By PAT GRAHAM, AP Sports activities Author
The Milan Cortina Winter Olympics will debut a brand new sport subsequent month: Ski mountaineering, which mixes uphill sprinting (on boots and on skis) and downhill snowboarding. Though the game on the worldwide stage is comparatively new, it does have roots courting to the late nineteenth century. Backcountry winter sports activities have grown in recognition and there may be anecdotal proof that they noticed a surge in participation throughout the pandemic.
One thing to find out about skimo: It’s quick, with dash races lasting about 3 minutes.
The way it works
Ski mountaineering can have males’s and girls’s dash occasions together with a combined relay.
The race works like this: The racers dash uphill with skins on the underside of their skis. A pores and skin is a strip of fabric that permits for traction going uphill. They then run a piece in boots earlier than placing their skis again on to traverse one other uphill part. As soon as on the high, they take the skins off and race downhill. Within the males’s and girls’s sprint-event format, there can be a qualifying spherical the place 18 racers qualify over three heats. The highest three athletes in every warmth advance to the semifinals together with three others based mostly on time. Within the semifinal rounds, two advance together with two extra “fortunate losers,” which units up the race for medals. The combined relay consists of 1 feminine and one male racer from every nation. Every will full two ascents and descents. The feminine athlete begins, then tags her male teammate for the change. The group that completes all 4 laps first wins gold.
Who to observe
The present ski mountaineering dash champions are Swiss racer Marianne Fatton and Spain’s Oriol Cardona Coll. One other favourite is France’s Emily Harrop, who gained the check occasion on the venue final winter forward of Fatton. Coll gained the lads’s occasion forward of Swiss racers Jon Kistler and Arno Lietha. Within the combined relay occasion, Coll partnered with Ana Alonso Rodriguez for the win. Harrop and Thibault Anselmet had been second. Rodriguez mentioned in October she was hit by a automotive whereas biking, tearing knee ligaments, hoping to heal in time. The U.S. earned an Olympic spot within the combined relay because of a World Cup victory from Anna Gibson and Cam Smith.
-
FILE – Athletes compete throughout the ladies’s dash race on the Ski Mountaineering World Cup occasion in Bormio, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Picture/Antonio Calanni, file)
1 of 3
FILE – Athletes compete throughout the ladies’s dash race on the Ski Mountaineering World Cup occasion in Bormio, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025. (AP Picture/Antonio Calanni, file)
Venues and dates
The races can be staged in Bormio on the Stelvio Ski Heart, with the men’s and women’s sprint events happening on Feb. 19. The combined relay competitors takes place two days later.
Memorable moments
The medal winners would be the first of their sport on the Olympics.
Enjoyable information
There are penalties within the race for issues reminiscent of disrespectful conduct, unsportsmanlike conduct, technical errors and tools that’s lacking. The penalties vary from a disqualification to including time. The primary ski mountaineering world championships had been held in France in 2002. The game is presided over by the Worldwide Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF), representing roughly 55 nationwide federations throughout 5 continents. Ski mountaineering was a part of the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics in Lausanne. The game is proposed for the 2030 Winter Video games within the French Alps.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
