A brand new Olympic sport will make its debut in coming days, and an Illinois athlete will be on the slopes for the event.
Ski mountaineering, long a sporting fixture in numerous European countries and especially in Italy, will burst onto the world stage later this week, with competitors required to go up and down a mountain course in mere minutes.
Here’s everything you need to know, including when an athlete from our own backyard will be competing.
What is “ski mountaineering”?
The Olympics have long featured downhill alpine skiing and cross-country skiing, but the sport of ski mountaineering requires the impressive athletic feat of being able to climb up a mountain course on skis.
What’s more, athletes are even required to complete part of the course without their skis before descending back down the mountain to the finish line.
In ski mountaineering, an athlete starts the course on their skis and climbing uphill, with “skins” on the bottom of their skis to increase the amount of grip they have while going up the slope.
Athletes are then required to take their skis off and climb the steepest part of the mountain on foot, carrying their skis on a backpack.
At the top of the course, the athletes will rip the skins off the bottom of their skis and descend to the bottom of the course through a technical downhill section.
Which local athlete will be competing?
Cameron Smith, 30, was born and raised in Rockford, Illinois, and has been competing in ski mountaineering events for more than a decade.
He punched his ticket to the debut edition of the ski mountaineering event when he and his teammate Anna Gibson won a gold medal in the opening World Cup race in early December.
He has two top-ten finishes in men’s team events at the World Championships, including in 2025, and his best individual finish at Worlds was a 22nd-place finish last year.
How fast are competitors expected to complete the course?
Despite being fairly complex, races in ski mountaineering are over in a flash, with competitors typically completing the course in roughly three-to-four minutes.
When will the events take place?
The men’s and women’s individual sprint events will take place on Thursday, with the first heats beginning at 2:55 a.m. Central time with the women’s event. The men will compete beginning at 3:30 a.m.
You can watch that event here:
The semifinal round takes place just before 6 a.m., and the finals will get underway around 7 a.m.
The mixed relay will conclude the competition on Saturday at 6:30 a.m. Teams of one man and one woman will compete, with the competitors on each squad completing the course twice.
Smith will compete with Anna Gibson in the mixed relay.
from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/a1muilS
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