I sometimes cringe when they start adding new sports to the Olympics. The change sometimes comes from trying to ride the wave of a fad instead of truly recognizing a worthy competition.

A lot of people probably felt that way when they started adding snowboarding to the Games. Just a way to appease the X Games crowd, some said. Not a real sport, others said. Lots of good advertising dollars and big audiences, the television and organizing folks said.

If you have a dismissive attitude of the snowboarding events, I don’t really blame you. But I hope you at least suspend that feeling for the snowboard cross.

I tell you this, of course, after the competition for men and women has concluded so you will have to wait four years or actually watch the Winter X Games some time. Each only takes one day and features a mad dash to the bottom of the hill in groups of four. They race down a pretty complicated course, turning and jumping. It’s pretty fascinating.

You can see a racer like American Seth Wescott lay in wait for most of the race before making a charge at the end for the gold medal. You can see America’s Lindsey Jacobellis hot-dog it on the way to the finish line like she did in 2006 and lose the gold medal. In a sport most people probably see as reckless, there are rewards for patience and strategy. I have definitely adopted snowboard cross as one of my favorites. They have some other kinds of racing later in the Games so I hope I enjoy them just as much.