Why is the IOC so reluctant to include Synchro? Ice skating is already one of the most popular winter sports, while “snow cross mixed team” sounds like a Frankenbaby of an already obscure sport
If I had to take a punt, it's probably, I dunno, the 120+ extra athletes that including Synchro would entail. Y'know, more than the whole other four disciplines of skating combined. And that's just the athletes, forgetting their support staff, coaches, oh and the judges and officials and so on...
It's not going to happen. While the IOC doesn't want to expand the size of the Olympics, it will never happen. Which sport are you advocating getting kicked out of the Olympics for Synchro?
If anything, I've heard the IOC is trying to shrink the Olympics because no one wants to pay to build housing for all the athletes coming to the Olympics already. Their press release certainly implied that they were happy to have fewer athlete spots for 2022.
Based on the gossip I've heard, the IOC would be happy to include synchro if the numbers were significantly lower. Basically, synchro needs to decide how badly they want inclusion.
Right now they're desperately trying to figure out how to cut down on the athletes numbers, but even if they go down to their intended numbers (10 teams of 12 skaters) it's still 120 people.
As
@misskarne pointed out, there's also the coaches (usually 1-3 per Senior Team), support staff (a team leader from the federation), and a judging panel (most international synchro judges are
not also certified for international singles/pairs/dance). That's at a minimum 20 staff + 15 judging people, or maximum 40+ staff and judges including alternate judges.
If they're trying to cut down on number adding a minimum of 150 people is doing the exact opposite of that. To make up for that by cutting sports they'd have to cut something like 2-5 sports depending on the number of qualifying athletes in each sport. If they kept Synchro with the 16-20 skaters has now, they'd need 160-200 spots for skaters and 35-55 for officials/coaches.
Now, how willing the synchro community to even go to 12 is debatable. If only 10 teams in the world can go to the Olympics, should the 12 skater rule be only for those 10 teams/Senior level teams or should it extend to all levels of the sport? Would it affect the sport choreographically (ie. formations, rules that benefit teams with 16 skaters)? Would this cut access to synchro so that fewer people would be able to compete? From what I've seen exactly 0 coaches outside of those in small markets struggling to get 16 skaters like the change down to 12.
