Do you know what skimo is? Could Vonn and Shiffrin team up? Here's what's new at the Olympics

Kirsty Coventry, elected last March as the first female president of the International Olympic Committee, touts the Milan Cortina Winter Games that officially open Friday as ''the most gender-balanced in history.''

That's reflected in, and helped by, changes on the schedule over the coming weeks.

A women's doubles event was added to luge. A women's large hill individual event appears in ski jumping for the first time at an Olympics. Ski mountaineering — the lone sport making its Games debut in Italy — has a mixed-gender event, while skeleton now includes one, too.

The IOC frequently adjusts the programs for its marquee competitions: Flag football, squash and obstacle racing are going to be first-time sports at the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, while lacrosse and cricket will return after an absence of more than a century each, and baseball and softball come back after shorter time away. Other sports will introduce mixed-gender team events.

Here is a look at what's new at the 2026 Winter Olympics:

What is ski mountaineering aka skimo?

Ski mountaineering makes its Olympic debut on Feb. 19 (women's and men's sprints) and Feb. 21 (mixed relay) in Bormio, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) northeast of Milan.

Cameron Smith, who forms the U.S. team with Anna Gibson, described the sport this way: ''It's basically what skiing was before there were chairlifts.''

Smith and Gibson beat out Canada for the 12th and last Olympic skimo berth.

''Just to qualify for the Olympics would have been such a win for our team, and that's really been our No. 1 focus for years now. And it felt like that was as far as we could dream — that just making it to the start line would be where our potential is,'' said Smith, who trains out of Crested Butte, Colorado.

''We're going there to be competitive and chase bigger and bigger dreams," Smith told The Associated Press. "We're allowed to dream of podiums and dream of medals."

Will Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin pair up?

Female ski jumpers compete on the large hill

Women who began competing in Olympic ski jumping at the 2014 Games on the normal hill will also be on the large hill for the first time. Medals for that new event will be determined Feb. 15 at the Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium. Another change for this sport: The men's so-called super team event involves two athletes instead of the four that competed in the previous team format.

Freestyle skiing adds dual moguls

Freestyle skiing is bringing in dual moguls for women and men — basically the same sort of judging based on technique, flips and twists, plus speed, as the existing moguls event, but with two athletes going down the hill in adjacent lanes. The women's dual moguls is on Feb. 14 at Livigno Aerials and Moguls Park; the men do it the next day at same site.

Skeleton and luge bring new events

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Video journalist Brittany Peterson in Denver contributed.

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