Ski mountaineering is a new sport in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy and mogul skiing, gets an additional twist; skiers now participate in pairs.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
For the first time in three decades, the Winter Olympics will feature an entirely new sport when they officially kick off this Friday, ski mountaineering. The Olympics often tweak events within existing sports, so there are other new events to look forward to as well. NPR’s Rachel Treisman has been tracking all of this and joins us now from Milan. Hey, Rachel.
RACHEL TREISMAN, BYLINE: Hey.
DETROW: Let me just – I will admit, I don’t know the answer (laughter). What is ski mountaineering?
TREISMAN: You are not alone. So skimo, as the cool kids call it, has its roots in alpine countries, like Switzerland. And basically, it used to be kind of just a way to get around. It entails racing uphill on skis with these sticky things on the bottoms of them. Those are called climbing skins, and they basically let you go uphill with traction. And then when skiers get to the top, they have to take off their skis, throw them in their backpacks, maneuver on foot a little bit, and then rip off those skins to ski back down as fast as they can.
DETROW: So you ski uphill, you ski downhill. That’s the race.
TREISMAN: There’s a little bit in the middle.
DETROW: OK.
TREISMAN: But, essentially, yes.
DETROW: I mean, this sounds exhausting. Is there just one of these?
TREISMAN: So there are actually three events in skimo. There’s a women’s sprint, a men’s sprint and a mixed relay. And that’s teams of one man and one woman. And that’s what the U.S. is competing in. The U.S. mixed relay team is made up of Anna Gibson and Cam Smith.
DETROW: OK, I’ve now educated myself on skimo. What are the other new events I need to learn about very quickly?
TREISMAN: Yeah, buckle up. This year’s Games has five new events in sports that already exist, like skiing and luge. So overall, there are a total of eight new medals up for grabs this year. A couple of those are in ski jumping, where women are getting their first chance to compete in the individual large hill competition that men have been doing for years.
And male ski jumpers are getting a rebrand of their traditional four-person competition. It’s called super team, and it now involves pairs of two competing. And freestyle skiing is adding dual moguls, which is pretty wild. It’s where two skiers race side by side down a very bumpy course and go over two different jumps to perform aerial tricks, like flips and twists. American mogul skier Tess Johnson is stoked.
TESS JOHNSON: Just to be a part of that history in and of itself is going to be incredible.
TREISMAN: And she says U.S. women could dominate.
JOHNSON: Our women’s team is very good at duals. We are currently ranked 1, 2, 3, 4.
TREISMAN: This year is also seeing a couple of new events in sliding sports. There will be mixed team skeleton, with a man and a woman from the same country sharing a sled, as well as women’s doubles luge. Altogether, this new crop of events gives women way more opportunities to participate and potentially medal.
DETROW: So there are 16 sports at these Olympics. This is the most in any Winter Games ever. I’m wondering what the process is. Like, maybe inspired by digging out from ice in D.C. the last week or so, like, what if I wanted to pitch, like, competitive snow shoveling? How does that happen?
TREISMAN: Good question. The short answer is that it’s up to the IOC, the International Olympic Committee. And they have some guidelines for new sports, like they must allow both men and women to compete. But the IOC also considers factors like how many countries and continents participate in it and how popular it is among younger people. So think breakdancing, which was added to the Paris Games in 2024.
DETROW: Never forget.
TREISMAN: I talked to Olympic historian Bill Mallon. And he thinks the Winter Games could use even more sports, since they have about half as many as the Summer Games in the same length of time. And actually, he’s not the only one.
BILL MALLON: The Olympic Charter for years has said that sports on the Olympic program have to be sports contested on snow or ice. And the IOC is actually now talking about changing that and bringing in two events within other sports that are held in the Summer Games.
TREISMAN: So not exactly snow shoveling. Those two sports are cross-country running and cyclo-cross racing, which is an off-road form of bike racing. So if either of those succeed, it would give us more events to watch in future Winter Games and also make them a lot more accessible to athletes from other parts of the world.
DETROW: Thank you so much, Rachel.
TREISMAN: Thank you.
DETROW: That is Rachel Treisman. And if you want to hear more, you can sign up for her newsletter, Rachel Goes to the Games, at npr.org/wintergames. You get a behind-the-scenes look at what it is like to be at and to cover these Games from the point of view of an NPR reporter experiencing it all for the first time npr.org/wintergames.
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