The 2026 Winter Video games in Milano Cortina will characteristic extra medals than earlier years, due to eight new occasions. Essentially the most notable addition is ski mountaineering-or “skimo”-an completely new Olympic sport.
Skimo is a take a look at of endurance the place athletes climb up steep mountains on skis after which race again down. It combines the bodily problem of mountaineering with the technical pace of snowboarding. With three gold medals on the road, it is he greatest change to the Winter Olympics lineup in years. This is all the things you’ll want to learn about skimo and the way, when, and the place to look at.
Meet skimo, the brand new Olympic sport
As you might need guessed from the title, skimo is a brand new snowboarding occasion. Not like different ski races, this one includes going each uphill and downhill, combining the endurance of Nordic snowboarding with the daring of alpine racing, with a pinch of NASCAR pit crew feeling on the high, as rivals transition from climbing to snowboarding down.
A skimo race begins on the backside of the hill. Skiers begin with carpet-like strips referred to as “skins” on the underside of their skis, which assist them grip the snow as they race uphill. As if cross-country snowboarding wasn’t sufficient of an cardio take a look at of ache tolerance, let’s make it more durable and race uphill!
As racers close to the highest of the skimo course, there will probably be a piece too steep for skis, so racers will hop out of their skis, throw them on their again and hike up the hill of their boots. This exhausting part known as “boot packing.”
Lastly, on the high, racers will bounce again into their skis, strip off the skins with surprising effectivity after which race down the hill by means of a sequence of gates to the end line. This downhill part will seem like a large slalom race, for these conversant in alpine ski racing.
Earlier than you race down, you should pores and skin and hike up.
What are the three skimo occasions?
There are males’s and girls’s dash occasions, in addition to a blended relay.
The dash occasions will probably be accomplished sooner than you’ll ever anticipate. Racers will climb roughly 230 toes to the highest over the 2 uphill sections after which race all the way down to the end line in beneath three minutes.
The blended relay will characteristic groups of 1 man and one lady. Every racer will undergo the course twice, with the lady racing the primary and third legs and the person racing the second and ultimate legs. Since skimo racers use ski poles, there isn’t any baton passing in a skimo relay — a easy tag is all that’s required to go the race to your teammate. The group with the quickest cumulative time wins.
The blended relay course is longer than the dash races and, in a twist, incorporates a bootpack part on the second ascent however not the primary. The full time for the blended relay race is anticipated to be round half-hour.
When are the skimo occasions on the 2026 Olympics?
The lads’s and girls’s dash occasions happen on Thursday, Feb. 19, on the Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio. All of the skimo sprints will happen on this in the future, from the primary heats to the gold medal ultimate in each the boys’s and girls’s competitions.
Every subject consists of 18 rivals who race in three heats of six. The highest three from every warmth, plus the three quickest who did not routinely qualify, advance to the semifinals. The 2 quickest from every semifinal, together with the 2 next-best occasions, create a subject of six for the skimo ultimate.
There aren’t any preliminary heats for the blended relay occasion, only a ultimate, consisting of 12 to 18 groups. The lads’s and girls’s blended relay finals will probably be run on Saturday, Feb. 21.
Cam Smith will accomplice with Anna Gibson for Group USA within the blended relay skimo competitors.
Which international locations are one of the best at skimo?
Ski mountaineering began within the Alps, so it will not shock you once I inform you that France, Italy and Switzerland have traditionally dominated the skimo scene. Finally yr’s Ski Mountaineering World Championships, France gained 9 medals (4 gold), Switzerland gained seven (three gold) and Italy was third in complete medals with 4.
The present males’s world champion is Spain’s Oriol Cardona Coll. He is the gold medal favourite in Milan Cortina for the boys’s dash. Emily Harrop from France is the favourite for the ladies’s dash.
Who’s on the US skimo group?
Anna Gibson and Cam Smith will signify Group USA within the blended relay race. They turned the primary American group ever to win a blended relay World Cup occasion. Their win at Solitude, Utah, was not solely historic on a nationwide stage but in addition certified them for the Olympics.
Gibson is a 26-year-old from Jackson, Wyoming, with a background in path working and Nordic snowboarding. Hailing from Rockford, Illinois, Smith is 30 years previous and the closest the US has to a skimo veteran. He is an 11-time US Ski Mountaineering nationwide champion and a five-time North American Ski Mountaineering champion.
