Apparently the Summer Olympics is up first, but of course we're only really interested in the Sochi 2014 Games. Although it's still more than one and a half years to go – Sochi 2014 is already around the corner and will of course feature slopestyle snowboarding for the first time in the Olympics.

On Sunday, July 1st, the official Olympic qualification period started.

From now on and until January 19th, 2014, every rider will get the chance to meet the Olympic requirements in order to be allowed to start in Sochi (February 7th – 23rd, 2014).

In the end, a maximum of 252 riders will be able to compete at the next Winter Games following the official athletes quota allocation per event:

	Women	Men
Parallel Giant Slalom	32	32
Parallel Slalom
Halfpipe	30	40
Slopestyle	24	30
Snowboard Cross	24	40

In addition, there is also a maximum NOC (National Olympic Committee) quota:

• 24 riders per NOC
  
• a maximum of 14 females or 14 males
  
• and a maximum of four riders per event

Bits in italics have been updated for clairification (5/7/12).
The quota spots per NOC will be allocated using the Olympic Quota Allocation List, which contains all World Cup competitions held between July 1, 2012 and January 19, 2014 as well as the 2013 FIS Snowboard World Championships.

The allocation will be made by assigning one quota place per competitor from the top of the Olympic Quota Allocation List downwards.

Once a NOC has achieved the maximum number of four spots, the next eligible NOC on the Olympic Quota Allocation List will allocate a spot until the maximum per event is reached.

According to this, it's up to the NOC's to choose who will get their quota place at the Olympics as long as the riders fulfill the qualification criteria.

In order to qualify riders have to:

• place one time in the top-30 of a FIS World Cup event or FIS World Championships in the event concerned during the official qualification period.
  
• they also require a minimum of 100 FIS points in the event concerned; slopestyle is an exception as only 50 FIS points are required.

Links
FISSnowboard.com
FIS Event Videos
FIS World Cup Calendar
FISSnowboard Facebook
FISSnowboard Twitter
FISSnowboard Youtube

---