GENEVA (AP) — Olympic winter sports must be played on snow and ice, according to the Olympic Charter.
But could a muddy field of play get its chance at a future Winter Games, even as soon as in the French Alps in 2030 or Salt Lake City in 2034?
How about parquet in an indoor hall? Snow volleyball is ready and waiting.
Those and other sports on the far fringes of joining the Summer Games, such as flying disk, see a possible path to the less densely packed Winter Games schedule, even as winter sports federations push back.
There are 116 medal events at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics compared to more than 350 at the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
The charter is the code of rules and principles to guide how the IOC and Olympic Games are run.
Article 6.2 could not be clearer: “Only those sports which are practiced on snow or ice are considered as winter sports.”
That legal clarity is now up for review.
On taking office in June as IOC president, Kirsty Coventry listened to her fellow IOC members and started “Fit For The Future,” setting up four working groups including one focused on the program of Olympic sports in the Summer and Winter Games.
It pledged to look at “identifying ways for sports to be added to or removed from the program through a clear and transparent process. It will also consider the suggestion that traditional summer or winter sports could cross over.”
Cross-country running and cyclocross, two gloriously muddy events, have been suggested for the 2030 Winter Games by the influential federations for track and field and cycling, led by Sebastian Coe and David Lappartient, respectively. Both were candidates for IOC president in the election that Coventry won last year.
Coe’s enthusiasm for cross-country running is largely about putting African athletes on center stage with a rare chance to win a medal at the Winter Games, which typically lack diversity.
Lappartient was key to assembling the late-developing bid for the 2030 Olympics in the French Alps that now wants to showcase cross-country running and cyclocross at the same venue. One proposed location is La Planche des Belles Filles, known to cycling fans as a popular climb in recent editions of the Tour de France.
Four-time Tour winner Tadej Pogačar and one of his great rivals Mathieu van der Poel, also a seven-time cyclocross world champion, have been recruited to the campaign to help persuade the IOC.
Snow volleyball was played on an exhibition court for IOC voters to see at the Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea in 2018.
“If the Olympic movement believes that snow volleyball can help promote the Winter Games I would say: ‘Why not?’” International Volleyball Federation president Fabio Azevedo said. “It has a special ball for snow, it’s amazing."
Snow volleyball also could give African teams and Azevedo’s native Brazil a medal chance in winter, because the technical skills for beach volleyball transfer easily to playing on snow, he said.
The packed Summer Games program has found space for surfing, sports climbing, breakdance and lacrosse, but there is a long line of sports waiting.
Leaders of some of those sports were recently in the IOC's home city Lausanne, Switzerland, for an annual conference where they could meet and mix with Olympic officials to learn about the scope and details of the program review.
“It’s really adaptable, whether it’s on a basketball court or a larger field house,” World Flying Disc Federation president Robert Rauch said when asked if his sport could meet a possible Winter Games need.
One problem with Winter Games expansion is that established snow and ice sports are not keen.
In November, the Winter Olympic Federations said “such an approach would dilute the brand, heritage, and identity that make the Olympic Winter Games unique.” The group represents sports including skiing, skating, biathlon, curling, luge, bobsled and skeleton.
The push for cross-country running and cyclocross was questioned by the American secretary general of the International Biathlon Union, Max Cobb.
“If they were super popular sports they would already be in the Summer Games, and they’re not,” Cobb said.
Amending the Olympic Charter can be done at the members’ annual meeting known as the IOC Session, though not at the eve-of-games gathering in Milan.
In the French Alps in early December, IOC vice president Pierre-Olivier Beckers signaled a longer timescale to finalizing the sports program for 2030, likely at an executive board meeting in June.
“We need further study on the proposals for new sports," he said. "We will only make a decision after Milan Cortina.”
AP Winter Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
FILE - Olympic rings are displayed in the snow at the Stelvio Ski Center, venue for the alpine ski and ski mountaineering disciplines at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in Bormio, Italy, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)
IOC President Kirsty Coventry speaks to volunteers, ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026. (Daniele Mascolo/Pool Photo via AP)
Iran fired missiles at Israel and some Gulf nations while explosions could be heard around Tehran and the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday, as the United States prepared to further reinforce its already significant military forces in the Middle East.
