Looking to reach peak popularity

Synchro delights

The Yabuli cluster will also provide fans with another fresh take on the beauty of snow sports with freestyle skiing aerials to feature a new synchronized format.

The synchro discipline involves male or female pairs taking off simultaneously from two relatively lower-than-normal jumps to perform flips and spins at the same pace, with the synchronization of their tricks heavily judged in the scoring of their runs.

The inclusion of the new format in Harbin, as well as on the FIS 2024-25 World Cup circuit, is expected to help push it into contention for future Winter Olympics inclusion.

The host squad, led by reigning Olympic individual champions Xu Mengtao and Qi Guangpu, will face a serious challenge in Yabuli from fierce international rival Kazakhstan, another powerhouse in the sport that will possibly feature men's European Cup winner Sherzod Khashyrbayev, reigning world junior champion Dinmukhammed Raimkulov, and women's European Cup bronze medalist Ayana Zholdas.

Mixing it up

In Harbin, on the rink, mixed doubles curling will make its long-overdue debut at the Asian showpiece after having been contested at the Winter Olympics twice at Pyeongchang 2018 and Beijing 2022.

With only two players involved and shorter frame of competitions, mixed doubles curling, which is somewhat more unpredictable than the four-player team event, opens up greater opportunities for underdogs to upset the heavyweights.

The mixed discipline, which already kicked off its round-robin play on Tuesday with the final scheduled right after the opening ceremony on Saturday, has guaranteed an intriguing contest of tactics and precision as the host team, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Chinese Taipei, among many others, look to slide their way to continental glory.

Contact the writer at sunxiaochen@chinadaily.com.cn