On the afternoon of Saturday, February 21, the second-to-last day of the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics, ski mountaineering groups took to the slopes within the 2026 Olympic Video games Ski Mountaineering Combined Relay race within the sport’s debut on the Video games. Among the many 12 groups of two, the highest 4 groups had path runners competing, displaying that the crossover between ski mountaineering (skimo) and path working is actual.
France’s Emily Harrop on her method to incomes a gold medal within the 2026 Olympic Video games Ski Mountaineering Combined Relay. Picture: AP Picture/Rebecca Blackwell
Racing below cloudy skies and on quick, hard-packed snow, Emily Harropwho has expertise in skyrunning, together with a fifth-place end on the 2021 La Skyrhune race and a win on the 2021 Tignes Path, led Group France to a dominant gold medal alongside teammate Thibault Anselmet in 26:57.44. She gained silver within the skimo particular person dash occasion simply two days in the past. Marianne Fatton of Group Switzerland — who gained gold within the Olympic ladies’s dash occasion and has high ends in path working, together with a sixth place on the 2021 Marathon du Mont Blanc 42k and a win on the 2021 Swiss Canyon Path 31k — led the Swiss to silver. Oriol Cardonawho has performed loads of skyrunning and mountain path races — together with putting sixth on the 2019 Zegama Marathon — earlier than specializing in skimo beginning in 2022, anchored Group Spain for a bronze medal after successful gold within the males’s dash. Curiously, Cardona is coached by Kilian Jornetadditional displaying that the 2 sports activities are actually just one diploma of separation aside.
And in what was undoubtedly the shock efficiency of the occasion, Cam Smith and Anna Gibson of Group USA powered their manner from a ninth-place seed to a fourth-place end, simply 17 seconds out of the medals. Whereas the opposite groups have had years of expertise racing collectively — Group France gained the 2025 and 2023 Worldwide Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF) Combined Relay World Championships and Group Spain gained the 2024 ISMF Combined Relay European Championships and had been second on the 2025 ISMF World Championships — Smith and Gibson first raced collectively in on the 2025 ISMF Solitude World Cup this previous December, an occasion they gained to earn their ticket to the Olympics.
The Combined Relay: An Particular person Group Occasion
The blended relay occasion occurred two days after the person males’s and ladies’s sprints and was held on a for much longer course, favoring endurance specialists. All 24 of the athletes within the blended relay additionally competed within the particular person dash races.
Within the blended relay, every crew member completes two laps of the course, alternating between the laps — with the ladies opening the race and the lads anchoring the ultimate lap. Every lap has a number of segments, together with snowboarding uphill with skins — which give grip — connected to the skis, climbing stairs with the skis on the again, and descending after taking the skins off. The blended relay course had an extended ascent on skis, adopted by a downhill. Then, racers returned to the person dash course for an additional uphill ski, ascent of the steps, and uphill ski, earlier than snowboarding right down to the end. On the backside, skiers needed to put their skins again on their skis earlier than tagging their associate to exit on their lap. The transitions between every of the totally different modes of motion are vital and need to be performed in particular areas.
Spain’s Ana Alonso (left) and Spain’s Oriol Cardona compete in the course of the 2026 Olympic Video games Ski Mountaineering Combined Relay. Picture: AP Picture/Gabriele Facciotti
Not like the dash occasions, which had three rounds — a preliminary, semi-final, and ultimate — with six athletes every, the blended relay had just one spherical with all 12 groups on the course on the identical time.
The blended relay is a comparatively new occasion within the skimo world and was solely not too long ago added to the ISMF World Cup calendar in 2022, after it was introduced that the format can be used on the 2026 Olympics. Harrop and Anselmet gained the primary blended relay ISMF World Cup occasion in Val Thorens, France, in 2022.
The Olympic Combined Relay Race
The ladies lined up for the blended relay first, with the highest six seeds, together with Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and France, on the entrance line. Group USA began from the second row with their ninth-place seed. By the highest of the primary uphill ski, Harrop had moved properly away from the sphere with Ana Alonso of Spain and Fatton of Switzerland — the dash bronze and gold medalists, respectively — chasing aspect by aspect. By the point Harrop completed her first lap in 7:06, she had a 9-second hole on her chasers. Group USA was in fifth. Anselmet of France held the crew’s lead on his first lap and had the identical 9-second hole on second-place Switzerland and a 13-second hole on Spain when he tagged Harrop to start out her second lap. Smith had moved Group USA into fourth place on the finish of his first lap.
The U.S.’s Cam Smith (left) and Anna Gibson have a good time after ending fourth on the 2026 Olympic Video games Ski Mountaineering Combined Relay. Picture: AP Picture/Gabriele Facciotti
On the ladies’s second lap, it turned a battle between France and Switzerland for the gold, and Spain, Italy, and the U.S. for the bronze. Spain incurred a 3-second penalty after Alonso transitioned outdoors the right space on the finish of her second lap, and Group USA was briefly in third out on target for a section. When the lads went out for his or her ultimate lap, France led Switzerland by 1.3 seconds, and the U.S., Italy, and Spain had been all inside a second of one another. Ultimately, France held on, Switzerland and Spain stuffed out the medals, and the U.S. completed forward of Italy.
It was tight racing up till the very finish, with gaps rising and shrinking unexpectedly all through the occasion, making it a captivating debut for skimo on the Olympic Video games.
Different Path Runners on Skis
Group Poland, which positioned ninth, additionally had a path runner, Iwona Januszykwho gained the 2025 Tatra Sky Marathon 15k and has positioned properly in different path occasions throughout Poland.
Group Australia, made up of Lara Hamilton and Phillip Bellinghamcompleted twelfth. Hamilton represented Australia and the 2025 World Mountain Working Championships Up and Down Race, gained the 2023 Extremely-Path Australia 20k, and has positioned close to the entrance of fields in occasions just like the 2025 Vauban Mountain Path VK and 2025 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. Bellingham, in the meantime, is a cross-country skier competing in his fourth and ultimate Olympics.
Emily Harrop (France) taking fifth on the 2021 La Skyrhune race. Picture: Jean Baptiste Joly
