The IOC (International Olympic Committee) have taken a decade to decide on whether or not to add ski halfpipe and snowboard slopestyle to the Winter Olympics in Sochi. They’ve finally made their decision and it will please some and annoy others. Seems that out of the six sports added, ski halfpipe will be making an appearance but the snowboard slopestyle wasn’t on the list. It doesn’t mean that it’s completely out of the picture but the IOC has put the decision on hold for further review and that goes for ski slopestyle too.
Basically, they needed more time to decide before and now they need even more time.

Officials have said that they need more time to study the technical aspects of the slopestyle events but there’s a chance they could still be added to the Sochi 2014 programme. “There is still a team that is going to make some inspections in Sochi and for some it’s going to be a final decision, for some pending the results of the technical study,” said IOC President Jacques Rogge in a press conference.

These are the reasons for adding ski halfpipe: (International Ski Federation – FIS) Ski halfpipe is a young and dynamic event that will complement the recent introductions of the popular freestyle ski cross and snowboard halfpipe events that drew high spectator numbers and television audiences at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games.

One competitor at a time performs a routine of acrobatic jumps, flips, twists and other manoeuvres on a half-pipe. The athletes are judged on their take-offs, the height they reach above the top of the pipe, and difficulty of their manoeuvres. A qualification round and final round are staged, with two runs per athlete in both. Ski halfpipe will make its first appearance in January 2012 at the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck.

Not a bad result there really. Ski halfpipe in the next Winter Olympic games in Sochi 2014 and keep your fingers crossed for slopestyle too!
And for those of you that want to know what the other events were: Women’s ski jump, biathlon mixed relay, figure skating team and luge team will now be in the programme.