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≡ EARTHQUAKE COMING? ≡
Ahead of this week’s International Olympic Committee Executive Board meeting in Lausanne (SUI), Japan’s Kyodo News reported Sunday on decisions on major issues being studied under President Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) and her “Fit For the Future” program.
● Quoting a source “close to the matter,” the story noted that the idea of allowing some new sports into the Olympic Winter Games such as cross country and cyclo-cross will not be allowed and that the current Olympic Charter regulations requiring Winter Games sports to be held on snow or ice will be maintained.
While World Athletics and the Union Cycliste Internationale have been pushing for years to have these sports – generally held during the fall and winter months – to be allowed in the Winter Games, the winter-sport federations have been pushing back. Among other issues, if these sports were allowed, both World Athletics and the UCI would be in line for a share of the IOC television revenue distribution from the Winter Games.
The winter-sport federations are not interested in that.
● The Olympic program, which has exploded to an all-time high of 36 sports for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, is set to be trimmed for Brisbane 2032.
The story noted a “a significant reduction in the number of sports due to financial concerns” and, moreover, even those sports which remain on the program could see cuts in disciplines or events.
Coventry’s “Fit For the Future” program, announced last September, includes working groups on commercial partnerships and marketing; the Olympic program; protection of the female category, and the Youth Olympic Games. The IOC Executive Board announced in March the adoption of a program of sex-testing with a one-time SRY gene screening required to compete in the female category, beginning with the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Under prior leader Thomas Bach (GER), the IOC adopted the “Olympic Agenda 2020″ and “Olympic Agenda 2020+5″ to try and deal with “gigantism” and the growth of the Games, which included 21 medal sports in 1972-76-80-84, then has grown enormously:
● 23 in 1988: Seoul
● 25 in 1992: Barcelona
● 26 in 1996: Atlanta
● 28 in 2000: Sydney-2004 Athens-2008 Beijing
● 26 in 2012: London
● 28 in 2016: Rio de Janeiro
● 33 in 2020: Tokyo
● 32 in 2024: Paris
● 36 in 2028: Los Angeles
Brisbane 2032 agreed in its bid to host 28 sports, reflecting the 2016 program; LA28 agreed to add skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing and then asked to add five more: baseball and softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash, for a total of 36.
Coventry has hinted at sports cuts, saying in a March news conference that some people will not be happy. More details of the possible cuts could come after Wednesday’s Executive Board session and certainly at Thursday’s news conference.
● The Kyodo story also stated that its Esports Commission has been put “on hold,” indicating a move away from an Olympic Esports Games, or any clear cooperation with the e-sports community.
This was also a major initiative by Bach, with formalized discussions, an IOC “ESports Series” and other programs and a 12-year agreement with the National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia to host an “Olympic Esports Games.” That was canceled in October 2025.
Kyodo source(s) were not named but were called “close to the matter.”
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