Orienteering at Victoria 2026

By Luke Bennett

It is evident that Orienteering is becoming a much more popular sport. The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) recognises 76 countries who formally orienteer with some more countries that still have runners competing in some form of cross-country running with a map. In addition, over 85,000 people took part in World Orienteering Day 2022.

So, how can the sport grow more and appeal to the younger generations? Many clubs now have many forms of social media to promote younger people. In some countries, walking orienteering is a very popular option to people who would rather go for a nice walk in a park. Australia, however, have put in a bid for the inclusion of Orienteering at the Commonwealth games 2026!

There would be no doubt that it would be highly competitive, as over 20 countries recognised by the IOF, are part of the Commonwealth. Orienteering Australia have proposed; an individual, a knockout sprint and a sprint relay which would take competitors and spectators through the landmarks of Victoria.

Unlike sports like athletics, there is no stadium required to host orienteering and so costs would be kept to a minimum when finding a suitable

On the other hand, whilst orienteering is exciting to watch for people who do orienteering themselves, it isn't exactly a spectator sport, and it isn’t easy to film for live coverage on the TV. People may opt to watch the more ‘traditional’ Commonwealth Games sports such as athletics etc…

Despite this, the recent technology has allowed the IOF to show coverage of events like WOC 2022 live on TV (at the cost of a small subscription), or a few weeks later, you can watch for free on their YouTube channel. This shows that the technology is there and would just require the people to watch it.

In my (slightly biased) opinion, I think it would be a great idea to include orienteering at Victoria 2026 as it will increase the diversity of sports at a big event and will publicise the sport to a much larger pool of people who perhaps have never heard of the sport before!