"It's huge, it's huge!! We're so happy," French snowboarder Julia Pereira de Sousa Mabileau gushed after her race on Saturday.

Although she and her teammate Loan Bozzolo were eliminated in the quarter-finals, they had just taken part in the first ever snowboard cross mixed team event at the Olympics and the significance was not lost on her.

"Snowboarding is really developing and we're really happy about that," the 2018 Olympic silver medalist told CGTN. "We all fight to succeed in the World Cup, but it's also a fight for our sport because ... we would really like snowboarding to grow and to be taken seriously."

"Since it's been at the Olympics, I think it is [taken seriously] ... but to have an additional event, and on top of that an event that we athletes love, is huge!"

Read more: 

'Oldies' Jacobellis, Baumgartner win Olympic gold in snowboard cross mixed team debut

Snowboard cross is just one of four mixed events that were added to this year's Olympic program.

Since Sochi in 2014, nine events teaming male and female athletes have been included in the Winter Games, including biathlon, figure skating, luge, curling and alpine skiing.

And athletes have raved about getting more opportunities not just to medal but to show what they are capable of.

"For us riders, it's wonderful, it gives us a second chance, otherwise you really only get one chance at a medal every four years, and there's a lot of pressure," said Austrian snowboarder Alessandro Haemmerle, who won gold in the men's snowboard cross before going into the team event. "It's just a bit of a bonus and it's really fun.”

Mixed teams are a welcome change in sports where athletes usually compete on their own, creating a close bond between teammates who rise and fall together, and taking some of the pressure off during the competition, although it can also add some nerves.

"Usually we race individually," said Haemmerle. "But in the team, it's a completely different vibe at the top [of the mountain]. It's a nice feeling to know someone's got your back."

"You're doing the jump by yourself but the team is relying on you so there was a whole new level of stress," Ashley Caldwell of Team USA noted after winning the gold of the first free ski aerials mixed team event at the Olympics on Thursday.

Nevertheless, she insisted: "It's a very fun and different atmosphere."

Read more:  Mixed team aerials takes flight at Beijing Olympics

For some of the younger, less established sports, having more events at the Olympics, will raise their profile and with this, the hope for more funding.

"At Olympics, everyone is watching you, when they see another event in aerials, it pushes your sport and that's good for us," noted Pirmin Werner, who came fourth in the aerials team event with Switzerland.

"It's a totally different competition [to individual events] and for nations that have a super strong male athlete but perhaps not such a strong female one, or vice-versa, it gives extra motivation to fund the other gender," added Swiss snowboard cross rider Kalle Koblet.

Read more: 

Germany goes for gold as ski jumping mixed team makes its Olympic debut

The scenes of joy at the mixed events for luge, freestyle skiing aerials or snowboard cross over the past week, with teammates hugging and falling on top of each other in celebration, illustrated just how much emotion goes into these competitions and what a great spectacle they can be for audiences watching live or thousands of kilometers away on television.

"It's incredibly cool!" Austrian ski jumper Eva Pinkelnig raved of the new mixed team event in her sport last week. "It's a really important next step, we've seen that these are just always cool competitions, also at world championships, and the next step to Olympic Games is super important."

"We mustn't forget that our sport is incredible, that it attracts people, and people are totally behind us," added French snowboarder Loan Bozzolo.

Competing in a team "just gives a bit more motivation sometimes," added snowboard cross world champion Charlotte Bankes of Britain, and "it's great racing to watch as well.”

The Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics have been touted as the most gender-balanced in history, with female athletes making up over 45 percent of the total and more women's events included than ever before.

Mixed team events have been part of this push, to the delight of long-time campaigners.

"I've always been a huge proponent of women in sport and just empowering women in general. And I've always pushed myself to do harder tricks to show the world that women can do it," Caldwell said following her team gold.

"To have more women in sport at a high level is great for the world and empowering people around the world to respect women and to be in sports, that's incredible.”

But of course, "there's always room to develop," she noted.

"We're definitely going to push the degree of difficulty in the next few years," aerials mixed team bronze medalist Marion Thenault of Canada also vowed.

Women's ski jumping, which was only added to the Olympic program in 2014, "is getting stronger and stronger," noted silver medalist Katharina Althaus of Germany.

To now have a second ski jumping competition with women at the Winter Games, in the form of the mixed team event, "it's the right direction and I hope for more," she said. "It's great for our sport."

Across the board, all athletes CGTN spoke to were unanimous: mixed team events are just great fun. And if they advance the sport and women's representation, the more the better.

(Reporting from Zhangjiakou)