Introducing the Ski Octathalon
With the olympics right around the corner I was thinking about what would happen if the IOC (or anyone else) introduced a ski “athalon”. The summer olympics of course has the decathalon, heptathalon and the very strange modern pentathalon (200m swim, fencing, equestrian jumping, 800m run and pistol shooting). The winter olympics only has the biathalon which is also very strange. My idea for a ski octathalon would try to determine who the best all around skier is and how versatile they can be. The events and schedule I came up with are below:
Day 1:
Day: Super G (Alpine)
Night: Half pipe (freestyle)
Day 2:
Day: 5km cross country (Nordic)
Night: Ski jumping (Nordic)
Day 3:
Day: Slalom (Alpine)
Night: Moguls (Mix)
Day 4:
Day: Slopestyle (freestyle)
Night: Staggered start ski cross (Mix)
The point of the event and scoring would be to allow a skier from any of the disciplines to excel as long as they can learn a good portion of the other events. (Freestyle skiers need to be able to xc ski, Racers need to ski a half pipe, Xc skiers will ski moguls...) This would also allow skiers from the same country who may have just missed the olympics in their preferred event to compete in something else and have another chance (much like decathletes who are great at several events but not the best at any). The final event would be a skier cross with the starts staggered depending on the results in the previous events. Then whoever crosses the finish line first in an intense skier cross is the gold medalist. This of course would take about 6-8 pairs of skis but I think it could be an exciting event
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