This is a subject that comes up repeatedly. And which is the subject of reflection on the part of the IOC. What if trail running joined the Olympic Games program in the future?
Kilian Jornet, the icon of the discipline, spoke on this subject to the Team, on the sidelines of the release of his documentary “Into the unknow” which looks back on his incredible challenge across the Pyrenees in October 2023.
gull“If trail running has to be about running in parks…”
And the least we can say is that the Catalan is skeptical.
He first points out the ecological impact of such an event. “In the not necessarily so distant past, for the organization of certain Olympic Games – or even World Cups – there was a lot of greenwashing. We need to revisit this, and ask ourselves the question of the role of these events. To avoid greenwashing for example. ”
The negative impact on the fundamentals of the discipline is also one of Kilian Jornet’s fears in the event of trail running being integrated into the Games menu.
“The Games are a dream event that I love to watch. The problem with trail running is that we could manage to distort our sport so that it appears on the program. We see this for ski mountaineering, a little in climbing, totally with mountain biking… We lose a little the soul and the essence of the sport […]. If, to be at the Olympics, a trail running event must [se résumer à] doing laps in parks… For me, that’s not what trail running is.”
