The International Olympic Committee are reportedly considering axing two Winter Olympics sports from the 2030 Games.
While the Milano Cortina d’Amperzzo 2026 Olympic Games only wrapped up on Sunday (February 22), planning is already said to be moving quickly toward the next edition.
The 2023 French Alps Games is set to take place across Haute-Savoie, Savoie, Briançon and Nice.
According to reports, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is reviewing a number of events after assessing how they performed at the most recent Games, weighing up factors that could ultimately determine whether they remain on the programme.
Two sports, in particular, are now being discussed as potential removals — and the reasons relate to the IOC’s wider priorities and the audiences the events attract.
One of the disciplines under scrutiny is snowboard parallel giant slalom (PGS). It has been part of the Olympics since 1998, alongside the other snowboard racing event snowboard cross .
In September 2025, the IOC revealed it would be paying specific attention to PGS in Milan’s Games.
The backdrop to that attention is a set of priorities the IOC outlined two years ago, saying it wanted future Games to be “balance, youth-focused, and cost-efficient”.
Snowboarder Justin Reiter argued to AP there is “fantastic participation between both men and women,” in PGS and that it fits with the IOC’s emphasis on sports that align with “climate change, and cost for reusable venues” as well.
Still, the event has faced challenges. AP notes that at the 2010 Vancouver Games, PGS was badly affected by a rainstorm that saw competitors sliding off course.
AP News also reports concerns that the discipline lacks star power — particularly among US athletes — which could be significant given the role US broadcaster NBC plays in funding the Olympics.
A second sport said to be facing similar uncertainty is Nordic combined.
AP similarly reports the Nordic combined events are facing potential scrapping by the IOC.
The sport has long-standing roots, with a major competition held in Oslo in 1892, and it was included when the first Winter Olympic Games took place in France in 1924.
Although 2021 brought the first women’s world championship event, the 2026 Winter Olympics didn’t agree to include a women’s event.
The IOC reportedly defended that decision by pointing to limited audience interest even in the men’s competition, as well as a lack of “diversity of countries” able to take part, ESPN reported at the time.
That explanation drew criticism, particularly because it came alongside an IOC announcement titled: “Milano Cortina 2026 set to become the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history.”
Fresh questions about Nordic combined’s future are now said to follow relatively small TV audiences for this year’s event, along with the fact that medals are often won by the same small group of nations.
A formal decision is anticipated as being revealed by June of this year.
And it may not be only removals on the table. As well as two being lost, five may be added, President of the French Alps Organising Committee Edgar Grospiron suggesting “ski mountaineering, speed skiing, telemark, even cross-country or cyclo-cross and why not ice-cross,” may be weighed up, in comments made to French outlet Le Dauphiné in 2025.