The International Olympic Committee on Wednesday approved the addition of a mass start biathlon event for the 2006 Winter Games.

The IOC executive board overturned a recommendation by the body's program commission that the mass start only be included if another biathlon discipline is dropped. But the board stressed that the new event was being added only for the 2006 games in Turin, Italy.

Boardercross inclusion still undecided
A decision on whether to include snowboardcross was postponed yet again until the IOC has more information about how widely the event is practiced. Snowboard slalom and halfpipe events are already part of the Olympic program. Snowboardcross involves four competitors racing downhill through turns and jumps in an elimination race.

The IOC board decided not to recommend the inclusion of the new sports of ski mountaineering and ski orienteering, and turned down requests to include natural track luge, team luge and ski flying.

Popular with the spectators
The biathlon mass start event is popular with spectators and broadcasters because all the competitors start at once, making it easy to see who is leading. However, the number of competitors is limited to the number of shooting stands available - usually 30.

IOC director-general Francois Carrard said the program commission tried to avoid increasing the number of biathlon events because it prefers to have biathlon and cross country skiing at the same venue. However, they will be in separate venues at Turin.


[Source: Superclimb]

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