BBC: The Future of the Winter Olympics (Interactive Feature)

[StefanMUC]

5 hours ago, Gonzo said:

Reddit post (so take with grain of salt) saying that 2034 will be the last games with sliding sports included

12 years until the first ones without a guaranteed flood of German medals then.

Should be enough time for a country to come up with a concept. After all, it’s worked so well with all the failed Olympic bids for the last 40 years…

[JMarkSnow2012]

13 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

Yeah, snd I think the IOC has already shown it’s wiling, if not encouraged, the use of existing tracks even in other countries. It was only the stubbornness snd pride of the Italians that stopped bobsled in 2026 being in Lake Placid. I doubt it will be chopped.

Why Lake Placid? There's a much closer one at Sochi.

 

Oh, wait ....

[sebastien1214]

Generally, I'm a very iconoclastic, avant-garde person, etc., etc... but I have to admit I really struggle with the idea of moving certain sports from the Summer Olympics to the Winter Olympics.

At a push, the only "summer" sport I could see at the Winter Games would be climbing. Not necessarily mountain climbing; even climbing in its current Summer Olympic format, I wouldn't mind seeing it at the Winter Olympics. But for the rest...

[Rob2012]

13 hours ago, yoshi said:

Not as big a shame as losing skeleton  Any source for this, because I really don't like the idea of putting summer sports in there either...

 GamesBids.com 

https://gamesbids.com/eng/robs-bidblog/milano-cortina-2026-closes-with-a-ceremony-of-understated-art-and-culture-but-the-next-chapter-of-the-winter-olympics-is-unclear/

Edited February 23 by Rob2012

[Rob2012]

12 hours ago, Faster said:

Does not make sense when the next 3 hosts all have active sliding centres.

Feels like one obvious thing they could do, if venue costs are a concern, would be to make sliding sports optional* rather than simply axing them.

* and hope no country threatens a boycott if a host decides not to include them!

Edited February 23 by Rob2012

[Faster]

Again does not make sense to remove sliding when any and every potential host has access to a track.

Norway - Lillehammer

Sweden - Lillehammer or Sigunda

Germany - pick one

Switzerland - St Moritz

Austria - Igls

Italy - Cortina

France - La Plagne

Canada - Whistler or renovated Calgary

USA - Park City or Lake Placid

Japan - Pyeongchang or redevelopment of Nagano

China - Xiaohaitou

Korea - Pyeongchang

Kazakhstan - Sochi 

Russia - Sochi

And those are the only countries that can host.

[StefanMUC]

1 hour ago, Faster said:

Again does not make sense to remove sliding when any and every potential host has access to a track.

Norway - Lillehammer

Sweden - Lillehammer or Sigunda

Germany - pick one

Switzerland - St Moritz

Austria - Igls

Italy - Cortina

France - La Plagne

Canada - Whistler or renovated Calgary

USA - Park City or Lake Placid

Japan - Pyeongchang or redevelopment of Nagano

China - Xiaohaitou

Korea - Pyeongchang

Kazakhstan - Sochi 

Russia - Sochi

And those are the only countries that can host.

As far as I understand it, it’s not just about the hosts, but also the costs to participate in sliding sports, which are clearly very high and prevent more “universality”.

Though if we want to take that as a measure, apart from cross country skiing maybe almost all winter sports are rather costly to perform at Olympics standard levels (and even in CC, wax and other equipment will be a cost factor).

Same goes for quite a number of summer sports too.

[yoshi]

I don't think they need to be dumped from the programme - just impose a rule that the organising committee has to use the closest existing track to the host city. So Slovenia (a country that could theoretically host btw) would have to use the track at Cortina, & that way Italy gets its track used & Slovenia doesn't have to make its own. I feel like the sliding track is the only winter venue you'd have to do this for. 

(Should add if another country, like say Kazakhstan wants to use its own money to build a track for itself outside of the Olympics, that's their choice - it just means another one gets added to the list of tracks to choose from for Olympic candidates in future. What they want to avoid is building facilities just for the Olympics that won't be used after)

Edited February 23 by yoshi

[Faster]

3 hours ago, StefanMUC said:

As far as I understand it, it’s not just about the hosts, but also the costs to participate in sliding sports, which are clearly very high and prevent more “universality”.

