The sport of ski mountaineering made its long-awaited Olympics debut on Thursday and crowned its first champion at the Milan Cortina Games. With snow falling, Marianne Fatton of Switzerland navigated the uphill-then-downhill sprint course lined with a diamond-shaped pattern and stairs in a lung-searing time of 2 minutes, 59.77 seconds. She edged out Emily Harrop of France by 2.38 seconds. Ana Alonso Rodriguez of Spain took bronze as she competed on a torn ACL. "It's a magical day," said Fatton, who's also the reigning world champion. "It's history for our sport, and for us as athletes, and it's wonderful."
In the men's sprint race, Oriol Cardona Coll of Spain cruised to the win. Nikita Filippov finished with the silver, becoming the first individual neutral athlete to earn a medal in Italy. Thibault Anselmet of France captured bronze. Ski mountaineering, called "skimo" for short, was voted into the Olympic program in 2021. The falling snow provided a fitting backdrop for a niche Alpine sport that traces its roots back to the late 19th century. "I think the show today was pretty special," Harrop said. "There was a lot of suspense."
The course made for entertaining theater, resembling almost a snow park of assorted obstacles. First, athletes weaved their way through a diamond-shaped pattern before taking off their skis to climb the steps in their ski boots, storing their skis in a backpack. They put them back on for another sprint to the top. Upon reaching the summit of the course, athletes then hopped in the air to rip off their "skins," pieces of fabric on the bottom of the skis that allow athletes to hurry uphill. After that, it was all downhill from there as they flew along the Stelvio course toward the finish line.
This particular gold medal carried a lot of weight, given the stakes. Fatton claims the coveted title of "first ever" to earn an Olympic title in their sport. Cardona Coll wasn't far behind as the men's race was staged 20 minutes later. Asked how the gold medal felt around his neck, Cardona Coll simply laughed: "It feels heavy. There was a lot of pressure," he said of being the favorite. "I'm relaxed now." Filippov also felt the pressure. "I was telling myself, 'Just relax, Nikita. Do your thing and a medal will come,'" he says.
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
