Ski mountaineering is ready for its Olympic debut, starting with the men’s and women’s sprint events on Thursday. It does so in a mountain region rich with the sport’s history.
HOW IT WORKS
Ski mountaineering, known as SkiMo, is a sport that combines ascending mountainous terrain and skiing back down. The condensed version, the sprint event, will feature at the Winter Games, lasting around three minutes per heat.
With three rounds, from heats to final, and 36 athletes competing in total, each ski mountaineer must complete the race in three parts: an uphill trek on skis with “skins” underneath that grip the snow, a walk upstairs on foot with the skis stowed in a backpack, known as boot-packing, and finally a ski down to the finish line, which may include jumps or rolls built into the snow.
With transitions between each stage being a key part of winning the competition, it becomes a race against the clock, as the first athlete across the finish line wins.
There will also be a mixed relay with one man and one woman per team competing together to complete two rounds each on Saturday.
LONG HISTORY, FAMILIAL TIES IN BORMIO
Not only does SkiMo’s history trace back hundreds of years to Alpine military training, it also has rich history specific to its Olympic host location.
“It’s kind of where ski mountaineering racing came to life,” Michela Martinelli, sport manager of ski mountaineering for Milano Cortina, said of the Alpine region surrounding Bormio, which boasts many successful SkiMo athletes and a leading ski manufacturer for the sport.
SkiMo evolved largely in the 1980s when recreational races started to appear, with its first world championships held in 2002 in Serre Chevalier, France. In 2022, it was adopted into the Youth Olympic Games before being added for Milano Cortina.
Two competing Italian athletes, Giulia Murada and Michele Boscacci, are from the surrounding region, and both have their fathers helping prepare the Olympic course.
Their fathers, Ivan Murada and Graziano Boscacci, are decorated ski mountaineers. Together, they won the team race at the first world championships, playing a large part in Italy’s success in the sport.
WHO TO WATCH
France’s Emily Harrop will defend her world No. 1 ranking in the women’s sprint from last year, while Spain’s Oriol Cardona Coll will defend his own.
They face tough competition from racers such as Switzerland’s Marianne Fatton and Jon Kistler, and France’s Thibault Anselmet, who won the most recent World Cup men’s sprint race earlier in February in Spain.
The French duo, Harrop and Anselmet, who won the mixed relay at the same event, will compete not only against Spain and Switzerland but also against married couple Michele Boscacci and Alba de Silvestro from Italy.
Hopeful newcomers Anna Gibson and Cam Smith will represent the United States.
