Will Winter Games stick to snow and ice sports?

Why add cross-country, cyclocross to the Winter Olympics?

Adding both cross-country and cyclocross to the Winter Games has been advocated by Sebastian Coe, an IOC member who also heads World Athletics, the international federation for track and field.

Last October, Coe told Britain’s Guardian newspaper there was “a provisional plan” to hold cross-country and cyclocross on the same course during the 2030 Winter Games, and that moving some Summer Games sports held indoors there was also being considered.

“I think there’s a good chance it’ll happen,” Coe said, noting that the addition of a track and field event “also gives Africa a proper presence in the Winter Games, which, if we are being honest, it doesn’t really have.”

The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee backed the proposal, citing similar reasons.

“It’s logical and it’s the right thing to do,” Sarah Hirshland, the U.S. committee’s CEO, told reporters during the Team USA Media Summit to preview the 2026 Winter Games that were held in Milan Cortina, Italy.

Even a Utah state lawmaker has suggested adding cross-country to the state’s next Olympics.

After running in a public marathon race during the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, Utah Senate Majority Assistant Whip Mike McKell told the Deseret News a cross-country running event could be held in a place like St. George, far from the rest of Games.

How winter sports leaders reacted

But winter sports federations balked at the additions. In a statement last November, the federations over traditional winter sports — biathlon, bobsled and skeleton, hockey, luge, skating, ski and snowboard, and curling — opposed what they called a “piecemeal” proposal.

“The Winter Olympic Federations are firm in our belief that such an approach would dilute the brand, heritage, and identity that make the Olympic Winter Games unique — a celebration of sports practiced on snow and ice, with distinct culture, athletes, and fields of play,” it said.

Adding the two sports would make World Athletics and the international cycling federation over cyclocross eligible to share in the revenues from the IOC’s sale of broadcast rights to the Winter Games, The Sports Examiner’s Rich Perelman pointed out.

“The winter sport federations are not interested in that,” Perelman said in Tuesday post.

Organizers of Utah’s 2034 Winter Games have had little to say about the proposed additions. More sports, however, means more complexity and costs for an event that already has a $4 billion price tag.