The cappuccino edition #16: Bobsleigh out, volleyball in? Coventry plotting Olympic revolution that will leave Winter Games looking VERY different

The IOC President has warned difficult conversations must take place to ensure the Olympics continue to inspire future generations, but her plans go far beyond those reported so far

When the Olympic flame is extinguished in Verona tonight, it will bring the curtain down on a Winter Games that has exceeded all expectations, making it maybe the best in the 102-year history of the event .

What the event will look like when it is next held, in the French Alps in four years’ time, is anybody’s guess, with the International Olympic Committee set to introduce massive changes that many fear will change the whole ethos of a game that has grown from just 304 athletes competing at Chamonix 1924 to 2,871 taking part at Milan Cortina 2026.

A number of informed sources close to the process reviewing the sports programme for the Olympics as part of the “Fit for the Future” initiative introduced by Kirsty Coventry following her election as IOC President last March have told the Zeus Files that the plans being discussed are far more radical than anything revealed publicly up until now.