The world comes together to compete once every four years for the winter Olympics. The winter Olympics events can range anywhere from bobsledding, to curling, to ice skating. This year they decided to added twelve new events.

The new Olympic events were be premiered at the Russian 2014 Sochi Olympics. In attempt to make it edgier and younger there are three mixed events, four men’s and five women’s. The mixed events include; biathlon mixed relay composed of two men and two women, figure skating team event: one man, one woman, one pair, and one ice dance couple, luge team relay: singles sled one man and one women, doubles sled. The men’s and women’s include: ski halfpipe, ski slopestyle, snowboard slopestyle, and the snowboard parallel slalom. The women’s new event is ski jumping. With these new events added there are now 15 sports incorporated and 98 medal events.

Many people enjoy watching the Olympics and it is rare to hear of some that have never seen them. The group of people that tend to watch them seem to be athletes themselves. All of the new events create a new dynamic and most are excited to watch them happen, and see how the different countries will do.

Junior Ethan Stanley said, “I’m really impressed with the new events they added, being an athlete I like watching others compete to see who is the best. It will create more things to watch while giving this years Olympic events a new modern feel.”

Having new skiing and snowboarding events added has created a huge amount of excitement within the group that does them.

Sophomore Sam Hanson said, “I love how the skiing category now has halfpipe and slopestyle, along with the women having jumping.” He added, “It’s bringing the skiing competition to a whole new level creating events that skiing athletes now have the opportunity to compete in.”

The figure skating team event has not been a dominant thing in ice skating, but most of them are happy to hear it has been added.

Junior Sarah Lund said, “Skating has always been a passion for me and knowing that others have that same passion to create an entirely new event for it makes me very excited to watch that event.”

All the new events have a small but significant impact on athletes and viewers all around the world, country, and even Stillwater. Most are already eager and ready to see what new events they will add at the next one in four years. These 12 events have made a statement that they still have the power and creativeness to continue and change the Olympics while making not letting tradition fade away.