When will Cross Country be an Olympic Sport?

Read your history - XC was a part of the early Games, but was removed and given its own yearly venue, World Cross.

Personally, I'd vote for adding the DMR.

Its so needed that they've had it and done away with it, along as some other track events like the 3k team race and the tug of war.

Paavo Nurumi actually won a 10k cross olympic race faster than he ran for the 10k track race he ran in the same olympics. Probably 1924, all of this is off the top of my head.

That said I could see a point for its inclusion, but don't know how far youd really get with it since cross is more of winter thing.

Because it is not a spectator friendly sport that will get people into an arena or stadium....

Maybe they could add it to the Winter Olympics then? In other Olympic sports, there is not a World Championships in an Olympic Year.

Cross Country Skiing is not Spectator friendly either, but they have that.

running in circles wrote:

Because it is not a spectator friendly sport that will get people into an arena or stadium....

There a lot of stupid BS in the Olympics that isn't spectator friendly. What's that one where they ski and then shot a gun?

That isn't spectator friendly.

Actually that gives me an idea. 12K cross race, but they have to stop every 3K and shoot clay pigeons with a rifle. That would be much better than trampoline or curling.

Winter olympic sports have to be done on snow or ice, not just in chilly weather.

They should add a snow shoe race to the Winter Olympics.

The modern pentathlon ends with a 3k cross country race. And the cool thing is, they stagger the starts according to how you've scored up to that point, so the first to finish wins the whole event. How are your pistol-shooting, fencing, swimming, and horseback-riding skills?

Ditka wrote:

running in circles wrote:

Because it is not a spectator friendly sport that will get people into an arena or stadium....

There a lot of stupid BS in the Olympics that isn't spectator friendly. What's that one where they ski and then shot a gun?

That isn't spectator friendly.

Actually that gives me an idea. 12K cross race, but they have to stop every 3K and shoot clay pigeons with a rifle. That would be much better than trampoline or curling.

Hey, leave curling out of this. As an admitted addict to MSNBC's coverage the last TWO Olympics I can't stand idly by and watch you belittle the sport. Curling is only lame until you actually WATCH it.

Hey, leave curling out of this. As an admitted addict to MSNBC's coverage the last TWO Olympics I can't stand idly by and watch you belittle the sport. Curling is only lame until you actually WATCH it.[/quote]

Reminds me of a sports quiz I was once in and the questionnaire asked 'In which sport do you lift and stroke?' Needless to say someone guy shouted out winking when of course the answer was curling. 'However, the curling delivery has evolved over the years, the no-lift delivery, when done properly will allow each player to reach their capacity.'

Another question I recall from a different quiz was about the top-scorer for France in rugby union internationals. The same guy piped up 'it can't be Jean Condom as he's in the pack': pack = scrum. Monsieur Condom (French letters!)was a famous rugby forward.

http://wesclark.com/rrr/condom.html

I couldn't care less if XC was part of the Olympic programme or not. But I do think the "race-walking" events should be dropped. They are boring, silly and their presence does a disservice to the rest of athletics. I mean, if we are going to have the 20K walk, why not have the 100m hopping or 5K skipping? The triple-jump is also deeply suspect...

There should be a road race offrom 15K to the 1/2 marathon in the beginning of the Games- apart from the track program.

It's not about onsite spectator-friendliness, but being TV-viewer friendly helps. They have mountain biking so why not XC running?

I think it's about overlap. Top runners would be forced to make a choice between track and XC. You'd probably get second-rate 10K runners in the XC. It's bad enough that the top distance guys have to choose between 5000 and 10000 or between 10000 and marathon. We don't need more Olympic disciplines for distance runners.