The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina will feature ski mountaineering as a medal event for the first time. This further increases the number of mountain sports at the Olympics.
The German Alpine Club (DAV) has successfully launched a second mountain sport. Olympia After sport climbing has already been included twice in the Summer Games, "Skimo" – that is, ski mountaineering – is celebrating its premiere this week at the Winter Games in Milano-Cortina on the biggest stage of sport.
The German Alpine Club (DAV) calls the inclusion of skimo in the program of this year's Winter Games a »structural break"From the time of the announcement, the association only had a few years to make the discipline fit for the Olympics – including all regulations and internal processes behind the scenes."
For the German Alpine Club (DAV), the Olympics meant building a professional system within a few years: selection mechanisms, governance structures, data collection, responsibility.
German Alpine Club
The Road to the Olympics: Structural Change Behind the Scenes
One of the most important milestones on the road to the Milano-Cortina Games: the development of nomination criteria for the athletes. These are based on the standards of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), upon which the German Alpine Club (DAV) was then allowed to establish its own criteria.
According to the German Alpine Club (DAV), the multi-stage process involved not only the sports management and executive team for competitive sports, but also the coaches and athlete representatives, as well as other representatives from various DAV sections. The Berchtesgaden section, in particular, was involved as the organizer of the annual international ski mountaineering race, the Jennerstier, heavily involved in competitive ski mountaineering.
The Olympics do not mark the end of the development of this sport and its structures, but a new beginning.
German Alpine Club
Limited starting places for the athletes
At the end of December 2025, the nomination races finally became a serious matter for the athletes. The starting places in this still-young sport are limited to fewer than a handful. "This makes the selection process a responsibility for both the athletes and the federation," says Florian Heumann, Managing Director of Competitive Sports at the German Alpine Club (DAV). For this reason, internal measures have been established to ensure professional structures and reduce potential conflicts.
The decisions affect only a few starting places and thus determine goals for which athletes have worked for years.
German Alpine Club
In the end, two female athletes and one male athlete prevailed: the reigning Junior World Champion in Vertical, Helena Euringer (born 2006, DAV Berchtesgaden), and the multiple German Sprint Champions, Tatjana Paller (born 1995, DAV Bad Tölz) and Finn Hösch (born 2003, DAV Bergland München). They will represent Germany at the Olympic debut of ski mountaineering.
The starting signal will be given on February 19th in Bormio.
The three athletes' competitions begin today. Skimo is represented in the Olympic program with a total of three events: women's and men's sprints, and a mixed relay. All races will take place in Bormio in the Valtellina region.
Thursday, February 19, 2026
- 09:50 a.m.: Women's Sprint Heats
- 10:30 a.m.: Men's Sprint Heats
- 12:55 PM: Women's Sprint Semi-final
- 13:25 PM: Men's Sprint Semi-final
- 13:55 PM: Women's Sprint Final
- 14:15 PM: Men's Sprint Final
Saturday, 21th February 2026
- 13:30 PM: Mixed Relay
Outlook for the Summer Games: Developments in sport climbing & paraclimbing
The next Games in summer 2028 in Los Angeles will also feature a much-discussed premiere for mountain and climbing sports. Because there, the Sport climbing for the first time as a regular "program sport" – and for the first time with three separate medals for Lead, Bouldering and Speed.
At the sport's Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, athletes had to compete in all three disciplines; in 2024, speed climbing was separated from the combined format of bouldering and lead climbing. Also paraclimbing It will be a Paralympic sport for the first time in Los Angeles in 2028 – the result of years of preparation.
All these developments show how mountain sports are increasingly entering the mainstream: with more medals, more attention, and in all its diversity.
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Credits cover photo: DAV/Leon Hösch