NEW YORK (AP) — Sebastian Coe would love to see a cross-country running race brought back to the Olympics at the 2030 Winter Games.
The president of World Athletics has long argued for the event's inclusion in the Olympics, but he said the willingness of new IOC president Kirsty Coventry to explore ways of doing things has helped.
“The new president is clear they want to put everything on the table at the moment,” Coe told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday. “It’s a very different atmosphere. It’s very much how can we improve together rather than we’ll tell you how to do it. She’s blown some oxygen into the organization.”
Coe said he's discussed bringing the event in for the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps, or possibly in Salt Lake City four years later.
Cross country was in the Summer Olympics until 1924, when it was removed because of harsh conditions at the Paris Games that caused extreme exhaustion from the heat and the course. Adding it to the Winter Games would alleviate those issues and would also go a long way to including more countries, especially African nations who would potentially excel at the sport.
“Winter Games aren't African. It doesn't scream African," said Coe, who was in the U.S. for Sunday's New York City Marathon. "So I think it was a good opportunity.”
For cross country to be eventually included again, Coe said there would have to be a simple Olympic charter amendment that says that a sport practiced in the winter would be eligible to be in the program.
It helps that he's on the IOC's new Olympic program working group that has been charged with looking at the size of the event and ways for sports to be added or removed and whether traditional sports in each Olympics could cross over.
Track is moving to the first week of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and Coe is in favor of that. The exact schedule hasn't been figured out yet.
“We still have the timetable to work on and there are lots of things," Coe said. "But starting off with a big moment that is athletics in an Olympic Games quickly off the back of what we know is LA and an opening ceremony that will be jaw dropping because that's what they do really well.”
Coe has fond memories of Los Angeles, where he ran in the 1984 Olympics and set the 1,500-meter games record while winning the gold medal.
“It was a great games. I always look at LA in '84 as being really the first of the modern games. You know, that’s not to dismiss the contribution that the games have made up to that point. But Peter (Ueberroth) has changed the landscape because he had to, and, you know, there were many of the things that LA pioneered.”
Coe cited broadcasting rights, sponsorships and venue sustainability as key things that the California city started.
A new event next year called RUN X was announced earlier this week. The world treadmill championship will have a series of qualifying 5K events that will culminate in a championship. The top 10 male and 10 female competitors from the qualifying rounds will advance to a live final late next year.
“Harnessing technology and growing the global running community and building that bridge between world athletics and what they do,” Coe said. “We'll have age group world championships, regionally, nationally and then a world championship in an iconic venue.”
Coe was excited for the first Ultimate Championships that is less than a year away in Budapest. The three-day event from Sept. 11-13 will showcase Olympic, world and Diamond League champions over three evening sessions.
“It’s a world championship in three days, three hours a night, unashamedly aimed at TV,” he said.
They'll only be semifinals and finals in most track events and only eight participants in each field event.
Coe said World Athletics is giving all the ticket and sponsorships to the host city.
“There's a real incentive to make this work in a local level,” he said.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
FILE - Candidate to the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Sebastian Coe speaks during a press conference following a presentation before their fellow IOC members in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Jan 30, 2025 (Fabrice Coffrini/Pool Photo via AP)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters that he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland if Russia also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized, free economic zone monitored by international forces. The proposal, which would address one of the major obstacles to ending Russia's war, must also be put to a referendum.
A similar arrangement could be possible for the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control, Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy spoke to reporters Tuesday to describe a 20-point overarching plan that negotiators from Ukraine and the U.S. hammered out in Florida in recent days, though he said that many details are still being worked out.
American negotiators have engaged in a series of talks with Ukraine and Russia separately since U.S. President Donald Trump presented a plan to end the war last month — a proposal widely see as favoring Moscow, which invaded its neighbor nearly four years ago. Since then, Ukraine and its allies in Europe have worked to pull the plan closer to Kyiv's position.
Deciding what will happen to Ukraine’s Donbas region, the vast majority of which Russia has seized, and how Europe’s largest nuclear plant will be managed are some of the most difficult points in the negotiations.
Asked about the plan, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Moscow would set out its position based on information received by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who met with U.S. envoys in Florida over the weekend. Peskov declined to share further details.
Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal of its troops from land it has seized. In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas — an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk — the two areas that make up the Donbas.
Zelenskyy acknowledged that figuring out control of the region is “the most difficult point.” He said these matters should be discussed at the leaders level.
