"I would love to see cross-country back in the Olympic programme," Coe, who is running to replace Lamine Diack as President of the International Association of Athletics Federations this August, told fellow British Olympian Brendan Foster on GreatRun TV.

"One of the things that has really worried me in the last few years is that I don't think enough younger coaches realise how important cross country is.

"I think that in turn has had an impact on the number of people at international level doing the sport.

"And they were doing it in the same season, so the coaches who are saying you can't do cross country and track in the same season are demonstrably proved wrong, I do think it's a really big thing.

"So I would love to see cross country back in the Olympic programme, and maybe even, thinking outside the box for a moment, why not include it in the winter Olympic programme?

"Because you would then broaden the Olympic programme to African nations that are not feeling a great proprietorial interest in the winter Games."

A winter Olympic sport? Competitors at the 2013 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz in Poland ©Getty Images

Cross country running featured in three Summer Olympics, in 1912, 1920 and 1924.

In the latter two Games in Antwerp and Paris, Finland's Paavo Nurmi took team and individual titles.

But, with 23 of the 38 starters in Paris failing to finish due to the extreme heat and poisonous fumes from a nearby energy plant, the event was subsequently dropped from the Olympics and has never returned.

The idea of an Olympic comeback for cross-country has been supported by many high profile athletes, including Ethiopia's Haile Gebreselassie and Kenenisa Bekele, as well as Kenya's Paul Tergat, who all petitioned the then International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge in 2009.

In 2013 at an IAAF Global Seminar in Belgrade, a number of figures, including Coe, spoke about their commitment to working to include the sport, although it was admitted that the IOC had suggested they were against having the event on the Winter Olympic programme.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
December 2014: Nick Butler: Beach success in Phuket showed how cross country running could thrive at Winter Olympics
December 2013: Olympic target for cross country still the aim say IAAF after top-level summit led by Coe
August 2010: Decision to include cross country running in Winter Olympics set for discussion
March 2009: Diack supports inclusion of cross country in the Olympic
September 2008: Athletics legends want cross-country back in the Olympics