02/21/26 09:35:00
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02/21 09:33 CST Harrop, Anselmet combine to win mixed relay for France as part
of ski mountaineering's Olympic debut
Harrop, Anselmet combine to win mixed relay for France as part of ski
mountaineering's Olympic debut
By PAT GRAHAM
AP Sports Writer
BORMIO, Italy (AP) --- Once Thibault Anselmet reached the top of the last
climb, he began to raise his hands. Then, a triumphant punch through the air.
Because a gold medal was simply all downhill from there.
Emily Harrop and Anselmet jumped out to a lead and never looked back in
combining to win the mixed relay for France on Saturday as part of ski
mountaineering's Olympic debut at the Milan Cortina Games.
All part of their lung-burning strategy.
"Go off strong and to just make everyone run after us," Harrop explained. "I
was ready to push and to dig deep. I feel like I couldn't have pushed much
harder today."
In this particular race, each athlete completed two laps, tagging the other
after every loop. Harrop and Anselmet finished the Stelvio course in a time of
26 minutes, 57.44 seconds, holding off the Swiss team of Marianne Fatton and
Jon Kistler by 11.86 seconds. Spanish racers Ana Alonso Rodriguez and Oriol
Cardona Coll captured the bronze.
Ski mountaineering, which is called "skimo" for short, was voted into the
Olympic program in 2021. The individual sprint races crowned the sport's first
Olympic champions --- Fatton and Cardona Coll --- on Thursday with the falling
snow adding another element to the historic day.
On this afternoon, it was all about stamina --- who could suffer the best over
a tough course. Harrop grabbed the early lead on the first lap and the French
kept pushing the lung-searing pace. So confident was Anselmet that he started
celebrating well before the finish line --- at the top of the course, a
mini-celebration, and midway down the descent, an arms-raised celebration. Of
course, at the finish, a full-out celebration.
"It was really fun," Anselmet said.
A thrilling end to a sport that made quite an initial impression.
The only remaining question is this: What's the Olympic future for ski
mountaineering? It's a proposed sport for the 2030 Winter Games in the French
Alps.
"We feel like these two days were the first foot in the door of skimo's Olympic
journey," said Harrop, the silver medalist in the sprint race. "We're proud to
think that, yeah, people enjoyed it, enjoyed the show. We really hope that it's
going to continue for us in 2030."
The fans certainly welcomed the pulse-raising pace of this race.
"There was so much crowd and energy and so many people to cheer for us," Fatton
said. "It's amazing."
American racers Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith finished in fourth. Not bad for a
team that months ago didn't even have a spot in Bormio. Gibson only began
competing a short while ago and helped Smith and Americans secure a spot to the
Winter Games at a World Cup event in early December.
"I think it shows that the moment wasn't too big for us," Smith said of their
finish. "We performed out of our minds today."
They were quite the teammates, too, right down to their matching pink cowboy
hats after the race.
"For me, (the hat) is just a reminder to stay loose and stay joyful," explained
Gibson, who, like Smith, had numerous family and friends in the stands.
"Remember that it's all for fun."
It was a different course setup than the sprint race, with an extra ascent and
descent adding to the already difficult challenge. The mixed teams alternated
between female and male racers over four laps. The course length was listed as
1,410 meters (4,626 feet) with the total ascent around 137 meters (450 feet).
The racers started on an ascent before a descent into the transition zone. They
put on their "skins" --- a piece of fabric on the bottom of the skis for better
uphill traction --- as they navigated a diamond-shaped pattern that led them to
a set of stairs. They stowed their skis on their backs and ran up the steps in
ski boots. Then they put their skis back on and scaled another uphill climb
before taking the skins off again and flying downhill.
Once they reached the "handover" zone, they tagged their partner to begin
another lap. Fatton cut the lead heading into the final lap but Anselmet found
another gear to restore the advantage.
"I was really motivated to catch her," Fatton said of Harrop. "That gave me
fire for the whole race, for the second loop. I gave everything. It was an
amazing race."
Even through his exhaustion, Cardona Coll echoed that thought in a race where
his team weathered a three-second penalty for a rules infraction. His partner,
Alonso Rodriguez, also competed on a torn ACL suffered in a car crash in
September while training on her bike.
"Really tired. We gave it all today," Cardona Coll said. "An amazing day. .. A
lot of joy and a lot of happiness."
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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