As expected the International Olympic Committee has ruled out adding summer sports to the Winter Games — but only for 2030.
Does that mean a decision is yet to be made on whether events like cross-country running, cyclocross, and even sports like judo that are already part of the Summer Games program could be part of Utah’s 2034 Winter Games?
“You’re exactly right,” IOC President Kirsty Coventry responded during a virtual news conference Thursday that followed an IOC Executive Board meeting. “For 2030, we have taken the decision, no crossover sports, no summer sports.”
But Coventry, who took office nearly a year ago, said the group of experts she’s assigned to review the Olympic program to help control the cost and complexity of the Games, “in Phase 2 of their work, will look at all avenues, and yes, that would then potentially lend itself to 2034.”
Her clarification follows a report by Japan’s Kyodo News that IOC leaders had determined “they will stick to the Olympic Charter’s statement of ‘only those sports which are practiced on snow or ice are considered as winter sports’ for the foreseeable future.”
There had been a push for cross-country and cyclocross, which combines road cycling, mountain biking and steeplechase, to be put on the program for the next Winter Games, being held in the French Alps, or possibly Utah’s 2034 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.
An end to ‘bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger’ Games?
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.
What Utah leaders are saying about the 2034 Games
Utah’s Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games have had little to say about the possibility of summer sports being added to what will be the state’s second Games.
Fraser Bullock, the organizing committee’s president and executive chair, has said Utah will follow the IOC’s lead. Thursday, Bullock said there’s “nothing to say at this point. We are still a long ways out from our Games.”
Bullock said the issue was not raised during a Wednesday meeting between Utah’s Olympic organizers and Gov. Spencer Cox. This time around, it’s the state, not Salt Lake City, that’s the official host of the privately funded Games that have a $4 billion price tag.
The meeting was called “to discuss long-term ideas and opportunities” that could elevate the 2034 Games while leaving a lasting legacy for Utah, according to the governor’s spokesman, Robert Carroll.
“The conversation focused on how the Games can help advance major statewide priorities, including transportation, outdoor recreation, youth engagement, and the continued stewardship of the Great Salt Lake,” Carroll said.
Cox, he said, “emphasized that Utah has a unique opportunity to think boldly over the next eight years and explore ways the Games can inspire innovation, strengthen statewide participation, and showcase Utah’s spirit and qualify of life to a global audience.”