-sport rosters to soar in rankings, such as in past games where Canada and the USA often surged.
Medal Value Adjusted by Event (Reddit/Alternative): A popular alternative method involves dividing the value of a medal by the number of events in a sport. This reduces the dominance of nations in high-medal-count sports (like swimming or athletics) and rewards success in team sports (handball, water polo) that only offer one or two medals total.
Saw this the other day in regards to nordic skiing
So triathlon is swimming, cycling and running, right?
Yes
So biathlon is just running and cycling then? I could do that.
Youd think so but no...
Heres your cross country skis and a gun
Replace the guns with paintball guns and have them shoot at each other while on skis.
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The challenge with adding something like 3 on 3 hockey is they'd need to build another rink in each host city. With figure skating, short track and men's and women's hockey the arenas are at maximum.
This is my biggest gripe. Why don't we have 100m, 200m and 400m events where people have to run backwards in the summer olympics? Race walking is the equivalent I guess, but at least you can't win 40 medals by going down the track in various concocted methods.
as a European, I always find this so funny. Skiing is absolutely huge over here, as are ski jumping, biathlon and so on. It's on TV everywhere for a few months.
Then it's the Olympics and I remember no one cares about that stuff in North America, and it's like "there's just too much skiing, how about some more curling?" Just funny to me how differently all those different sports are viewed and valued.
There are medals for multiple different distances is skiing, sprinting, long distance, etc. Just need to add short, medium and long games for hockey, curling, etc. to balance the counts.
as a European, I always find this so funny. Skiing is absolutely huge over here, as are ski jumping, biathlon and so on. It's on TV everywhere for a few months.
Then it's the Olympics and I remember no one cares about that stuff in North America, and it's like "there's just too much skiing, how about some more curling?" Just funny to me how differently all those different sports are viewed and valued.
We don't have the time to show it on television here because Sportsnet is too busy blacking out 1500+ NHL games every season .
There's Way Too Many Skiing Events in the Olympics
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