Though if we want to take that as a measure, apart from cross country skiing maybe almost all winter sports are rather costly to perform at Olympics standard levels (and even in CC, wax and other equipment will be a cost factor).

Same goes for quite a number of summer sports too.

On the whole the sliding sports have good representation across the main regions that participate in winter sport. As for competitiveness. If the sliding sports are out for competitiveness so should diving, badminton and table tennis be as well on the summer side.

[FYI]

Quote

(Should add if another country, like say Kazakhstan wants to use its own money to build a track for itself outside of the Olympics, that's their choice - it just means another one gets added to the list of tracks to choose from for Olympic candidates in future. What they want to avoid is building facilities just for the Olympics that won't be used after)

They should probably build their own anyway, cause who knows if Sochi would ever be an option for them (or anyone else for that matter), considering the current geopolitical climate. But by the time if/when they might host, it might not be an issue anymore. Of course they could also maybe use China's. But that's also a bit further than Sochi.

[FYI]

18 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

Yeah, snd I think the IOC has already shown it’s wiling, if not encouraged, the use of existing tracks even in other countries. It was only the stubbornness snd pride of the Italians that stopped bobsled in 2026 being in Lake Placid.

I don't get how this was ever even considered. When there's literally half-a-dozen other choices right in Italy's own backyard, comparatively speaking.

[krow]

3 hours ago, Faster said:

On the whole the sliding sports have good representation across the main regions that participate in winter sport. As for competitiveness. If the sliding sports are out for competitiveness so should diving, badminton and table tennis be as well on the summer side.

i mean, to be fair, it is a pretty massive advantage to be a slider and live in your own country with its own sliding track. germany will always have an advantage over jamaica - cool runnings addressed this directly - because jamaicans have to live part of the year in jamaica to see their families. the training barriers to badminton, table tennis, and even diving are much lower. 

like, do not make me live in calgary or lake placid?????

but then again, germany could go a lot harder on the track & field like jamaica, so it's really where you want to invest.

Edited February 23 by krow

[Karenina]

14 hours ago, Bear said:

I was under the impression that the Winter IFs strongly objected to the presence of summer sports at the Winter Olympics? I could have sworn Coventry or another IOC figure had mentioned that in a previous press conference...

The Winter Sports federations have, indeed, objected to the inclusion of Summer Olympics disciplines at the Winter Olympics. 

https://www.isu.org/news/statement-by-the-winter-olympic-federations/

And, frankly, I'm with them. The ISU has been trying to get synchronized skating added to the Winter Olympics for quite some time now but the IOC's always said no because it would increase the size of the OWG & require another arena.  So, why is it now okay to shift volleyball to the OWG and ADD another arena as well as increase the number of athletes overall?  I call bull.  If Coventry wants to increase the size of the OWG there are plenty of snow/ice sports that can be added, starting with synchro.

7 hours ago, Faster said:

Again does not make sense to remove sliding when any and every potential host has access to a track.

China - Xiaohaitou

Kazakhstan - Sochi 

3 hours ago, FYI said:

They should probably build their own anyway, cause who knows if Sochi would ever be an option for them (or anyone else for that matter), considering the current geopolitical climate. But by the time if/when they might host, it might not be an issue anymore. Of course they could also maybe use China's. But that's also a bit further than Sochi.

Looking at a map, it seems like it's six of one, half dozen of another for Kazakhstan to choose between Sochi and the Yanqing Nat'l Sliding Centre.  Neither are a short flight away from a potential host (presumably Almaty) city.  Right now, geopolitically, I'd wager on the Chinese track being the choice for Kazakh organizers rather than Sochi.

[Sir Rols]

7 hours ago, StefanMUC said:

As far as I understand it, it’s not just about the hosts, but also the costs to participate in sliding sports, which are clearly very high and prevent more “universality”.

Though if we want to take that as a measure, apart from cross country skiing maybe almost all winter sports are rather costly to perform at Olympics standard levels (and even in CC, wax and other equipment will be a cost factor).

Same goes for quite a number of summer sports too.

Jen’s article (predictably, as a German) goes into that a lot more, basically laying out the vast sums that Germany outlays annually on the sliding sports. But as you say, nations throw their money at where their interests Kay and where they get good returns.

