Sebastian Coe pushes for cross-country running race at 2030 Winter Olympics in French Alps

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 International Olympic Committee 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 practised 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