Monobob: What to know in regards to the Winter Olympics’ new woman-only occasion

Monobob is one in all seven new sporting occasions making its debut on the 2022 Winter Olympics.

A solo model of bobsledding, it is solely open to feminine athletes on the Beijing Video games and, like a lot of the different new occasions, is meant to enhance gender equality on the Olympics: Feminine athletes make up 45% of individuals at this 12 months’s Video games, the best proportion in historical past. However the Worldwide Olympic Committee has a aim of full one-to-one gender parity by the 2024 Summer season Olympics in Paris.

This is what to find out about monobob, who to maintain a watch out for and what to find out about different winter sporting occasions debuting on the Beijing Video games.

For extra, study all you have to find out about Beijing 2022, together with what occurred on the opening ceremonies and the way you throw a Winter Olympics with out actual snow.

What’s monobob?

It is just about what it appears like: A one-person bobsled race, with racers dashing down a twisting ice slide at speeds surpassing 70 mph.

Monobob competitions had been held in each the boys’s and ladies’s classes on the Winter Youth Olympic Video games in Lillehammer, Norway, in 2016 and in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2020.

In conventional staff bobsledding, members tackle completely different roles — pushing, piloting and braking a sled that may weigh upwards of 350 kilos, in line with the IOC.

In monobob, the lone racer has to do all of it on their very own.

“Successful is not right down to souped-up gear. All of us have the identical runners. We will see who’s the highest of the highest,” Canadian Cynthia Appiah informed Olympics.com.

The lady with the most effective cumulative time from 4 heats will win the gold.

Learn extra: The whole lot it’s worthwhile to know in regards to the Beijing Video games

When are monobob occasions on the 2022 Winter Video games?

The brand new sport joins the two-woman race and the two- and four-man occasions on the Yanqing Nationwide Sliding Middle, about 45 miles outdoors of Beijing within the Xiaohaituo Mountain Space. The ladies’s monobob competitors begins with two heats on Feb. 13 at 9:30 a.m. native time (Saturday, Feb. 12 at 5:30 p.m. PT, 8:30 p.m. ET). 

The third and the fourth heats will happen the next day at 9:30 a.m. native time. (Sunday, Feb. 13 at 5:30 p.m. PT, 8:30 p.m. ET), with medalists introduced at round 11:45 a.m. Beijing time (7:45 p.m. PT, 10:45 p.m. ET).

Why did the Olympics add monobob?

Girls taking part in bobsledding is comparatively new — the primary two-woman bobsled occasion wasn’t held till the Salt Lake Metropolis Video games in 2002. Having a solo occasion permits the smaller pool of feminine bobsledders extra possibilities to go for the gold.

The occasion additionally opens the door for nations that do not have an extended custom of winter sports activities — or a deep bench of bobsledders. 

Who’re the monobob athletes to observe?

Group USA has the highest contenders in ladies’s monobob: Canadian-American Kallie Humphries and reigning champion Elana Meyers Taylor.

Humphries, a two-time Olympic two-woman bobsled champion, represented Canada till 2020.

Meyers Taylor received the general World Monobob Sequence in 2021-22. She missed her probability to be a flag-bearer within the opening ceremonies on Friday as a result of she was beneath COVID-19 quarantine however was cleared on Saturday — nicely earlier than the primary monobob warmth on Feb. 13. 

Different bobsledders to beat embody Germany’s Laura Nolte and Mariama Jamanka, Canadians Christine de Bruin and Cynthia Appiah and Australia’s Breeana Walker.

What different new occasions have been added to the 2022 Winter Olympics? 

Together with the monobob, a number of different Winter Olympic occasions make their debut this 12 months.

Freeski Large Air for each women and men makes its first official look this winter in Beijing, following the arrival of Large Air snowboarding on the 2018 Video games in Pyeongchang. 

Skiers velocity down a ramp after which launch into the air to carry out daredevil methods. Judges price skiers primarily based on trick issue, top, execution and touchdown. Opponents are judged on the most effective of three runs.

Large Air ski occasions had been held Feb. 7 and eight: Within the males’s occasion’s Norway took the gold, with the USA incomes silver and Sweden getting the bronze medal. Within the ladies’s competitors, China took the gold, France grabbed silver and Switzerland earned bronze.

One other new occasion aiding that aim is mixed-team ski leaping, held about 100 miles outdoors Beijing in Zhangjiakou.

5 judges award factors for type, distance and smoothness of touchdown, in line with NBC Sports activities, “together with gate and wind compensation factors.” The bottom and highest scores of the four-person staff are eradicated. 

Combined-team ski leaping occasions had been held Feb. 7, with Slovenia incomes gold, the Russian Olympic Committee taking silver and Canada incomes bronze.

Combined freestyle ski aerials can also be a brand new arrival, with groups of three — both two males and one girl or two ladies and one man — performing flips, spins and different ski acrobatics. Teammates’ scores are mixed to find out winners.

“If you happen to’ve ever watched an aerial ski competitors, you understand that you will see at the least one crash,” freestyle aerial world champion Laura Peel promised Olympics.com. 

Freestyle snowboarding (combined groups) occasions had been held Feb 10. with the USA nabbing gold, China taking silver and Canada incomes bronze.

This 12 months, snowboard cross provides a combined occasion for the primary time, with one man and one girl on every staff. The occasion features as a two-person relay in a knockout bracket, in line with the Worldwide Ski Federation: Male staff members go first, with their counterparts launched from the gate as quickly as their teammate crosses the end line.

The staff to cross the end line within the shortest period of time are the gold-medal winners.

Combined-team snowboard cross occasions are being held on Feb. 12 at 10 a.m. native time (Friday, Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. PT, 9 p.m. ET).

Within the new short-track speedskating combined relay, groups of 4 athletes (two males and two ladies) take turns in a 2,000-meter (1.25-mile) relay.

The combined short-track speedskating relay completed on Feb. 5. After a dramatic crash and a photograph end, China edged out Italy to win the primary gold medal within the occasion.

Learn extra: Beijing Video games are first Winter Olympics to make use of nearly 100% pretend snow