If Cross Country was added to Winter Olympics..... Would there be a XC Olympic Trials?

The Olympic crutch wrote:

So conversely if T&F was cut from the Olympics would it just die out?

Yes, the Olympics would die out.

i remember wrote:

runn wrote:

The XC Nationals used to be right after NCAA's. That was when they had a special race as a trials for World XC.

They cold just have an Olympic Trials race every four years.

the 1st place guy got an auto for the world team and than they had a second qualifier race in feb? to determine the rest of the team brings back memories

Right- and yes, memories.

mnbvc wrote:

Why not run the cross-country skiing loop? I could actually see the IOC going with this to make the winter olympics more inclusive, i.e. make some events Africans could win.

That's a possibility.

Running on snow and ice is an art form all it's own.

Bottom line: It wouldn't be REAL XC with the grass and the mud and the dirt, but it would still be an interesting experiment.

By definition, winter Olympic sports are determined to be so as they are played on snow or ice, not by their timing on the sports calendar. Basketball is mostly competed during the winter, but it is a summer Olympic sport. Cross country was competed in three Olympics (1912, 1920, 1924), but as a summer sport, not winter.

Cross Country racing and Track and Field competitions are the most basic, original sport of mankind.

XC/T&F originated 60,000 years ago with competitions by First Civilizations of East Africa, and later civilizations of Sudan and Southern Nile.

I love cross country but with the 800-1500-5000-10000 and marathon enduro fans are well catered for anyway.

It doesn't fit in the winter olympics and I don't really see the added value in including it in the summer. And is there appetite from the IAAF to do this? They've already reduced the world cross from a 4km and 12km event every year to 12km every two years.

We have a "snow and ice sports" Olympics. Why not introduce another Olympics where you have just "mud sports". You could have Cross Country in this Olympics and have other events such as warrior dashes and obstacle races. The public could then look forward to following three different sets of Olympics over a 4-year cycle.

How about snowshoe racing?

AJJ wrote:

Sorry to destroy all hopes of XC in the Winter Olympics but the rules show that XC can't be in the Winter Olympics. The sport must utilize some form of ice or snow to be considered to be in the Olympics.

you can run on snow

You could do gymnastics in the snow too but the sport isn't intended to.

XC would have to be a summer sport because every winter olympic sport is intended to be played on snow or ice.

Alan