Winter Olympics sports resist push to add cyclocross and cross-country running to their program

Those would be unwelcome “piecemeal proposals,” the Winter Olympic Federations group of governing bodies said in a statement.

“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,” said the group of sports including skiing, skating, biathlon, curling, luge, bobsled and skeleton.

A review of the Winter Games program and other issues was started by International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry after she formally took office in June.

The winter program with just 116 medal events has room to expand compared with the squeezed Summer Games which had 329 in Paris last year.

Adding cyclocross and cross-country running, which typically are raced on mud, would mean amending the IOC’s Olympic Charter rules which require Winter Games sports to be played on snow and ice.

“Innovation should focus on evolving existing winter sports to attract broader participation and audiences while enhancing the appeal of the Olympic Winter Games,” said Ivo Ferriani, who represents winter sports on the IOC executive board as president of the bobsled and skeleton federation.

Ferriani noted the addition of ski mountaineering, or skimo, which makes its Olympic debut in February at the Milan Cortina Winter Games.

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