BORMIO, Italy, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Milano Cortina's only new Olympic sport, ski mountaineering, might have debuted in a snowstorm in Bormio, but the races went smoothly with lively crowds, leaving athletes hopeful it will not be the sport's last time on the global stage.
Thursday's inaugural women's and men's sprint races and Saturday's mixed relay team race proved that Europe still dominates the ski mountaineering ranks.
Spain's Oriol Cardona Coll made history as he won his country's first Winter Olympics gold medal in 54 years on Thursday.
Switzerland's Marianne Fatton, meanwhile, beat favourite Emily Harrop of France in the women's sprint.
Driven in part by revenge, Saturday's mixed relay, which has one woman and one man from each nation competing together, saw Harrop take the lead from Fatton from lap one. Together with partner Thibault Anselmet, the duo managed to hold the position throughout the race, earning them a clear victory. Second place went to Switzerland's Fatton and Jon Kistler and bronze to Spain's Cardona Coll and Ana Alonso Rodriguez.
Americans Anna Gibson and Cam Smith fought their way to a surprising fourth place in the mixed relay.
HOPEFUL IT WON'T BE SPORT'S LAST
The newly crowned Olympians are now hoping this will not be their sport's last chance to shine on the global stage.
Gibson said she has been met with a lot of excitement about SkiMo during her Olympic experience. When asked what she would tell decision makers choosing whether to include the sport again, she said; "I'd say go re-watch the race. That was awesome. And also turn up the volume so you can hear the crowd cheering. I think it speaks enough for itself."
SkiMo events at the Games were sold out of tickets.
With the French team managing to podium in every SkiMo event at Milano Cortina, it seems unlikely the country would not include the sport again when it hosts the next Winter Games in 2030.
USA SkiMo's Head of Sport Sarah Cookler already said in December that she would be pushing for the sport's inclusion at the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, particularly also for longer, individual events, which are considered "the heart of SkiMo" by many. The choice not to include them at Milano Cortina has been a point of contention in the community.
Olympic champion Cardona Coll is hopeful.
"I think it will grow, this time we are doing the sprint race and mixed relay, hopefully in the next Olympic Games, it's also going to be the individual race, which is the queen race of ski mountaineering," he said.
(Reporting by Marleen Kaesebier in Bormio, editing by Ed Osmond)
