A brand-new Olympic sport is making its historic debut this week in the Italian Alps, where ski mountaineering has deep roots dating back centuries.
The discipline, commonly called SkiMo, will hold its first-ever Olympic competitions starting Thursday with men’s and women’s sprint races in Bormio, Italy. The location is particularly meaningful since this mountainous Alpine region is considered the birthplace of competitive ski mountaineering.
THE COMPETITION FORMAT
SkiMo blends uphill climbing and downhill skiing into one intense race. The Olympic sprint version features rapid-fire heats lasting approximately three minutes each, with 36 total athletes competing across three elimination rounds leading to the finals.
Each competitor must navigate three distinct segments: climbing uphill on skis equipped with special gripping “skins,” carrying their skis in backpacks while running up stairs on foot (called boot-packing), and finally skiing downhill to the finish through a course that may include jumps and rolling terrain features.
Success depends heavily on how quickly athletes can transition between these different phases, making it a true race against time where the fastest finisher claims victory.
Saturday will feature a mixed-gender relay format, with male-female teams each completing two rounds together.
DEEP ROOTS IN HOST REGION
While ski mountaineering’s origins stretch back hundreds of years to Alpine military training, the sport holds special significance in the Bormio area hosting these Olympic events.
“It’s kind of where ski mountaineering racing came to life,” explained Michela Martinelli, who serves as sport manager of ski mountaineering for Milano Cortina, describing the Alpine region around Bormio. The area has produced numerous elite SkiMo athletes and houses a premier ski equipment manufacturer specializing in the sport.
The modern competitive version developed primarily during the 1980s when recreational races began emerging. The sport held its inaugural World Championships in 2002 in Serre Chevalier, France, later joined the Youth Olympic Games in 2022, and now reaches the Winter Olympics at Milano Cortina.
Adding to the local connection, two Italian competitors – Giulia Murada and Michele Boscacci – hail from the surrounding region, with both of their fathers actually helping construct the Olympic course.
Their fathers, Ivan Murada and Graziano Boscacci, are accomplished ski mountaineers themselves who captured the team event at that first-ever World Championship, contributing significantly to Italy’s prominence in the sport.
TOP CONTENDERS TO FOLLOW
France’s Emily Harrop enters as the defending world number one in women’s sprint from last year, while Spain’s Oriol Cardona Coll holds the same distinction in the men’s division.
However, they’ll face strong challenges from competitors including Switzerland’s Marianne Fatton and Jon Kistler, plus France’s Thibault Anselmet, who claimed the most recent World Cup men’s sprint victory in Spain earlier this February.
The French pair of Harrop and Anselmet, who won the mixed relay at that same competition, will battle not only Spanish and Swiss teams but also Italian married couple Michele Boscacci and Alba de Silvestro, along with promising American newcomers Anna Gibson and Cam Smith from the United States.
