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IOC open to earlier dates for future Winter Olympics and Paralympics because of warmer temperatures

MILAN (AP) — Staging future Winter Games as early as January and the Paralympic Winter Games in February is a possibility because of the effects of warmer temperatures, the International Olympic Committee said Wednesday.

Every Winter Games medal was won in February since the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics opened Jan. 29, and moving to January would likely disrupt scheduling of storied World Cup races and events. It also would more directly clash with NFL and NBA schedules.

The IOC is now reviewing Olympic Games issues in the first year of Kirsty Coventry’s presidency and changing the winter edition dates is an option.

“Maybe we are also discussing to bring the Winter Olympics a little bit earlier,” the IOC member overseeing the sports program review, Karl Stoss, told reporters. “To do it in January because it has an implication for the Paralympics as well.”

The Milan Cortina Paralympic Winter Games will be held March 6-15.

The IOC has long acknowledged under Coventry’s predecessor Thomas Bach that changing climate is a challenge for finding future hosts and organizing competitions.

“(March) is very late because the sun is strong enough to melt the snow,” said Stoss, whose home country Austria is a traditional power in Alpine skiing and ski jumping.

“Maybe the Paralympics will be in February and the other edition will be in January. That would also be a part of our discussion,” he said on the sidelines of the IOC’s eve-of-Olympics meeting in Milan.

The 100-plus IOC members met later Wednesday for another round of talks in the review program Coventry called “Fit For The Future.”

Coventry said at a news conference “there are potentially going to be needs for us to look at adjustments of times,” to schedule future Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. “That might be a way if we bumped things forward.”

IOC members are set to meet again in June to decide on the Olympic reviews, and whether to add new sports and events to the 2030 French Alps Winter Games.

The French Alps edition is currently expected to run Feb. 1-17 and the 2034 Utah Winter Games from Feb. 10–26.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

By WTOP Staff
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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