Mixed team events at Olympics showcase greater gender balance
More than half of all events at the Beijing Games feature women, thanks to the addition of two more women's events and four new mixed team ones - in ski jumping, aerials, snowboard cross and short track speed skating.
The Beijing Olympics are the most gender-balanced Winter Games ever, with competitors saying the expansion of mixed team events "means a lot" and helps drive up standards in women's sport.
More than half of all events at the Beijing Games feature women, thanks to the addition of two more women's events and four new mixed team ones - in ski jumping, aerials, snowboard cross and short track speed skating.
The two new women's events that have been added to the Beijing Olympics
programme are monobob in bobsleigh and Big Air, which was won by California-born Chinese freestyle skiing star Eileen Gu.
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Women account for a record 45 per cent of athletes at the Beijing Games, up from 41 per cent in Pyeongchang four years ago.
Three countries -Ecuador, Kosovo and Malaysia - have a female athlete at the Winter Olympics for the first time.
International Olympic Committee sports director Kit McConnell said greater female representation "is not just a statistic".
"We have record levels of female participation, record numbers of female athletes, record numbers of both female and mixed events at these Games," he said.
Competitor Ashley Caldwell, part of the winning US aerial team, said there was "always room to develop" when it comes to representation in sport but hoped the event could "showcase" women athletes.
"I've always pushed myself to do harder tricks to show the world that women can do it," she said.
"To have more women in sport at a high level is great for the world - empowering people around the world to respect women and to be in the sport."
