Cross-country running joins forces with cyclo-cross in Winter Olympic bid
It has been 100 years since cross-country running was in the Olympics. The sport was part of the 1924 Games in Paris but has not been staged since. A campaign to see it reinstated has rumbled along for years and now, finally, the finish line could be in sight.
Cross-country running looks set to join forces with cyclo-cross with both disciplines sharing a venue at the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps.
Speaking at the World Athletics press conference in Paris on Thursday (Aug 1), the governing body’s president, Seb Coe, said: “There is the potential around the co-creation of a two-sport option with cyclo-cross. We’ve had good discussions but there is a lot of detail still to be sorted.”
Coe has been talking to David Lappartient, the president of the world governing body for cycling (UCI), about teaming up with cyclo-cross. The sport of cyclo-cross has a big following in France, Belgium and the Netherlands in particular and, like cross-country running, largely takes place on hilly and muddy ground with riders often getting off their bikes to negotiate tough sections that are difficult to ride.
Coe says cross-country running would potentially use the same course as cyclo-cross. “We’d welcome a bit of jeopardy,” he added.
“I’ve always wanted to see cross country back,” Coe continued. “It’s obviously more at home in the winter. It’s historically and traditionally a winter sport.
“Importantly for me it gives Africa an opportunity to have a serious part of the Winter Games. So we’ll see where we get to but there’s a lot of goodwill. I certainly want it and David is very keen.”
On the 1924 Games, Coe added: “Cross country was removed after those Games due to the heat conditions and not helped by a factory being right next to the course. If the athletes didn’t collapse with heat exhaustion, they went down with asphyxia.”
He continued: “It wasn’t ideal and hasn’t been back since then. But we’re talking about a Winter Games here.
“To use a cricket analogy there’s more than an outside edge of a chance that we can get this across the line.”
The campaign to get cross-country running into the Olympics began in earnest back in 2008 when Haile Gebrselasssie and Paul Tergat wrote a joint letter to the International Olympic Committee asking for its inclusion.
In recent years Coe has pushed for it to be in the Games but attempts to get a mixed relay into the 2024 Paris Games did not come off.
“When I joined my first athletics club, Hallamshire Harriers," Coe added, "my club president was Joe Williams, who ran in the last Olympic cross country race in Paris in 1924."
During a near-hour long press conference, Coe was asked about the men’s 1500m at the Paris Games and said: “It’s nice to see it back in the spotlight. It’s a sumptuous thought that the two best milers of their generation are in a head to head. As most people can see this is not a friendship made in heaven.”
Coe also talked about climate change and how it is likely to prompt a “A root and branch review of the calendar.”
He added: “We don’t want to turn up as an international federation to summer events with a field hospital.”
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