Halfpipe made its Olympic debut at Nagano 1998 alongside snowboard giant slalom.
In a halfpipe, riders travel from wall to wall inside a long, curved snow channel, performing aerial tricks and spins above the lip. Judges evaluate the difficulty, height, variety, execution and overall use of the course rather than simply recording elapsed time.
Nagano was the first Winter Olympics to award medals in snowboarding. The program included men’s and women’s giant slalom and halfpipe competitions, establishing both a racing and a freestyle side of Olympic snowboarding.
Snowboard cross joined the Olympic program at Turin 2006, while slopestyle and big air arrived later. This sequence explains why modern fans may remember a much larger Olympic snowboard program than the one seen at Nagano.