World Athletics president Seb Coe confirms there are promising talks around the two sports being staged on same course at the 2030 Games in France
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.”
Jacob Kiplimo (Getty)
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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