Discussion Groups / English Usage / February 2010

While watching the Winter Olympics I noticed that BBC commentators and
experts sometimes put a schwa in the names of two of the events: Ski
Cross and Board Cross.

It turns out that they are "right" and the organisers of the Olympics
are "wrong".

The events were renamed, possibly accidentally, by the International Ski
Federation (FIS) when it took control of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardercross

   Snowboard cross (also Snowboarder X, SBX, Boardercross, Boarder-X or
   BX) is a snowboard  competition in which ....

   Still widely referred to as boardercross by the snowboarding
   community, it wasn't until the International Ski Federation (FIS)
   (the international governing body for ski and snowboard sports)
   assumed control of Olympic snowboarding events that the term
   snowboard cross materialized. This was due largely to the language
   barrier; when boardercross is translated into the FIS's native
   French and back again, snowboard cross emerges as a literal
   translation.[citation needed]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skiercross

   Ski cross (also known as skiercross or skier-X) is a type of skiing
   competition. It is based on the snowboarding discipline of
   boardercross.