Here’s what the IOC says about summer sports at the Winter Games

The proposal had the backing of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee leaders but was later formally opposed by the international federations over the traditional winter Olympic sports — biathlon, bobsled and skeleton, hockey, luge, skating, ski and snowboard, and curling.

Coventry said the working group focused on the Olympic program, one of now nine formed to make the IOC “Fit for the Future,” is reviewing how sports and events would be added to — and subtracted from — both Summer and Winter Games.

“What would that look like? How could there be more fluidity in that program? So we are looking at it,” she said, adding the powerful IOC Executive Board spent a lot of time discussing the issue Thursday.

“We feel we need to regain the control of the program. We’re the leaders. This is our product, so we should regain that control,” Coventry said. “We should figure out how we want potentially new sports, innovative sports and disciplines to come on to the program.”

At the same time, the IOC is grappling with the growth of the Games. She pointed out while there were 26 sports at London’s 2012 Summer Games, when Los Angeles hosts in 2028 that number will hit 36.

The L.A. Games will feature a long list of new sports: flag football, baseball, softball, lacrosse, squash and cricket, intended to attract new audiences worldwide. At this year’s Winter Games in Italy, the largely European sport of ski mountaineering was showcased.

“We’re also under the very big realization that we just can’t continue to just get bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger. That’s not the answer, either,” Coventry said.

IOC Sports Director Pierre Ducrey told reporters the process for including and excluding future sports and disciplines that is being designed by the working group will be the same for Summer and Winter Games.

“We’ve already decided the sports program for 2030. In June, we will finalize the disciplines, the events and the (athlete) quota,” Ducrey said. “When it comes to subsequent editions of the Games on the winter side, we have not yet set the calendar for the review.”

Still, he said the working group has made it clear that for future Winter Games, they want the IOC to “be looking as much as possible in advance so we can give clarity” on “what the program is going to be” to Games organizers as well as others.

The IOC’s full membership is set to meet in June to consider proposals from the “Fit for the Future” effort also looking at topics including Olympic Games delivery, commercial partnerships and marketing, and building a better world through sport.

In March, the IOC announced a new policy that bars transgender women from competing in the Olympics, the result of the work done by the highest-profile group, charged with protecting the female category.