And yeah, lots of summer sports you can point to as well that are elitist and require expensive, white-elephant prone venues. Take whitewater sports, where Brisbane is powering along to build, against many experts’ advice, Australia’s second white water centre. But opposition gets muted, because Jessica Fox is currently the country’s golden girl national darling.

i’m quite open to looking at ways to rein-in the Olympic gargantuism. But I think these proposals sound like, as someone above said something similar but I can’t find now, trimming fingernails with a chainsaw.

i’m really interested who’s been leaking these proposals to Jens, and Duncan, and GBMod - is it the IOC itself to test the waters and soften-up opposition before June, or is it the winter federation trying to get the outrage and opposition going?

[Faster]

They'd have to change the IOC constitution to add sports not on ice or snow to the OWGs. I think the winter version has a lot going for it when it comes to venue management. Almost every build is for at least 4 medal events. Nordic Combined gets a lot of flake but it is using venues that would exist anyway and provides for more ticketing. 

I would leave things generally as they are currently with adding women's Nordic Combined. Work with sliding to replace monobob with a 4 women version. Add in ski cross team. Ice cross. Call it a day. Oh and unify biathlon distances like cross country has.

I don't support synchro skating anymore because I think synchro swimming should be cut.

Edited February 24 by Faster

[StefanMUC]

12 hours ago, Faster said:

On the whole the sliding sports have good representation across the main regions that participate in winter sport. As for competitiveness. If the sliding sports are out for competitiveness so should diving, badminton and table tennis be as well on the summer side.

Exactly

12 hours ago, FYI said:

I don't get how this was ever even considered. When there's literally half-a-dozen other choices right in Italy's own backyard, comparatively speaking.

I never heard about it until this thread. I thought options were basically St Moritz or Innsbruck.

Oh and absolutely add women’s NC - a disgrace they’re still left out.

[Sir Rols]

14 hours ago, FYI said:

I don't get how this was ever even considered. When there's literally half-a-dozen other choices right in Italy's own backyard, comparatively speaking.

 

1 hour ago, StefanMUC said:

I never heard about it until this thread. I thought options were basically St Moritz or Innsbruck.

I thought that was common knowledge here. They were the ones most specifically mentioned as being on stand-by, at least until the cortina track looked like it was going to be finished in time in the latter parts if last year.

i’ve got no idea why Lake Placid was the one either - I can only guess they were the ones who were actively lobbying most openly.

[FYI]

Now that you mention it, I prob remember some GB's articles mentioning as such. I just don't keep a lot of this stuff in my memory bank anymore. GB's is not my be-all, end-all anymore like it once was. 

[Brekkie Boy]

Axing the sliding sports and putting some indoor summer events into the Winter Games would be about as dumb as they can get.   I'd say Bobsleigh is one of the first sports you think about when you think about the Winter Olympics and it's one that goes beyond the traditional mountainous countries when it comes to participation.   Nobody wants to see the Jamaican Bobsleigh team replaced by a Jamaican Handball team.

 

These for me have been the most successful Winter Games in a generation and they need to be preserved as best we can, not torn apart.

[Bear]

tuned into para biathlon, first thought that ran in my head the moment the stream started was "holy sh-t". everything except for the course itself is dirt brown, no snow whatsoever other than the very top of the mountains. kind of depressing to see, but i do see that there'll be "light" snow on monday so hopefully conditions improve...

[Faster]

I don't mind the thought that the Olympics should be moved forward into January. Have 2030 run January 18 to February 3. Para 13th to 24th. 

[SkiFreak]

On 3/9/2026 at 12:50 PM, Faster said:

I don't mind the thought that the Olympics should be moved forward into January. Have 2030 run January 18 to February 3. Para 13th to 24th. 

CBC covered it today in an article. Lots of complaints from the para-athletes about the slushy spring conditions.

CBC News March 11, 2026: Calls grow for Paralympics to be moved earlier as slushy conditions cause chaos

I know from skiing Nakiska (88 Olympics alpine venue) that once March hit, the snow was crap. Heavy, especially the bottom quarter of the ski area. 75%-85% of the snow at Nakiska was manmade and it really got heavy in March.

[yoshi]

I mean it is literally spring. I doubt there'll be any snow left before long. Having it earlier would help the sports capitalise on the Olympics too, there'd be more of their regular seasons left after the Games to attract new fans to. 

[Josh0108]

Weren't the conditions just as bad, if not, worse in 2014 for both Olympics and Paralympics? Doesn't help that a resort city was the host.