MILAN — As the Milan Cortina Games near a close, ski mountaineering will make its debut as an Olympic discipline. The organizing committee became the first Winter Games host to put forward a discipline just for its edition of the Games, something the IOC has allowed hosts to do in recent years.
If others in the movement have their say, there might be other new — and unconventional — sports added to the Winter Games.
Under new president Kirsty Coventry, the IOC has launched “Fit for the Future,” a process for reforming the movement. The Olympic program working group has drawn particular attention, especially as sports like cyclo-cross and cross country (running, not skiing) have been proposed.
With the Summer Games growing ever bigger — with more than 11,000 athletes expected to compete in L.A. — and the smaller Winter Games facing threats from climate change, the movement is primed for shakeup. How radical a change remains to be seen.
“I just think we’re at a really good crossroads right now to be able to analyze that,” Coventry said. “The Olympic program group are working really hard on trying to come up with different ways forward on how do we analyze and what does that look like? And one thing that is standing out is that as soon as we start adding venues ... that’s when you start adding complexities and costs.”
As reports of potential additions have emerged, the heads of the international federations for winter sports have publicly opposed adding non-Olympic disciplines from summer sport federations.
David Lappartient, an IOC member and the president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), said the French Alps could put forward cyclo-cross for its program in four years.
“I fully also recognize the value of ice and snow,” he said. “I also understand my colleagues from the Winter Olympic federations, they don’t want to dilute in something that is kind of mixed. They are the DNA, but we can bring our source of fresh air also to the Winter Games.”
Winter sports ... without snow?
Indeed, the Olympic charter would potentially need to be changed should the IOC seriously consider those sports. As is, it requires sports in the Winter Games to be practiced on ice or snow.
That would seemingly rule out other summer Olympic sports — like basketball or volleyball — that are typically played indoors in high schools and colleges during the winter.
IOC member Karl Stoss, who previously chaired commissions on the Winter Games and the Olympic program, said the organization could look for other ways to promote universality. As it is, the Summer Olympics have representatives from more than twice as many national Olympic committees as the Winter Games.
“We will lose the identity of winter sports, for example, if we bring summer spots to the winter sport editions,” Stoss said.
The IOC is expected to make its recommendations during its session in June. That would be in plenty of time for Utah 2034, which will start examining its sport program next year and look to have it set four or five years before those Games.
The IOC could change the core program, and organizers there could propose their own additions, as Milan Cortina did with ski mountaineering. While recognizing a need for change, many in winter sports hope those changes don’t take the Games farther away from the heart of what a Winter Olympics has been.
“I’m a traditionalist. I do like ice and the snow and outdoor elements of unpredictability,” said Aron McGuire, CEO of USA Bobsled/Skeleton. “I think that’s one of the special things about the Winter Games.”
