In honor of the Olympics, it’s time for some real IHSA winter sports

Unlike the NHL, the IHSA winter sports aren’t taking a three-week break for the Olympics.

Not that there’s any reason to take a break, but we digress.

Ticking through the IHSA’s main seasonal offerings — boys and girls basketball, boys swimming and diving, boys and girls wrestling, and girls gymnastics — a trend emerges. Despite taking place during our darkest, coldest, snowiest months, each “winter” sport actually competes in the Summer Olympics.

Is it time to acknowledge our Chi-berian roots and embrace winter sports that actually compete during the Winter Olympics?

Sure, we’ve got high school hockey going on right now, but in terms of the IHSA it remains a club-level sport. And it’s played indoors in semi-comfortable arenas.

In honor of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics starting up this week in Italy, let’s take a break and dream about potential outdoor IHSA winter sports.

We’ve been shoveling, snow blowing and walking our dogs while enduring this tundra, so we’re fairly acclimated to the climate. It’s time to enjoy our frozen wonderland.

But first, let’s eliminate a couple Olympic sporting possibilities right off the bat. Ski jumping and the biathlon are out for obvious safety and liability reasons.

Next, we’ll look around the country for advice. Maybe Illinois could borrow from the surrounding states.

Colorado, Wyoming, Michigan and Minnesota are among the states with official high school sports like skiing. But (aside from the hills near Galena) the flat prairies of Illinois clearly won’t support the slaloms.

Plus, snow isn’t always a guarantee in northern Illinois, let alone the central and southern parts of the state. That actually knocks out this entire idea, but let’s dream on.

If you held a vote among high schoolers to add an outdoor sport to the IHSA winter season, I bet the winner would be luge, skeleton or bobsledding.

Every adventurous kid loves the snow for one major reason: the chance to sled down a hill, the steeper the better. But without enough viable facilities, not to mention the logistic details of actually acquiring a bobsled, raising the idea to the IHSA level doesn’t seem realistic.

The extreme Olympic sports, the ones featured in the winter X-Games, also would be popular options. Who doesn’t want to wear those sweet uniforms and snowboard like Chloe Kim in the halfpipe? But, again, we can’t get past the practical and liability issues.

The list shrinks more once you eliminate figure skating, speed skating and curling. The point is to head outside in the winter, right?

With all that in mind, how about getting behind the idea of IHSA cross country skiing? Let’s assume the required gear and iffy snow amounts aren’t an obstacle.

Illinois already boasts a storied history of amazing cross country runners and trails, which makes Nordic skiing the obvious choice. Just strap on those skis and watch our top athletes fly through the snow.

Of course, I hope you realize this all remains a dream.

It’s tough enough heading outside for bitterly cold girls soccer games in March. The last few weeks would’ve been too brutal.

Just something I’ve been thinking about while hiding under my blanket waiting for the Olympics to start.