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

Riders climb a hill during the UCI Cyclo-Cross World Cup, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2006, in Aigle, Switzerland. | OLIVIER MAIRE 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.