The organising committee for the next Winter Games asked the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday not only to include ski mountaineering in the programme, but also to expand it to feature individual men’s and women’s events.
Skimo made its Olympic debut at Milano Cortina with the individual sprint and the mixed relay. Despite the biting cold and heavy snow, the sport received a warm reception wth scores of fans turning up at the Stelvio Ski Centre. In its maiden appearance at the Games, France finished on the podium in all three events, taking the bronze in the men’s sprint, silver in the women’s sprint and the title in the mixed relay. Edgar Grospiron, who heads the French Alps 2030 organising committee, wants the sport to make a comeback.
“Ski mountaineering is an integral part of our vision for the Games. It’s a sport that’s gaining momentum and showcases another, wilder side of the mountains,” the committee president and former moguls skier explained to French newspaper L’Équipe.
Grospiron stressed the added value of the sport, which is a popular pastime across the Alpine nations, allowing participants to push their endurance by combining uphill skiing with skins and a downhill descent in wild areas far from groomed pistes.
“We want three events, including the individual, which is the flagship event with 1,000 meters of vertical gain and requires both endurance and technical skill,” he explained. The current Olympic format for the sprint tops out at 140 meters in the mixed relay.
The former Olympic champion furthered that the ski mountaineering events will take place in the Southern Alps in the Briançonnais region. The venue could be shared with another discipline, such as freeride, which is expected to be proposed to the IOC during the executive board meeting later this month or freestyle skiing in Serre Chevalier.
One proposed sport has already been rejected for the 2030 programme, ice climbing. The sport has been campaigning for its inclusion for over a decade, and the International Federation of Climbing and Mountaineering and the French Federation of Alpine and Mountain Clubs published the French Alps committee’s response in a statement released last week.
“This decision should in no way be interpreted as a judgment on the quality of the application submitted by your federation. On the contrary, your application has demonstrated numerous strengths, notably the strong link between this sport and the mountain environment, its growing international reach, and your community’s commitment to the development of the discipline.”
Several sports remain on hold, but may be under consideration for demonstrations, including telemark skiing and snow polo. Established sport Nordic combined, which has been firmly on the programme since the first Winter Games in Chamonix, is also awaiting its fate.
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