Skicross
Origin
Skicross is a freestyle discipline derived from Motocross, appeared in the 90's in the United States, in a extrem sports competition : The X-Games. This sport was revealed to the wider public in 2010, at its first appearance at the Winter Olympic Games.
Execution
The purpose is to tumble down a course sowed with obstacles such as bumps, jumps and bank turns as fast as possible. The particularity of this sport is that the athletes go four by four on the same course !
Qualifications
A Skicross race goes in two steps : first there is a qualification, and then are the finals. During the qualification, the athletes go on the course individually in a time-trial. At the end, only the 32 fastest competitors can participate at the finals.
Finals
The real race can now begin : the athletes are put in heats of four depending on their qualification rank, and tumble four by four on the course. We then proceed by elimination : the first two competitiors of each heat pass for the next round. And this until it only remains four racers on course. The loosers of each semi finals meet in a small final to detemine places 5 to 8, and the winners meet in the big final.