The 2018 Winter Olympics are starting February 9-25 and are being held in PyeongChang, Republic of Korea. I enjoy the two weeks that the Olympics are on the television. I picked a sport that I enjoy watching but is not very familiar with the sport. Snowboarding, I am excited to learn some history and the different aspects of the sport of Snowboarding it has become such a popular sport.

Snowboarding first developed in the United States in the 1960s. It became very popular and attracted skiers, surfers, and skateboarders. Snowboarding combines some aspects of all three sports. The first World Cup was established in 1985 and held in Zurs, Austria. The International Snowboard Association was formed in 1994 and became an Olympic sport in 1998 at Nagano, Japan's Olympics.

The first event is called the Parallel giant slalom, it consists of two snowboarders racing side by side down a parallel course, the faster rider advancing to the next round. The format begins with a qualification round, each snowboarder takes two runs, one on the red course and the other on the blue course. The racers times are added together with the top 16 advancing.

The quest for a medal consists of the round of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and medal finals. These rounds are head to head elimination, this is a one run, the riders seeded and placed in brackets. The fastest racer picks the course, either red or blue, and the winner of the race advances.

The second event is the Half-pipe or Superpipe, which is a U-Shape course with 22-foot walls. The rider travels through the halfpipe, performing multiple tricks on both walls of the pipe. There is a qualification round and a final round, the men start with 30 riders and the women have 24 riders. Each rider has two opportunities to run the course in the qualification round with the highest score counting. Qualifying times don't advance, the rider starts with a clean slate. The top 12 riders advance to the final round, which consists of three runs. The best score will count towards the final results.

Half-pipe has six judges, dropping the highest and lowest scores, the 4 remaining scores are averaged together. Judges score 1-100, considering several criteria such as amplitude or height, technical difficulty, diverse mix of tricks, execution-stability, fluidity, control of trick and finally the progression into new tricks or linking tricks that have not been licked before.

The Slopestyle is the third event, the course has a mix of jumps and rails, much like a skating boarding park. The course at this years Olympics will consist of three jumps and three rails. The rider uses the jumps and rails to execute tricks, qualification consists of two runs with the single run counting. The top 12 riders advance to the finals, which consist of three runs with again the best score counting towards final results.

This event consists of nine judges, three of the judges evaluate the run on overall impression. The remaining judges are split into three groups, each group evaluates tricks on a specific section of the course. Like the Halfpipe, the riders are scored on amplitude, technical difficulty, the diversity of tricks, execution, and progression. Final scores are scored out of 100 with 60% is trick scores and 40% overall impression.

A new event for the 2018 Olympics is Big Air., and it features just one single jump. The qualification round consists of two runs and one chance to land one of their biggest or most difficult trick. The best single run counts, with the top 12 advancing to the final round. The final consists of three runs, the rider must land two different tricks with spins in different directions on at least two of the runs.

The two runs with the spins will be added together for final results. The big air has a team of six judges, the highest and lowest scores are dropped with the remaining four averaged together. The judges base the scores on a scale of 1-100 based on difficulty, execution, amplitude, and landing.

The final event is Snowboard Cross there are up to six snowboarders at a time racing on a downhill course, the top three finishers advance to the next round. The course is inspired by Motorcross tracks, including obstacles such as jumps, banked turns, and rollers. Cross-competition consists of two portions, the seeding for men, qualification for women, and the elimination rounds.

All 40 men riders advance to elimination heats, top times determines "seeding" for the final brackets. The top 24/30 women riders will advance to elimination heats. Competitors are divided into heats, riders wear a colored bib that corresponds to their seeding/qualification run ranking.

The red bib is the #1 rider, green bib #2, blue bib #3, yellow bib #4, white bib #5, and #6 is the black bib. The rider with the red bib chooses which of the six starting gates they will use in the heat, the green bib is next and so on.

Men's elimination starts with 1/8 finals, opening rounds of the eight heats only have five riders. This keeps the higher seeds from meeting in the early rounds. The top three racers from every eight heats, a total of 24 riders will advance to the quarterfinals.

The women's is slightly different because they start with the quarterfinals. The quarterfinals for both men and women, consist, 12 athletes, the top three riders from each advance to semifinals six total athletes advance to the finals. The final race determines first through sixth.

Two or more racers appear to cross the finish line at the same time, official results will be determined after examining the photo finish. The first part of rider's body or snowboard that crosses finish lines determines the placing.

If more than one competitor does not complete the course or does not cross the finish line, the rankings in the heat will be based on the location where competitors have completed the course and whichever athlete passes more gates further down the course will be ranked higher.