Opinion : The IOC identity crisis

 

The IOC identity crisis

The IOC does not consider cyclocross as a sport that belongs to the Winter Olympics. According to the IOC, cyclocross is a Summer sport that doesn't happen on snow or ice. Remarkable, because in the past season we have seen more cyclocross on snow & ice in December than on dry hot surfaces in July when there is no competition at all.

The organization stays stuck to a literal old definition and suddenly doesn't show the flexibility anymore that they used to even program a 'sport' like breakdancing on their Summer games. I guess that the founding fathers of the Winter Olympics also didn't think about indoor halls when they used 'ice' as a definition to justify speed skating on their games. So it shows that this definition has been used flexibly in the past. Cyclocross doesn't require snow & ice but it has proved that it can be practised perfectly on these surfaces if the IOC wants so on their games.

One can argue that the IOC simply wants to protect their host cities against too high costs, by not hosting too many disciplines and accomodating too many athletes. But in that regard, it doesn't make much sense to program so many different distances in speedskating where one country takes 20 medals (their only medals even on the whole edition) too. Then you can better cut in that program. Adding other sports like cyclocross would bring more diversity and entertainment, and athletes only need to be there for a short time, because they only have one day of competition in the schedule.That would bring more excitement than seeing the same athlete taking 3 Gold medals on the many  programmed speed skating distances

So to be honest, that a sport like cyclocross is not welcome at the Olympics, has little to do with practical reasons, but rather with current federations who want to protect their current funding from other emerging sports. Cyclocross presents itself during Winter as the popular alternative for the traditional Olympic sport road cycling. Elevating cyclocross to the Olympic level would be a logical step, but many current Olympic sports are afraid of a popular sport that could overtake them on the Olympic level as well and that could potentially take parts of their funding. They have lobbied successfully to the IOC to keep the door closed and keep the pie for themselves. 

Nowadays, the IOC became like many other sports federations, where lobbying became more important than actually sporting merits. An organization that preaches Olympic values and writes big charters chooses once more for the words of the biggest lobbyists instead. Will the IOC rediscover their own ideals again, or will it remain a typical corporate sports federation like so many others nowadays? At least until 2030, we know the answer.