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Ski mountaineering is making its Winter Olympics debut at Milano Cortina 2026 (theconversation.com)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/olympics@sh.itjust.works
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excerpt:

It’s an endurance sport in which athletes ascend mountains on skis fitted with climbing skins, carry their skis over sections too steep to skin and then descend on alpine terrain. In total, 36 skimo athletes will compete at the Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio.

The Olympic format features two events: the individual sprint and the mixed relay. Athletes alternate between uphill climbing with ski skins, boot-packing and downhill skiing. Sprint races last about three to four minutes, while the mixed relay features longer, more demanding courses.

Alongside skimo, the 2026 Games have introduced women’s doubles luge, women’s large hill individual ski jumping, a freestyle skiing dual moguls event and alpine skiing team combined.

Skimo stands out within the Olympic landscape as the first new sport to be introduced within the Winter Games since skeleton was introduced at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.

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[–] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Yeah this shit is in the games, but roller blading is too "niche"

You ever go UP a mountain on skis? Fucking no LOL.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 8 months ago

    IMO both should be in the games.

    I didn't know as much about skimo before, but after watching an event I do see it as a serious sport. It might also be a thing for military/search and rescue type tasks, but I can't find a good source for that

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Roller blading doesn't seem too niche to me.

    Ski touring is a real thing. Skimo is an attempt to distill that into a competitive (and airable) format. It feels like a pretty natural inclusion in the host of alpine & Nordic sports. Much more natural than biathlon.

    I'm not sure what the actual inclusion criteria are, but roller blading seems like it might have stiffer competition. Winter sports seem constrained to mostly snow & ice related activities. Summer has to deal with everything else.

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    • [–] 3 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    I watched some of this!

    Damn Australian broadcast only showed one heat, the one with an Aussie in it. (Well...at least that's all I saw. I only switched to the channel by coincidence just before that heat happened. And then during the subsequent and final heat, they didn't show anything...just showed an interview with the Aussie who came like 4th in his heat...which was good enough that he might make the semis if the 4th place in the final heat doesn't beat his time, IIRC.)

    But as a sport it looked really interesting. I wish they had shown more of it, and I'll be keeping my eyes out for it in the future. It was very exciting and dynamic in a way that, for me, most Winter Olympic sports kinda aren't.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    Definitely! The description makes it sound silly, but the actual sport is fun to watch

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    It's honestly what I always thought cross-country skiing should be, apart from the bit where they take off the skis to climb up some stairs.

    I'd like to see some more variety in it. More transition back and forth, instead of basically one section of each type. Maybe some parts where it's kinda borderline and they need to make a decision about whether swapping ski modes or stick it out how they had it, because of a shorter length.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 8 months ago

    Definitely!

    Olympic events seem to standardize the events as much as possible for easy and accurate judging. I'll have to check out some non-olympic competitions for this sport to see what they are like. Since yea, I also want to see people making those calls and finding interesting ways to get around obstacles in a forest or other complex setting.

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