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 Blended 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, exhibiting that the crossover between ski mountaineering (skimo) and path operating is actual.
France’s Emily Harrop on her strategy to incomes a gold medal within the 2026 Olympic Video games Ski Mountaineering Blended Relay. Photograph: AP Photograph/Rebecca Blackwell
Racing beneath cloudy skies and on quick, hard-packed snow, Emily Harrop, who 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 Workforce France to a dominant gold medal alongside teammate Thibault Anselmet in 26:57.44. She received silver within the skimo particular person dash occasion simply two days in the past. Marianne Fatton of Workforce Switzerland — who received gold within the Olympic ladies’s dash occasion and has prime leads to path operating, 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 Cardona, who has completed loads of skyrunning and mountain path races — together with inserting sixth on the 2019 Zegama Marathon — earlier than specializing in skimo beginning in 2022, anchored Workforce Spain for a bronze medal after profitable gold within the males’s dash. Curiously, Cardona is coached by Kilian Jornet, additional exhibiting 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 Workforce USA powered their method 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 — Workforce France received the 2025 and 2023 Worldwide Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF) Blended Relay World Championships and Workforce Spain received the 2024 ISMF Blended 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 received to earn their ticket to the Olympics.
The Blended Relay: An Particular person Workforce Occasion
The blended relay occasion happened 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 workforce member completes two laps of the course, alternating between the laps — with the ladies opening the race and the boys anchoring the ultimate lap. Every lap has a number of segments, together with snowboarding uphill with skins — which offer 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 one more uphill ski, ascent of the steps, and uphill ski, earlier than snowboarding all the way 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 must be completed in particular areas.
Spain’s Ana Alonso (left) and Spain’s Oriol Cardona compete through the 2026 Olympic Video games Ski Mountaineering Blended Relay. Photograph: AP Photograph/Gabriele Facciotti
In contrast to the dash occasions, which had three rounds — a preliminary, semi-final, and remaining — with six athletes every, the blended relay had just one spherical with all 12 groups on the course on the similar time.
The blended relay is a comparatively new occasion within the skimo world and was solely lately 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 received the primary blended relay ISMF World Cup occasion in Val Thorens, France, in 2022.
The Olympic Blended 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. Workforce USA began from the second row with their ninth-place seed. By the highest of the primary uphill ski, Harrop had moved nicely away from the sphere with Ana Alonso of Spain and Fatton of Switzerland — the dash bronze and gold medalists, respectively — chasing facet by facet. By the point Harrop completed her first lap in 7:06, she had a 9-second hole on her chasers. Workforce USA was in fifth. Anselmet of France held the workforce’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 begin her second lap. Smith had moved Workforce USA into fourth place on the finish of his first lap.
The U.S.’s Cam Smith (left) and Anna Gibson have fun after ending fourth on the 2026 Olympic Video games Ski Mountaineering Blended Relay. Photograph: AP Photograph/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 proper space on the finish of her second lap, and Workforce USA was briefly in third out on the right track for a section. When the boys went out for his or her remaining 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 crammed 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 an enchanting debut for skimo on the Olympic Video games.
Different Path Runners on Skis
Workforce Poland, which positioned ninth, additionally had a path runner, Iwona Januszyk, who received the 2025 Tatra Sky Marathon 15k and has positioned nicely in different path occasions throughout Poland.
Workforce Australia, made up of Lara Hamilton and Phillip Bellingham, completed twelfth. Hamilton represented Australia and the 2025 World Mountain Operating Championships Up and Down Race, received 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 remaining Olympics.
Emily Harrop (France) taking fifth on the 2021 La Skyrhune race. Photograph: Jean Baptiste Joly
