The International Olympic Committee may bring five new events to the 2030 Winter Olympic Games in France.
In just four days, the 2026 Winter Olympic Games will come to an end as the closing ceremony takes place on 22 February 2026 at Verona Arena in Verona, Italy.
After two weeks of exciting action during 116 medal events across 16 disciplines and eight sports, the 2026 Winter Olympics has set records as the most-viewed in history.
Naturally, such a surge in popularity has already got some fans looking ahead to the next Winter Olympics, set to take place from 1 to 17 February 2030 in the French Alps region of France.
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But before plans for the next Winter Olympics are finalised, it has been reported that as many as five new events could be added to the multi-sport competition.
The venues for the 2030 Winter Olympics will be split between clusters in Nice, Briancon, Haute-Savoie, and Savoie.
Ahead of the competition getting underway, Edgar Grospiron, President of the French Alps Organising Committee for the 2030 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, will have to decide which events will make up the schedule.
The decision will need to be made quickly in order for plans for the 2030 Games to start being put in place, and that's not something that is lost on Grospiron who has said that six options could be added to the next Winter Olympics.
Last year, Grospiron explained plans to visit popular ski resort Val d'Isere to explore plans to bring extra events to the destination.
Speaking to French outlet of Le Dauphine, he said: "We will work calmly and study everything on the table with ski mountaineering, speed skiing, telemark, even cross-country or cyclo-cross and why not ice-cross. After that we will have to budget."
For the first time, ski mountaineering is set to feature in the Winter Olympics on Thursday, but the remaining five sports listed by Grospiron remain possible additions for 2030.
Of the five, various reports have suggested that cross-country running and cyclo-cross are the most likely to be added to the Winter Olympics.
According to British Olympics legend and World Athletics president Sebastian Coe, the two sports are closer than ever to being added to the 2030 Games thanks to support from the new IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, and the UCI president, David Lappartient.
“I think there’s a good chance it’ll happen,” Coe said in October.
“And I think it’s come at the right moment, because Kirsty is certainly prepared to think differently about the programme, and what could go out of the stadium, and that mix between winter and summer.”
“I’ve always wanted to see cross-country back in for all sorts of reasons. Some are emotional. But it also gives Africa a proper presence in the winter Games, which, if we are being honest, it doesn’t really have.
“And sharing the same course in 2030 with cyclocross is really where our thinking is going. We’ve already had good conversations."
Ben McCrum