excerpt:
It’s an endurance sport in which athletes ascend mountains on skis fitted with climbing skins, carry their skis over sections too steep to skin and then descend on alpine terrain. In total, 36 skimo athletes will compete at the Stelvio Ski Centre in Bormio.
The Olympic format features two events: the individual sprint and the mixed relay. Athletes alternate between uphill climbing with ski skins, boot-packing and downhill skiing. Sprint races last about three to four minutes, while the mixed relay features longer, more demanding courses.
Alongside skimo, the 2026 Games have introduced women’s doubles luge, women’s large hill individual ski jumping, a freestyle skiing dual moguls event and alpine skiing team combined.
Skimo stands out within the Olympic landscape as the first new sport to be introduced within the Winter Games since skeleton was introduced at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
Roller blading doesn’t seem too niche to me.
Ski touring is a real thing. Skimo is an attempt to distill that into a competitive (and airable) format. It feels like a pretty natural inclusion in the host of alpine & Nordic sports. Much more natural than biathlon.
I’m not sure what the actual inclusion criteria are, but roller blading seems like it might have stiffer competition. Winter sports seem constrained to mostly snow & ice related activities. Summer has to deal with everything else.