It's blue-sky thinking time at the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

It remains to be seen quite how radical the changes ultimately engendered by new President Thomas Bach's Olympic Agenda 2020 turn out to be, but IOC members appear for now to be embracing the spirit of innovation with some enthusiasm.

One aspect of the first day of the 126th IOC Session in Sochi that surprised me this week was the repeated support voiced for the idea of introducing more mixed-gender events onto the Olympic Games programme.

There are, as IOC members lined up to point out, plenty of sound reasons for such an initiative.

The Movement has made pretty good progress on gender equality, in terms of the absolute numbers of male and female athletes who compete at the Games, so perhaps it is time to adjust focus slightly. Mixed-gender events send an important and easily decipherable signal to societies in which girls are still brought up to feel inferior to boys. It might well improve the chances of small countries winning team medals.

I would certainly agree both that lots of good might come of this and that more mixed Olympic events are in any case coming: sailing is introducing a two-person mixed multihull event at Rio 2016; swimming is seemingly not far behind, with mixed relays set to be included in the 2014 World Short Course Championships in Doha in December, some four years after a mixed relay featured at the inaugural Youth Olympics in Singapore.

The Youth Olympics has already gone down the road of mixed events, with the 4x100 metre freestyle relay at the inaugural event in Singapore 2010 ©Getty Images


It is not terribly difficult, moreover, to think of other sports which would be well advised to follow suit as quickly as possible.

For example, athletics: mixed-gender 4x100m and 4x400m relays would be a great way to round off the Olympic track and field programme for a sport which, though the absolute bedrock of Olympic competition, could certainly do with some judicious gingering up.

For example, golf: I can imagine few better ways for this new Olympic sport to counter the rather fusty, conservative image that still dogs it in some circles than to introduce a mixed-gender pairs competition.

For maximum impact, I'd be minded to go for a foursome, rather than a four-ball, format, with male-female pairs playing alternate shots.

You could even argue that mixed-gender pairs would be a positive development in  canoeing and rowing, although I am not sure the case here is quite as strong.

As for mixed-gender tandem in Olympic cycling - hmm, I wonder.

Tandem cycling might be one mixed event not greeting an Olympics any time soon ©Getty Images



The truth is, as anyone who has taken part in a brainstorming might testify, it is easy to get carried away.

Whole worlds can be transformed in not much longer than it takes to write this column; then, little by little, the cold light of day intrudes, exposing flaws in all but the most authentic masterstrokes.

So, if I might be permitted to interject the slightest reality check into a most stimulating debate, it would be to argue that this will – and should be – a gradual, not an overnight, revolution.

New mixed events need to be thoroughly tried and tested by the relevant International Sports Federations (IFs) before being let loose at Olympic level, the apex of the global sporting pyramid.

I see little reason to doubt that the Olympic sports programme of, say, 2032 will feature many more mixed events than we have at present; but it could take quite some time for this proliferation to materialise.

I also think it is important to avoid gimmickry, and to ensure that IFs do not feel pressured to go down the mixed event path come what may, in order to procure a bright, new IOC-approved feather for their cap.

Thomas Bach's blue sky thinking has cultivated a refreshing spirit of debate ©AFP/Getty Images



I sensed perhaps the merest hint of this in an intervention made by Rita Subowo, an IOC member from Indonesia.

Ms Subowo said that, while she agreed with the idea of encouraging gender equity by introducing more mixed events, "I don't know how to implement it in my sport, in volleyball, because the height of the nets is different".

But, she added, almost quoting that famed same-sex songwriting pairing, Lennon and McCartney, "we will work it out".

I must confess this left me with the faintly sinister image of a "smart" volleyball net capable of detecting the gender of the next player to strike the ball and whirring up or down accordingly.

Hats off for now though to the new IOC regime, for the refreshing spirit of debate it is inculcating.

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.