Olympic Half-Marathon???

J.A. McVeigh sheds the only realistic opinion. The Olympic organizers are looking to get rid of sports, not add. So go ahead and present your xc arguments and remember you're dealing with the folks who just rescheduled the marathon for 6pm Athens time.

Let's make nearly everyone happy here: a 13.1 mile X-C race, OK? It's X-C, it's a half-marathon, it could be run partly on the roads, but mostly on grass, dirt, trails, etc. It could be flat for a few miles on the roads, and than veer off into some crazy ass hills and trails and mountains. It would be sweet.

That's all we need.

Sorry Du-can, answer your own question with the answer to this question: what do all Winter Olympic sports have in common with each other?? Snow and/or Ice. An X-C running race in snow & ice?? Not a great idea. You want a snow-shoe race I think. Good luck with that one.

it's been done before.

it has, but I just do not think you will win many converts to your idea. All the other winter sports "rely" on/are indelibly linked to snow/ice. Not X-C running. Yes, X-C skiing, or snowshoeing, but not X-C running.

what part of the country are you from, boy???

A half-marathon does not make a lot of sense, since the type of people who would run the race are also the types of people who run 10kms and Full Marathons.

Now, a 24-hour race around a dirt 400 meter oval....now that is for the real LOONIES.....exactly the type of people we need more of in the Olympics.

I think that the Japanese and Chinese would win this everytime.

All-

There is only one more T&F event that will be added in out lifetimes, and it will be done for gender equity reasons, although it is quite a few years off because of the quality & quantity of competitors right now. That event is either a 40km or 50km Race Walk for Women.

Personally, I'd love to see XC added. It belongs and it should be in the Winter Games, not Summer. Hold it on the XC Ski Courses after they are done. They do a good job of compacting the surface and it would provide a fast course. They also do it on a managable loop, just like the IAAF likes. Get some 5/8 inch spikes in those shoes and go nuts!!! One thing that could realisticly be done is to have a future OG host add it as a demonstration event, as the host is entitled to a few of these. The only way to get that to happen is to get some runner-types involved heavily with the LOC of a OG from the beginning or get the OG back in the good ol' USA.

Get rid of the 10,000 on the track and add that half marathon cross country idea (or make it 10 miles). It would be nice to have it with the Winter Olympics but it doesn't fit the mold. Then the 10K guys will have to square off against the 5K guys or go to cross country. Get rid of the steeple too. It would be nice to see all of the best runners racing each other instead of splitting up into different events.

Alright, here's the deal...we need to take the idea of an olympic XC race, in the summer games, put it on an all wooded dirt course, hose the sucker down to get it nice and sloppy, throw a few trees over the course (just for giggles), and let 'em battle. Elbows, kidney punches, and all other "inconspicuous" cheap shots are welcomed. Let's see how Kenya and Ethiopia hang in this little battle royale. Dig.

Well seeing as how the grew up doing farm labor and other work and consider toughness a key attribute (the circumscission deal for instance) and our runners grew up playing Nintendo and like to whine about things like bad weather I think they'd kick our asses, however I would greatly enjoy such a race and agree that it would kick ass.

Did Eddy grow up playing Nintendo?

I'm with ScottyD:

Running + RollerDerby = VERY HIGH TV RATINGS.

Make the course very slick like Astroglide, and ban the use of spiked or cleated shoes. the Runners must wear boxing gloves also.

Jason

So you have experience in ballroom dancing?

Mr Atari, I did not grow up playing Nintendo.I was a soccer player since age 8 and ran at the age off 14 ,never touch a computer before the age off 21.This is the way I let my kids grow up and I know they will beat all my records.Jordan Hellebuyck will be the U.S. Flagschip in 15 years from now.

Eddy

Whatever you say, Eddy. Seems like a weather-related point in Macenzie's post went over your head.

I think running an XC course on ski trails would be a bad idea. I used to XC ski in the winter for cross training and have run many times on packed snow. It is a firm surface, but not ideal for racing on. Just look how easily xc courses get chewed up, especially loops courses. The course would almost be unrunnable by the end of the race and possibly cause a lot of injuries. I am in favor of a half marathon or xc race in the Olympics though. Maybe they could use the mountain bike coure or something like it. Injuries are still possible, but it could be sanitized for running purposes.

OK, back to this. I still say the run-in-the-snow idea is not realistic. Again, did you read what I said about Winter Olympics sports?? Snow/Ice are part of their reality. One can run on ANY surface. But snow/ice is not a common racing surface, it just is not. Add snow-shoe running if you want. That is not a bad idea, and there are several of those snow-shoe events around.

For running events, the X-C event is the best idea, & a legit running event with a great history. I say make it 10 miles or half marathon distance to differentiate from 10k distance. And as we all seem to like, make it over a crazy course (ok, I eliminate my road part of the course suggestion. If you want roads, go to the marathon). Like others said, maybe over the Mountain Biking course. A true mountain type event with some crazy climbs. It would be nice to see hit all sorts of surfaces: grass, dirt, sand, mud, rocks?a little bit of everything (if it is JUST sick climbs over neck breaking descents not too many serious runners would attempt it, just X-Game nut types. So I suggest a mix of normal X-C running with some extreme stuff.)

This is the missing link of running at the Olympics that there is a legit need for.