"I hope very much we will finalise this together with FIS before the IOC Session in July [in Kuala Lumpur]."

The Nations Team event, consisting of teams of three men and three women, was first held at the 2005 World Championships in Bormio, with Germany the inaugural winners.

Austria have since won further events in 2007 and 2013, while France were the 2011 winners, with the event from that year onwards including a parallel giant slalom format.

Bach's apparent enthusiasm for the idea comes at a time when the IOC are keen to introduce more mixed team events onto the programme in order the enhance gender equality, with bobsleigh another winter sport to have recently added mixed gender events.

Thomas Bach spoke alongside Switzerland's FIS President Gian-Franco Kasper today ©AFP/Getty Images



Speaking today as part of a United States tour which has already included a visit to the Superbowl, and will include meetings with officials from Boston's 2024 Olympic and Paralympic bid, Bach also praised other skiing events which made their debuts at Sochi 2014.

Responding to a question about the big air event in freestyle, Bach said you "could see the success of the new events by the television figures and the excitement they brought to all the spectators".

He added that this innovation "was one of the secrets of the success" of the Winter Games.

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