The biggest issue is that most Olympic hosts are effectively city-based, and major popular centres don\u2019t often have mountains on their doorstep. <\/p>
This is okay for XC racing<\/a>, which can be run on a short and relatively mellow course, but not for MTB race disciplines<\/a> that require steeper, rougher terrain and long descents. <\/p> In Paris, for example, you\u2019d end up with a 30-second run in the \u00c9lancourt woods (where the cross-country events are taking place), or a long trip south to the mountains, and it would\u2019ve been similar at London 2012.<\/p> Rio and Tokyo are exceptions, of course \u2013 a descent from the Christ the Redeemer statue or a blast down the barren slopes of Mount Fuji would have been spectacular!<\/p> Ultimately, mountain biking is just one fiddly piece of the world\u2019s greatest sporting jigsaw, and opening up the Games to include downhill mountain biking<\/a> and enduro racing<\/a> would bring huge financial and logistical issues for the hosts. It would also cause disputes with other sports that don\u2019t have Olympic status due to their inherent requirements. <\/p> Plus, other cycling events would likely have to be sacrificed to make way for these disciplines \u2013 something we can\u2019t imagine national bodies such as British Cycling being keen on, given how much money they\u2019ve invested in track cycling<\/a> and road racing to ensure Olympic success (which is what much of their funding is based on).<\/p> Then there\u2019s the elephant in the boardroom. <\/p> 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.<\/p> 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. <\/p> However, BMX freestyle and skateboarding did make their debuts at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and return again for Paris 2024<\/a>.<\/p> Still, it\u2019s no great surprise that the more \u2018extreme\u2019 end of mountain biking isn\u2019t represented.<\/p> 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\u2019s 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<\/a> and suspension designs<\/a>.<\/p> One thing\u2019s for certain \u2013 DH and EDR aren\u2019t going to be included anytime soon. That\u2019s not necessarily a bad thing, though. <\/p> Top riders we\u2019ve 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.<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n If XC is in, why aren’t other mountain bike disciplines? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":67362,"template":"","categories":[1,36],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/07\/why-arent-downhill-mountain-biking-and-enduro-racing-part-of-the-olympics.jpg",1024,683,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/07\/why-arent-downhill-mountain-biking-and-enduro-racing-part-of-the-olympics-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/07\/why-arent-downhill-mountain-biking-and-enduro-racing-part-of-the-olympics-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/07\/why-arent-downhill-mountain-biking-and-enduro-racing-part-of-the-olympics-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/07\/why-arent-downhill-mountain-biking-and-enduro-racing-part-of-the-olympics.jpg",800,534,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/07\/why-arent-downhill-mountain-biking-and-enduro-racing-part-of-the-olympics.jpg",1024,683,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2024\/07\/why-arent-downhill-mountain-biking-and-enduro-racing-part-of-the-olympics.jpg",1024,683,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"If XC is in, why aren't other mountain bike disciplines?","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/67361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/cyclingplus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Tom](\"https:\/\/c02.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/39\/2024\/07\/GettyImages-1330689901-1.jpg\")
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