In addition to saying the plan must be put to a referendum, Zelenskyy said an international force would have to be deployed to the region.
Meanwhile, on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the U.S. has proposed a consortium with Ukraine and Russia, in which each party would have an equal stake. Zelenskyy countered with a proposal for joint venture between the U.S. and Ukraine, in which the Americans would be able to decide how to distribute their share, including giving some of it to Russia.
Zelenskyy acknowledged that the U.S. has not yet accepted Ukraine's counterproposals.
“We did not reach a consensus with the American side on the territory of the Donetsk region and on the ZNPP,” Zelenskyy said, using an acronym for the power plant in Zaporizhzhia. “But we have significantly brought most of the positions closer together. In principle, all other consensus in this agreement has been found between us and them.”
Creating a free economic zone in the Donbas would require difficult discussions on how far troops would be required to move back and where international forces would be stationed, Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy said that a referendum is necessary. “Because people could then choose: does this ending suit us, or does it not?”
Such a vote would require 60 days, he added, during which time hostilities should stop.
The working U.S.-Ukraine draft also proposes that Russian forces withdraw from the Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv regions. Zelenskyy envisions that international forces could be located along certain points of the contact line within the free economic zone to monitor the implementation of the agreement.
“Since there is no faith in the Russians, and they have repeatedly broken their promises, today’s contact line is turning into a line of a de facto free economic zone, and international forces should be there to guarantee that no one will enter there under any guise — neither ‘little green men’ nor Russian military disguised as civilians,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukraine is also proposing that the occupied city of Enerhodar, which is the closest city to the Zaporizhzhia power plant, be a demilitarized free economic zone, Zelenskyy said.
This point required 15 hours of discussions with the U.S., he said, and no agreement was reached.
For now, the U.S. proposes that the plant be jointly operated by Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia, with each side controlling a 33% stake in the enterprise — a plan Zelenskyy called “not entirely realistic."
"How can you have joint commerce with the Russians after everything?” he asked.
Ukraine instead suggested that the plant be operated by a joint venture with the U.S. in which the Americans can determine independently how to distribute the energy from their 50% share.
Zelenskyy said billions in investments are needed to make the plant run again, including restoring the adjacent dam.
The working draft ensures that Ukraine will receive “strong” security guarantees, which would require Ukraine’s partners to act in the event of renewed Russian aggression. That would mirror NATO’s Article 5, which says an armed attack on one member of the alliance is an attack on all.
Zelenskyy said that a separate document with the U.S. will outline these guarantees concretely. It will detail the conditions under which security will be provided, particularly in the event of a renewed Russian assault, and will establish a mechanism to monitor any ceasefire. The document will be signed concurrently with the main agreement to end the war, Zelenskyy said.
“The mood of the United States of America is that this is an unprecedented step towards Ukraine on their part. They believe that they are giving strong security guarantees,” he said.
The draft contains other elements including keeping Ukraine’s army at 800,000 during peace time and that Ukraine become a member of the European Union by a specific date. Limiting the size of Ukraine’s military is a key Russian demand.
The document proposes accelerating a free trade agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. The U.S. wants the same deal with Russia, said Zelenskyy.
Ukraine would like to receive short-term privileged access to the European market and a robust global development package that would include the creation of a development fund to invest in industries including technology, data centers and artificial intelligence, as well as gas.
Other points include the provision of funds for the reconstruction of territories destroyed in the war through various means including grants, loans and investment funds.
“Ukraine will have the opportunity to determine the priorities for distributing its share of funds in the territories under the control of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said.
The goal will be to attract $800 billion through equity, grants, loans and private sector contributions.
The draft proposal also requires Ukraine to hold elections after the signing of the agreement. Zelenskyy’s five-year term was scheduled to end in May 2024, but elections were put off due to Russia’s invasion. Russian President Vladimir Putin has seized on that — even those the postponement was legal — and it has become a source of tension with Trump, who has criticized the delay.
Ukraine is also asking that all prisoners taken since 2014 be released at once, and that civilian detainees, political prisoners and children be returned to Ukraine. Russia illegally seized Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and Ukrainian troops and Moscow-backed forces have been fighting in the Donbas since that year as well.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, a residential house is seen damaged after a Russian strike in Zhytomyr region, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025, a rescue worker puts out a fire of a car destroyed a Russian strike in Chernihiv region, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)
Municipal workers clean debris on the roof after a Russian drone hit an apartment building during an aerial attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media conference at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
