Fri, October 10, 2025
Cross-country running, cyclocross and judo possible new Winter Olympic sports, along with other new Olympic developments
In 2030, cross-country running and cyclocross may be added to the Winter Olympic Games set to take place in France, and judo may also join the Winter Games as the International Olympic Committee’s “Fit for the Future” initiative believes this would help keep the Winter Games relevant. Regarding the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games, squash is among five new sports which have been added to the programme, and changes have been made to the summer athletics schedule.
Cross-country was removed from the Olympics after 1924 due to harsh conditions at the Paris Games, causing extreme exhaustion from the heat and terrain, but it may now be readded to the Winter Games.
Two-time Olympic 1500m gold medallist and World Athletics president Sebastian Coe told The Guardian: “I think there’s a good chance it’ll happen. And I think it’s come at the right moment, because Kirsty Coventry [International Olympic Committee (IOC) president] is certainly prepared to think differently about the programme, and what could go out of the stadium, and that mix between winter and summer.”
Coe stated that he has been in discussions with Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) president David Lappartient about the possibility of cross-country and cyclocross, an offroad form of bike racing, sharing the same course in the French Alps in 2030, if both sports are officially added to the programme.
Coe stated: “I’ve always wanted to see cross-country back in for all sorts of reasons. Some are emotional. But it also gives Africa a proper presence in the Winter Games, which, if we are being honest, it doesn’t really have. And sharing the same course in 2030 with cyclocross is really where our thinking is going. We’ve already had good conversations…
David’s up for it. I’m up for it. Obviously with the IOC there would have to be a variation in the charter, because it has to be with snow and ice, and there’s not been an obvious abundance of that recently. But it is, ostensibly, a winter sport, and cross-country would make more sense in the winter.”
According to Coe, judo joining the Winter Games is also “on the table.” The IOC’s new “Fit for the Future” initiative believes that adopting traditional summer sports as winter ones may help keep the Winter Games relevant.
Regarding the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games, Coe also stated that more athletics events may take place outside of the stadium. At the recent Diamond League, an annual series of elite track and field competitions, 8,000 spectators watched field events in front of the Opera House in Zurich, which Coe believed worked very well and was “additive” to the overall experience. Athletics will also swap places with swimming on the competition calendar in the 2028 Games, bringing track and field finals forward by a week.
The Los Angeles 2028 Games will also introduce five additions to the programme: baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash.
