GENEVA — 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 IOC considers crossover between summer and winter sports

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?

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 and

flying disk

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.

Winter sports push back

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.

The IOC wants more time to decide

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.”

Village people

MILAN — The Milan Olympic Village was coming alive on Sunday as athletes laden with gear rolled into a brand-new complex where they will sleep, eat meals, work out and mix with other competitors for the next three weeks.

Members of Team Canada were doing security with their suitcases from Canada’s own lululemon, and Team France, decked out in Le Coq Sportif uniforms, received a pep talk before ascending to their 6th-floor rooms. Dutch speedskater Jutta Leerdam filmed a TikTok in front of the Olympic rings inside the village.

The Milan village, which will house 1,500 athletes and team members during the Feb. 6-22 Winter Games, will be officially inaugurated Monday by International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry. But it has been buzzing to life for days as athletes have moved in.

Teams have decked out their room windows with national flags and symbols: Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, among others, are already making their presence known. China added a friendly panda, while Team USA hung a pair of four-story-tall banners featuring the Stars and Stripes.

Room and board

Athletes eat in a cavernous dining center run by Italian caterers offering a range of healthy, local choices. Lunch on Sunday featured chicken, pork and turkey and a variety of fish, including two kinds of salmon and hake. Italian specialties like pasta could be dressed in red sauce or meat ragu. Pizza and focaccia were also on offer, as well as gluten-free options. Salad bars included legumes and nuts.

The athletes’ rooms were practical and equipped with the essentials.

A single bed fit atop storage cubbies for suitcases and gear, while a stand-alone closet was stocked with a drying rack, pack of hangers, a laundry bag, a dry mop and extension cord. In the era of electronics, the room itself was outfitted with another four outlets — one next to the bed included two USB ports.

The only design accent in the sample room on Sunday’s tour were a sage green bedside table, bathroom shelf and coat hook to match the painted concrete floor. One team was later seen bringing in mattress toppers from IKEA, while the Japanese team added futons.

A full-length mirror hung outside of the bathroom, which featured the usual shower (reported to have good water pressure), toilet and sink — plus the very Italian bidet, or low porcelain sink that complements toilet paper with a clean rinse. The fixture is de rigueur in Italian residences but often perplexes visitors — including some athletes whose room videos have done double-takes.

On the floor for Team France, diagrams next to the elevator instructed athletes on which uniforms to wear alternatively for the opening ceremony, news conferences, the medal podium, the closing ceremony and finally, the trip home. The ceremonial side of the Olympic journey, in five diagrams.

Common spaces

IOC partners have filled the village with activities for the athletes.

Technogym has outfitted a gym with its latest equipment, including a Pilates machine. Powerade is backing a mind center where athletes can meditate, do yoga or just talk to the trained volunteers; Coca-Cola has stacked a recreational area with foosball, air hockey, and a photo booth as well as TV sets. A pair of Czech Republic athletes took advantage of the cosmetic brand Kiko’s free 10-minute makeup sessions.

When athletes arrive, they receive a free folding Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 special edition phone only for competitors, decorated with the Olympic laurels.

Artificial intelligence is also entering one of the Olympics favorite spaces: pin trading. Athletes can trade pins by putting one of their own into a plastic ball, and then use AI powered by Chinese multinational Alibaba to instruct a robotic arm to randomly pick a new pin.

Village legacy

The village, across from the Fondazione Prada exhibition complex and in an area attracting other luxury brand headquarters, will be an Olympic legacy to the city. After the Olympic and Paralympic Games, it will be turned into subsidized student dormitories, including communal kitchens, sorely needed in a city with six universities and squeezed for affordable housing.

With the Milan Cortina Games the most spread-out in history, Olympic officials also had to create space for athletes at five other venues.

A temporary village has been built to house 1,100 athletes and officials in Cortina, while hotels and alpine lodges have been adapted in Anterselva and Bormio, each housing 400 participants, and nearly 1,000 in Livigno. In Predazzo, more than 900 will be housed in a school for Italy’s financial police that has been renovated for the Olympics and Paralympics. It will be returned to the police when the competitions are over, complete with two new pavilions.