If XC is in, why aren’t other mountain bike disciplines?

By Steve Thomas

Published: Sunday, 28 July 2024 at 11:00 AM


Downhill and enduro arguably have a bigger following than cross-country racing – in the UK, at least – so why, with XC racing taking place through the opening weekend of the Paris 2024 Games, aren’t they Olympic sports?

The biggest issue is that most Olympic hosts are effectively city-based, and major popular centres don’t often have mountains on their doorstep.

This is okay for XC racing, which can be run on a short and relatively mellow course, but not for MTB race disciplines that require steeper, rougher terrain and long descents.

In Paris, for example, you’d end up with a 30-second run in the Élancourt woods (where the cross-country events are taking place), or a long trip south to the mountains, and it would’ve been similar at London 2012.

Rio and Tokyo are exceptions, of course – a descent from the Christ the Redeemer statue or a blast down the barren slopes of Mount Fuji would have been spectacular!

A downhill race from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio? That’s wishful thinking. – Christian Adams / Getty Images

Ultimately, mountain biking is just one fiddly piece of the world’s greatest sporting jigsaw, and opening up the Games to include downhill mountain biking and enduro racing would bring huge financial and logistical issues for the hosts. It would also cause disputes with other sports that don’t have Olympic status due to their inherent requirements.

Plus, other cycling events would likely have to be sacrificed to make way for these disciplines – something we can’t imagine national bodies such as British Cycling being keen on, given how much money they’ve invested in track cycling and road racing to ensure Olympic success (which is what much of their funding is based on).

Tom Pidcock bites his gold medal after winning the men's cross-country race at the Tokyo Olympic Games
Tom Pidcock, a star on the road for Team Ineos-Grenadiers, took gold for Great Britain in the men’s XC race at the Tokyo Games. – Michael Steele / Getty Images

Then there’s the elephant in the boardroom.

The International Olympic Committee is a huge, older-than-old-school organisation, which has historically been slow to embrace newer sports, especially if that means abandoning older, long-established ones.

Beth Shriever racing in the women's BMX final at the Tokyo Olympic Games
BMX racing and freestyle are part of the Olympics, so why not the extreme side of mountain biking? – Jeremy Selwyn / Getty Images

While the adventure sports boom of the 1990s saw no fewer than five snowboarding disciplines included in the Winter Olympics, for a long time the only X Games-style addition to the Summer Games was BMX racing, which debuted at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

However, BMX freestyle and skateboarding did make their debuts at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and return again for Paris 2024.

Men's downhill world champion Charlie Hatton riding at the Val Di Sole round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in June 2024
Could we see the likes of men’s downhill world champion Charlie Hatton racing at the Olympics? It’s unlikely. – Piotr Staron / Getty Images

Still, it’s no great surprise that the more ‘extreme’ end of mountain biking isn’t represented.

Another reason given in the past for DH, in particular, not being included was that certain bikes gave riders an unfair technological advantage. However, that’s no longer so valid, now that the sport is more mature, the pace of innovation has slowed and brands have coalesced around similar MTB geometry and suspension designs.

One thing’s for certain – DH and EDR aren’t going to be included anytime soon. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, though.

Top riders we’ve spoken to over the years have expressed fears that adding gravity racing to the Olympics would take mountain biking away from the mountains and get more blazers and badges involved, taming the sport and losing some of its soul.