“These are exciting, entertaining events that perfectly complement the existing events on the sports program, bring added appeal, and increase the number of women participating at the Games,’’ president Jacques Rogge said after the IOC’s executive board also approved men’s and women’s ski halfpipe, a biathlon mixed relay, and team events in figure skating and luge.

The committee still may add slopestyle events in freestyle skiing and snowboarding as well as an Alpine team event, and will make a decision later this spring. The new menu items, which already have been contested at world championships, were deemed ready for inclusion because they meet the desired requirements of geographic universality, gender equity, and youth appeal. Besides increasing the number of female athletes in the Games, the new events can be conducted at existing facilities or venues that are easily created or modified.

With the addition of women’s jumping, Nordic combined, a blend of jumping and cross-country skiing, will be the only all-male event in the Games. “It’s a relief,’’ said US jumper Lindsey Van, who won the world title two years ago. “We worked really hard for this. It feels really good to finally finish it.’’

After the event was twice rejected by the IOC for the Vancouver Games because of its limited number of elite competitors, a group of international jumpers mounted a legal challenge that ultimately was spurned by the Supreme Court of Canada.

“At the time you had a handful of really good jumpers,’’ said IOC sports director Christophe Dubi. “If you compare 2009 and 2011, you have a really wide increase of technical capability.’’

Ski halfpipe, which is a freestyle version of the popular snowboarding event, has been a staple of the Winter X Games, as are the slopestyle disciplines. The mixed biathlon relay, which has two male and two female racers on each team, is part of the world championships. The luge relay, which includes a men’s and women’s single and a men’s double, is contested both on the World Cup circuit and at the global championships. And figure skating two years ago established a team event for one man, one woman, one pair, and one dance couple.

While the events will be new to the program, the medals are likely to be scooped up by the traditional winter powers in those sports. Based on this season’s results, the Austrians will be favored in women’s jumping, the Germans in the luge relay, the Norwegians in the biathlon relay, and the Canadians in the men’s and women’s ski halfpipe.

The Americans, though, figure to pick up a handful of medals. While the team skating event scheduled for Yokohama next week was canceled after the Japanese earthquake/tsunami, the US dominated the 2009 competition with Evan Lysacek and dancers Tanith Belbin and Benjamin Agosto winning golds. At this year’s world freestyle championships, Jennifer Hudak earned silver and Simon Dumont of Bethel, Maine, bronze in the ski halfpipe events.

Material from wire services was used in this report. John Powers can be reached at jpowers@globe.com.