Ski mountaineering (skimo) made its Olympic debut at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games on Thursday, February 19, in Bormio, Italy. The sprint format — roughly 725 meters with a 65-meter climb, transition zones, and a downhill finish — was conducted in heavy blizzard conditions that affected course conditions and some competitors' performances.
In the women's final, Switzerland's Marianne Fatton, a two-time world champion, overtook heavy favorite Emily Harrop of France after Harrop struggled in the transitions. Fatton finished in 2:59.77, with Harrop taking silver 2.34 seconds back and Spain's Ana Alonso Rodriguez earning bronze. Harrop, a six-time world champion who had not lost a sprint race in nearly a year, was tripped up by equipment transitions rather than raw speed.
In the men's final, Spain's Oriol Cardona Coll — the reigning world champion and World Cup title holder — won gold in 2:34.03. Russia's Nikita Filippov, competing under the Individual and Neutral (AIN) banner, took silver 1.52 seconds back — marking the first Olympic medal for a neutral athlete at these Games. France's Thibault Anselmet took bronze. Two Swiss men who had led early, Arno Lietha and Jon Kistler, were undone by conditions and a slip on the stairs.
The sprint format is a compressed version of traditional skimo, which involves multi-hour races over rugged terrain. The Olympic version lasts roughly three minutes. A mixed relay is scheduled for Saturday.