As the war that began Feb. 28 was to enter its sixth week, Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait warned about incoming missile fire, although it was unclear if anything was struck. Activists reported strikes around Tehran and the central city of Isfahan but it wasn’t immediately clear what was hit.
Iran’s attacks on Gulf region energy infrastructure and its tight grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas transits in peacetime, has sent oil prices skyrocketing.
Oil prices surged while Asian financial markets rose moderately during cautious trading. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 11.4% to $111.54 a barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.8% to $109.03 per barrel.
U.S. President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will keep hitting Iran “very hard” in the next two or three weeks.
The largest American aircraft carrier in service sailed out of Split, in Croatia and “remains poised for full mission tasking in support of national objectives in any area of operation,” the Navy’s 6th Fleet announced.
It was unclear where it was going. The USS Abraham Lincoln remains in the Arabian Sea and the USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier departed Norfolk on Wednesday to head to the Mideast.
Here is the latest:
Oil prices continued to surge on worries of a prolonged Iran war but the Asian markets that were open Friday rose moderately in cautious trading, while others were closed for the Good Friday holidays.
Benchmark U.S. crude rose 11.4% to $111.54 a barrel. The price of Brent crude, the international standard, jumped 7.8% to $109.03 per barrel.
The U.S. only relies on the Persian Gulf for a fraction of the oil it imports, but oil is a commodity and prices are set in a global market.
The situation is very different in Asia. Japan, for example, relies on access to the Strait of Hormuz for much of the nation’s oil import needs and would need to rely on alternative routes. But some analysts say Japan and oher nations are counting on an agreement with Iran to allow transports.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 gained 0.9% in Friday morning trading to 52,938.62. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.1% to 5,344.41. The Shanghai Composite sank 0.5% to 3,899.57. Trading was closed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Indonesia and India.
Wall Street, where trading is closed Friday, finished its first winning week since the start of the Iran war, although trading started out with a decline driven by a surge in oil prices.
Bangladesh is curtailing office hours and enforcing early closure of malls and shops beginning Friday to handle its energy crisis related to the war.
The country’s cabinet ordered 30% spending cuts for fuel and power at government offices, suspended some staff training and stopped purchases of new vehicles, ships and aircraft. Decorative lighting will not be allowed for celebrations.
Bangladesh, a nation of more than 170 million people, is seeking alternative fuel sources and $2.5 billion in external financing for imports, which account for 95% of its fuel.
Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Friday urged motorists getting away for a long weekend during the Easter holiday to fill up in cities because most of the nation’s fuel shortages are in rural areas.
Among 2,400 gas stations in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, 182 had run out of diesel by Friday.
In Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, 76 gas stations were out of diesel. In the remaining states ranked by the most populous first, Queensland had 75 stations without diesel, Western Australia had 37, South Australia had 28 and in Tasmania there were seven.
“For those Australians planning a road trip this weekend, given our shortages are predominantly in rural and regional Australia, it makes sense to fill up in the city to help the country if you can,” Bowen said in Sydney.
The government, which blamed regional shortages on panic buying and distribution problems, is concentrating on delivering fuel to farmers for planting crops.
Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A newly constructed bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A newly constructed bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes Thursday is seen in Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A bridge struck by U.S. airstrikes on Thursday is seen in the town of Karaj, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Israeli security forces and rescue teams inspect a site struck by an Iranian missile in Petah Tikva, Israel,Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Members from the Popular Mobilization Forces attend a funeral of fighters who were killed in a U.S. airstrike, in Tal Afar, Nineveh province, north of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
A man with burn wounds from an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon sits on a bed at the Sidon Government Hospital in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A boy who fled with his family following Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon sits inside the van they are using as shelter in Sidon, Lebanon, Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
President Donald Trump arrives from the Blue Room to speak about the Iran war from the Cross Hall of the White House on Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
