What's new for Milano Cortina 2026? Breaking down the new sport and events added to Olympic programme
Ski Mountaineering will make its Olympic debut in Italy next year.
We’re less than a year away from the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. As the 25th edition of the winter games approaches, athletes are beginning to qualify in their respective sports, while others will have to wait until next winter to officially book their spots.
Team announcements and an announcement of who Canada’s chef de mission is will be made in the coming months, along with the medal designs and so much more. It’s an incredibly exciting time in the leadup to the Games, especially for the athletes who will be competing in new events added to the Olympic programme.
Let’s dive into the eleven new events on the 2026 calendar, as well as some of the Canadians who could compete and potentially challenge for medals in them.
Ski Mountaineering
For the first time since skeleton in 2002, a new sport will be added to the Olympic programme in 2026 — ski mountaineering, also known as skimo.
In skimo, athletes must ascend up a slope using mountaineering skills, either on skis or foot depending on how steep the course is. Once they reach the top they must race back down to the bottom. Races are quick, only several minutes long in sprint events, and require an ability to navigate multiple terrains. The sport’s origins go back decades, but the first official world championships took place in 2002, so it is still being formalized and professionalized.
In its Olympic debut, skimo will feature three events — men’s and women’s sprints, and a mixed relay event. The sprint events were created with the Olympics in mind, and are shorter, faster versions of the longer individual races competed on the World Cup tour. The first racer to cross the line advances to the next round until there is a winner.
In the mixed relay event, several teams of two will compete at once. One racer will complete a circuit with two ascents and descents before their teammate takes over and does the same, with the fastest team winning.
In 2024, Kylee Toth and Matt Ruta of Canada finished in the top ten of a World Cup relay event in Spain. Earlier this year Emma Cook-Clarke and Aaron Robson finished seventh in Andorra and 12th at the Olympic test event in Bormio, Italy. As things stand in the qualifying process, Canada faces an uphill battle to qualify any athletes for the small Olympic quotas, but there are several more opportunities left to boost their positioning before the Olympic qualification cycle ends in December — one of which is the world championships, which began on Sunday and go until March 9.
Ski mountaineering was included at the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympics, where Findlay Eyre and Ema Chlepkova represented Canada. It wasn’t part of the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympics programme.
Other new events added
In addition to the three skimo events, there are several other new events for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The one that might be most exciting for Canadian fans is the long-awaited addition of men’s and women’s dual moguls to the skiing schedule. Mikael Kingsbury, the undisputed best moguls skier of all time, will look to add to the three Olympic medals he has won in the individual event for Canada, and the plethora of World Cup and world championship medals that he has dominated for the past 15 years. Canada has a rich history in the sport, and also has Maia Schwinghammer turning heads on the women’s side of things.
Many of the new events have been introduced to try and reach an equal number of men and women competing in the Olympics. For example, women will now race over the same distance as men in cross-country skiing, and women will compete on the large hill for the first time in Olympic ski jumping — in which Abigail Strate and Alexandria Loutitt will be podium contenders for Canada.
In the sliding events, women’s and women’s doubles have been added in luge for the first time, replacing the “open” doubles event which was almost exclusively competed by men for years. Mixed team skeleton has been added as well — which will feature one male and one female athlete from each nation. Canada’s Hallie Clarke is the reigning women’s skeleton world and world junior champion and will make her Olympic debut in Milano Cortina.
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