I am currently in New Zealand, a country anticipating the restoration of rugby to the Olympic programme at Rio 2016 like few others.

It is a nation with sport in its soul, as illustrated by two old photographs stumbled upon in unexpected places.

The first at a wharf at Okarito, a wetland where a blue whale was once washed up, depicted a rudimentary local pole-vault competition from long ago; the second in a bar at Milford Sound showed workers on the Homer Tunnel, in a spot so exposed that snow-patches linger in the Southern Hemisphere summer, playing cricket in the 1930s.

It is a stunning place, and the visit has prompted a couple of Olympics-related thoughts, the first very simple: it is high time the Winter Olympics and Paralympics were staged south of the equator and New Zealand would make a fabulous location.

The trip - which included a few days in Queenstown, "Adventure Capital of the World", according to our travel itinerary - has also helped me to work out why, besides advanced age, I am instinctively rather suspicious of adventure sports.

New Zealand would make a fabulous location for the Winter Olympics and Paralympics
©Getty Images


This is quite a topical area for the Olympic Movement, which will, I think, find itself increasingly drawn to this exciting, adrenalin-fuelled new province of Planet Sport in its endeavours to remain fresh and relevant to young people.

The thing is this: the sports I and the Olympic Movement are most familiar with have been harnessed as means to a certain end.

In the Modern Olympic age, as initiated by Baron de Coubertin, the end, in essence, was inculcation of various qualities regarded as virtues by 19th-century British public schools.

The Ancient Games were designed even more clearly with a greater purpose in mind, this purpose being the formation of effective soldiers.

With adventure pursuits, it is sometimes hard, at least for me, to discern any more profound purpose than self-gratification: the desire to experience the most thrilling ride, or fall, money can buy.

The Ancient Olympic Games were designed to identify effective soldiers ©Getty Images

I don't want to appear judgemental - most visitors to Queenstown and similar centres are merely seeking, no doubt, to enjoy their holidays, and who would begrudge them that?

Many adventure sports, moreover, draw on reserves of skill and courage that any athlete would be proud of.

I suppose too that playing any game, from bridge to American football, as a hobby is a form of self-gratification.

The brazen, wholly unapologetic focus on pleasure-seeking that I associate with adventure pursuits is nonetheless simply not something I am used to in the sporting field; it therefore leaves me feeling fogeyish and uncomfortable.

It would probably serve the Olympic Movement well to have a bigger presence in the adventure sports space ©Getty Images


It also leads me to think that the Olympic Movement may need to reflect on the philosophical underpinnings of adventure sports and how compatible they are with those of Olympism before it steams too far along the path of incorporating more of them into the Games and Youth Games.

Yes, the Olympic world does need to do more to engage young people.

It would probably serve it well to have a bigger presence in the adventure sports space than its embrace of events such as BMX and snowboard cross have so far allowed it.

But it would be well-advised, I feel, to think penetratingly about its aspirations in the sector and to select its vehicles with great care.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.