Olympic Alpine Skiing Team Event Schedule 2018: Live Stream, TV Guide and Picks

The inaugural Alpine skiing team event will take place on Saturday (Friday in the United States) at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The mixed event will see two men and two women from each country taking on other teams in knockout competition comprised of a series of head-to-head parallel slalom races.

Viewers in the United States can catch the action via NBC, while iEurosport and the BBC are providing TV coverage in the UK.

Here is the full schedule:

2 a.m. GMT/9 p.m. ET (Friday): 1/8 Final 1

2:06 a.m. GMT/9:06 p.m. ET (Friday): 1/8 Final 2

2:11 a.m. GMT/9:11 p.m. ET (Friday): 1/8 Final 3

2:17 a.m. GMT/9:17 p.m. ET (Friday): 1/8 Final 4

2:22 a.m. GMT/9:22 p.m. ET (Friday): 1/8 Final 5

2:28 a.m. GMT/9:28 p.m. ET (Friday): 1/8 Final 6

2:33 a.m. GMT/9:33 p.m. ET (Friday): 1/8 Final 7

2:39 a.m. GMT/9:39 p.m. ET (Friday): 1/8 Final 8

2:45 a.m. GMT/9:45 p.m. ET (Friday): Quarter-final 1

2:51 a.m. GMT/9:51 p.m. ET (Friday): Quarter-final 2

2:56 a.m. GMT/9:56 p.m. ET (Friday): Quarter-final 3

3:02 a.m. GMT/10:02 p.m. ET (Friday): Quarter-final 4

3:10 a.m. GMT/10:10 p.m. ET (Friday): Semi-final 1

3:19 a.m. GMT/10:19 p.m. ET (Friday): Semi-final 2

3:28 a.m. GMT/10:28 p.m. ET (Friday): Small final

3:34 a.m. GMT/10:34 p.m. ET (Friday): Big final

The action can be streamed via the NBC Sports app (U.S.), BBC iPlayer and Eurosport Player (UK).

The team event should make for an exciting competition, with the knockout format enhancing that further.

The teams will score a point for each head-to-head win in their matchup, and the nation with the most points after each of their four members has raced will advance to the next round.

Should two nations tie in their match, it will come down to whichever team recorded the quickest combined time.

However, the new event has already hit some speed bumps before it has begun, as a number of top competitors have announced they will not be taking part having focused on their individual events and the resumption of the World Cup next week, per Reuters' Nick Mulvenney.

The absence of top stars such as Mikaela Shiffrin, Marcel Hirscher and Aksel Lund Svindal could make it a more open field, but having won gold in this event at the 2017 Alpine World Ski Championships, France have an excellent chance of at least making the final here.

FIS Alpine shared a look at their victory:

They will have to do so without Mathieu Faivre—who anchored them to victory last year—though, after he was sent home by the French Olympic team, per HuffPost:

Austria, despite missing Hirscher—who took gold in the giant slalom and combined events in Pyeongchang—will also have their sights on a medal, as they top the Overall Nations Cup standings, handing them top-seed status.

They're on the other side of the draw to France, so the pair could conceivably meet one another in the final and wrap up gold and silver between them.

Slovakia took silver behind France at the World Championships, so they too could be in medal contention.

Picks: France (Gold), Austria (Silver), Slovakia (Bronze)