Snowboard champion Karl '99 percent' sure parallel giant slalom will stay in Olympics / Photo: Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV - AFP
Snowboard champion Karl '99 percent' sure parallel giant slalom will stay in Olympics
Snowboard gold medallist Benjamin Karl says he is "99 percent" sure that parallel giant slalom will remain on the Winter Olympics programme despite fears it will be axed.
Snowboarding made its debut at the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano and parallel giant slalom, or PGS, was introduced four years later at Salt Lake City.
But there is uncertainty over whether the discipline will feature at the 2030 Games in the French Alps.
PGS and Nordic combined are understood to be at risk of being chopped, with a decision yet to be made on the final sports programme.
The International Olympic Committee's stated aims are to encourage a programme that is "balanced, youth-focused and cost-efficient".
Austria's Karl, 40, told AFP that PGS, in which two snowboarders race head to head, is not as well understood by Olympic chiefs compared to other more high-profile snow sports.
But he said: "You see it here (in Livigno), we need nothing. We just need that amount of snow, start, finish, gate.
"And also the crowd loved it. For 99 percent I'd say it's staying."
Karl, who successfully defended his men's title at the Milan-Cortina Games, said the sport was strong in Italy, Austria and Russia, whose athletes are currently barred from competing under their flag due to the invasion of Ukraine.
"We have a lot of youth riders in China, (South) Korea, Japan and also in Europe."
And he said young athletes had shared the podium with older competitors at the Milan-Cortina Games.
"Racing, if you do it once, you see how it's the MotoGP of winter and it's super cool as well," he said.
Karl himself, the most decorated men's snowboarder in Olympic history with four medals, alongside China's Su Yiming, will not compete at another Winter Games in snowboarding but he does not feel he is necessarily finished yet.
Cyclocross has been suggested as a possible addition at the 2030 Olympics.
"I have in my mind if cyclocross is really getting in the Winter Olympics, I'm really thinking about it," he said.
"My second best sport I do is cycling since I'm 10. For a hobby biker who is not cycling in winter, I'm a really good endurance athlete. Cycling is my second life."
He added: "It would be just adorable out of this space if I'm really getting to the Olympic Games in cycling at 44."
Q.Panagiotou--AN-GR
