2018 Winter Olympics Adding 4 New Competitions
The 23rd Winter Olympics will by held in 2018 in PyeongChang, South Korea. The International Olympic Committee has approved the addition of four new events in the upcoming games. Big air in snowboarding, big air in freestyle skiing, mass start in speed skating, and mixed doubles in curling were all approved in during the Committee’s board meeting on June 8th, 2015.
The reason behind adding the four new events was to make the games more popular and appealing towards to younger crowd. These new changes that were made can be changed at anytime as long as they are changed three years at minimum before the games. In addition to adding the four new events, men’s and women’s snowboard parallel slalom has been dropped from the Olympic program.
The big air events will be apart of the 2018 Olympics and will involve the Olympian to fly off a ramp at full speed while attempting multiple flips and spins in the air in the time that is allowed per contestant. Now that mixed doubles are allowed in curling, the teams will consist of one male and one female. Each team will have six stones available instead of the traditional eight stones.
The International Olympics Committee has also approved Baseball and Softball for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. These two events were dropped in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Those involved with online sports betting have good money on America with many athletes on the 2018 roster. Those involved in Olympic betting should not just yet place money on the U.S. Hockey team. With the defeat Finland and Canada, team USA did not walk away with a medal.
The Internal Olympic Committee with regards to online betting or any Olympic sports betting for that matter believe that the process of betting can be quite negative. The point of the Olympics is for top athletes to compete with other top athletes as well as forming a bond with the other involved countries. By betting against a player or team, this can cause negativity which defeats the purpose of having the games at all.
The IOC have taken many precautions to ensure that the 2018 Winter Olympics will be showered with positivity. First off, through legislation, the committee can protect the integrity of the games. For example, since 2006, the Code of Ethics has prevented all Participants to participate in any betting on any of the events. In addition to this, the IOC has created a hotline that is used for reporting any issues or violations.
The most important precaution the IOC has taken towards the issue of betting was creating the Integrity Betting Intelligence System (IBIS) which monitors all online sports betting. Any obscure Olympic betting is monitored and reported through this system. This as well as education have all been implemented to ensure that the Olympics remain clean and that the games keep the values of trying to spread international friendship.
The motto held by the IOC and implemented during the Olympics are to be true, be safe, be careful, and to be open. With three years to go before the 2018 games, the winners of each event could be anyone. Judging by the games held in the winter of 2014, any of the involved countries has a shot. With the four added events, the 2018 Olympics held in South Korea will be a winter that sports fans around the world cannot miss.
