While watching some of the Winter Olympics the other day, I had a thought: Why isn’t there an event that covers everything?
In the Summer Games, you have events like the pentathlon, heptathlon and decathlon, in which athletes compete in up to 10 different events. It really shows which of the athletes are the all-around best.
While I have nothing against athletes that specialize in certain events, it always feels like those that take on multiple events are the better athletes.
In the Winter Games, the closest thing you have is the Nordic combined, which puts together cross-country skiing and ski jumping. That’s good, but we need more and we need it a bit more varied.
And while you could say the biathlon is a mix of two events, it takes place in the same race, with cross-country skiers stopping to shoot targets every lap.
My suggestion would be taking the Nordic combined and blowing it out into a winter heptathlon.
You can start by keeping cross-country skiing and ski jumping, then adding a downhill skiing component – in fact, the downhill event would probably work best. Moguls would perhaps be the next easiest addition, then it gets hard.
You would have to take it off skis, so which direction would you?
You don’t want to add another downhill event, like super-G, because it’s a too similar to downhill. Maybe make a trip indoors and do some long-track speed skating. Snowboarding wouldn’t be too difficult of a transition for most. But my choice would be the luge or skeleton.
It would make for an interesting component and take some out of their comfort zones.
It also greatly adds to the variety of events that you’d be seeing.
Some other quick ideas for “athlons†to add to the Winter Games.
-Sliding biathlon: Luge and skeleton.
-Snowboarding triathlon: Slopestyle, halfpipe and downhill.
-Nordic skiing grand slam: Downhill, super-G, slalom, giant slalom.
-And the ‘Ultimate team grand slam’: Curling, ice hockey, bobsled, long-track speed skating relay.
Got any more? Let me know on Twitter or in comments.
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