Olympic officials say they need more time to review ski halfpipe, ski and snowboard slopestyle, women's ski jumping and other events before deciding whether to include them in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
In a press conference held Monday at the International Olympic Committee's meeting in Acapulco, Mexico, officials said, "The IOC is looking favorably at the proposed events but before making a final decision, they have decided to look at the outcome of the World Championships of all of the respective sports." They added that they expect a decision to be made in the spring of 2011.
In early October, the IOC Program Commission met at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and recommended approving ski halfpipe and women's ski jumping. And in June, the International Ski Federation (FIS) also showed their endorsement of ski halfpipe.
In ski halfpipe, the world championship event is scheduled for Feb. 2-5 at the Freestyle Ski World Championships in Park City, Utah. IOC officials said Monday that the final decision would be made after all the world championships are over.
Besides the ski and snowboard events, the IOC is also looking at biathlon mixed team relay, a figure skiing team event and a luge team event. The IOC also announced that women's and men's ski cross, which debuted as a provisional sport at the 2010 Vancouver Games would remain an Olympic sport in 2014.
The IOC turned down women's ski jumping twice for inclusion at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, noting that the sport lacked enough elite competitors. The inaugural women's ski jumping world championship took place last year in Liberec, Czech Republic. Next year's championship will be held in Oslo on Feb. 25.
According to The Associated Press, out of eight proposed new events, one was rejected -- a team event in Alpine skiing. The event, which has been held at the world championships since 2005, features racers going head-to-head in a parallel giant slalom.
The Executive Board of the IOC says they will look at a number of key positive factors in determining whether or not the various sports are approved, including universality, gender equity and youth appeal. Other considerations included the cost of infrastructure and the impact on the overall quota and the number of events.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.