Ski Mountaineering to be proposed as an additional sport for Milano Cortina 2026

Ski Mountaineering will be put forward as an additional sport in Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026. The IOC Executive Board on Friday forwarded this proposal to the next IOC session in Tokyo in July.

The Organising Committee of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 had officially proposed the inclusion of Ski Mountaineering, governed by the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF), as an additional sport to the programme of this specific edition of the Games.

The proposal to include Ski Mountaineering consists of:

- 5 new medal events: 2 men's events (Sprint/Individual), 2 women's events (Sprint/Individual), 1 mixed-gender relay event

- 48 athlete quotas (24 men/24women) to be found within the overall framework of the 2,900 quota.

These five proposed events will follow the principles set for all other events in the programme, including the implementation of a full venue-sharing model with no additional or standalone Games venue for ski mountaineering.

This framework, approved by the IOC Executive Board on June 10 and fully supported by the Milano Cortina 2026 Board of Directors in its meeting on June 14, reiterates key considerations around athlete quotas and venue master plan to reduce the cost and complexity of hosting the Olympic Games within a post-pandemic context.

In its decision, the IOC EB highlighted the key features of Ski Mountaineering that support its potential inclusion to the programme of Milano Cortina 2026.

"The same five Ski Mountaineering events contributed to the success of the Winter Youth Olympic Games Lausanne 2020; Ski Mountaineering is a particularly popular sport in Italy, with deep historical and sporting roots across the alpine regions. Italy is also one of the world's leading nations with several international successes in major competitions over the past 10 years," an IOC release said.

The recommendation of the IOC EB for the inclusion of Ski Mountaineering in the sports programme of Milano Cortina 2026 will be discussed and finalised at the IOC Session in Tokyo on July 20-21, 2021, while the determination of the full event programme and athlete quotas will take place at the IOC EB meeting in June 2022.

( With inputs from ANI )