Ski mountaineering - the only new Olympic sport at Milano Cortina 2026 - explained

There is set to be just one new sport added to the Olympic programme for Milano Cortina 2026, but it is one with historic roots in the Italian Alps.

Ski mountaineering will feature both a sprint and mixed relay event in its Winter Olympic debut, and on this episode of the podcast, host Nick McCarvel dives deep - or rather, scales the mountain - to understand this fascinating sport, often set in the most picturesque of outdoor courses.

Skimo stars Emily Harrop, Cameron Smith and Johanna Hiemer help to explain the sport and its many challenges in exclusive interviews on the pod, while Olympics.com producers Nadine Regel, Guillaume Depasse and Annie Fast lay out the many storylines to watch out for, including French superstar Thibault Anselmet and the Spanish duo of Ana Alonso Rodriguez and Oriol Cardonna Coll - among others.

You can explore skimo even more with the new Olympic Channel documentary, Into the Unknown, which is out now exclusively on Olympics.com.