2024-01-11 10:59:21
The European ski mountaineering championships take place in Flaine and Chamonix (Haute-Savoie) until Friday January 12. This increasingly popular discipline will make its entry into the Olympic world in 2026 in Milan. It will be represented by two events, including the sprint.
This Wednesday, January 10, the sprint events of the European ski mountaineering championships took place in Flaine (Haute-Savoie). This format is a concentrate of the discipline which will make its entry into the Olympic world, in Milan, in 2026.
The sprint mixes: ski ascent, conversion, portage and descent. All in just over three minutes. “It is a truly complete discipline. You have to be very fast, very explosive. It’s short, but it requires you to be very good technically because there are a lot of manipulations“, describes Mael Brun, European vice-champion in U20 sprinting, this Wednesday, behind his compatriot Jules Raybaud.
I have no doubt, it will work on a television level
Pierre-Henri Paillasson
National Technical Director of the French Mountain and Climbing Federation
A spectacular sport, ski mountaineering will be represented by two events at the 2026 Olympics: the sprint and the mixed relay. “What has been chosen are activities that take place at the bottom of the station for the moment, which are therefore easier to organize“, reports Pierre-Henri Paillasson, national technical director of the French Mountain and Climbing Federation (FFME).
In fact, the first events, at the beginning of the discipline, have longer routes. Which complicates securing the Olympic Games. The other argument is the more “punchy” side of the short formats mentioned by the DTN. “We see practically the entire race. I have no doubt, it will work on a television level. On a show level, we know it works. I am rather confident for the future.“
The European ski mountaineering championships take place in Flaine and Chamonix (Haute-Savoie) until Friday January 12. This increasingly popular discipline will make its entry into the Olympic world in 2026 in Milan. It will be represented by two events, including the sprint. • ©FFME
Jules Raybaud, also winner of the Individual U20 during these European championships in Flaine, defends the place of ski mountaineering, even if not all the events of this sport will be present in Milan: “Personally, I think it was not put in the right form. But initially, it will attract a lot of visibility and that’s something really great. We will be able to start professionalizing.“
Better known in its leisure version, ski touring has attracted more and more fans since the health crisis. “It is not a discipline that starts from scratch. It is a discipline that has been structured over more than thirty years. There is an international federation which is solid. Now we have to professionalize“, indicates Pierre-Henri Paillasson.
“We are well helped by big stations which allow us to produce formats which are more and more professional”, underlines the DTN of the FFME. “Now we lack the financial means to organize the French teams at the alpine ski level. But a ski mountaineering medal will weigh the same as an alpine skiing medal.“
In competition, France dominates the international rankings, with the leading couple multiple champions of the discipline like Xavier Gachet and Axelle Gachet-Mollaret, and Thibault Anselmet. “Over the last ten, fifteen years, we have been present on the podiums regularly. We have strong competitors: the Italians, the Swiss, the Spanish“, remarks Pierre-Henri Paillasson. “We have seen nations like China arrive since we were Olympic. The challenge for us is not to fall behind“.
In Milan, Xavier Gachet and Axelle Gachet-Mollaret should be the important figures of the French ski mountaineering team. Jules Raybaud and Maël Brun dream of the French Alps Games, in 2030, at home.
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