Slopestyle is coming to the Winter Olympics.
The IOC approved the inclusion Monday of men's and women's slopestyle events in snowboarding and freestyle skiing for the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
Also approved for Sochi were snowboard parallel slalom events for men and women.
In slopestyle, snowboarders and skiers do tricks while going down the mountain and maneuver through ''features'' - rails, big jumps and bumps.
American snowboard star Shaun White, who won halfpipe gold medals at the 2010 and 2006 Games, has said he would like to compete in slopestyle in Sochi.
Slopestyle is the latest addition to the 2014 program. In April, the International Olympic Committee added women's ski jumping, men's and women's ski halfpipe, mixed relay in biathlon and team events in luge and figure skating.
The IOC put off a decision at the time on slopestyle and a team Alpine skiing event, saying more time was needed to review their technical merits. While slopestyle was approved Monday, the team Alpine event was not.
Also Monday, the IOC executive board approved a list of sports that will be considered for inclusion in the 2020 Summer Games - including baseball and softball, which were dropped from the Olympics after the 2008 Beijing Games and have failed several times in their bids for reinstatement.
The other potential contenders are karate, roller sports, sports climbing, squash, wakeboard and the martial art wushu.
The eight sports will be competing for one opening on the 2020 program. They were selected from an original list of 12 candidates; the four failing to make the cut were dance, surfing, bowling and netball.
The IOC board will decide in early 2013 whether to cut the list further, and a final decision on which sport to add will be made later that year. The IOC has a cap of 28 sports for the Summer Games.
