Milano Cortina 2026: The newest Olympic sport has the oldest history

Ramone Cooper was Australia’s No. 2-ranked moguls skier – behind only Dale Begg-Smith, the eventual gold medallist – when he blew out his knee four months out from Vancouver 2010, aged 21.

As many elite skiers seemingly do, he pushed on anyway and came 27th. But at some point during his rehab, he figured the juice was no longer worth the squeeze when it came to realising his dreams of Olympic success, and came up with a satisfying exit strategy that would still keep him around the winter sports scene he loved: work in it.

After a seven-year stint in athlete development with Snow Australia, a job he essentially created himself, Cooper moved to Switzerland with his wife, who landed a job with the IOC. Long story short, after being asked by Snow Australia to represent the emerging Australian skimo federation at its international congress, he’s now the director-general of the sport’s governing body, tasked with transforming what was a largely volunteer-driven organisation into a modern, professional sporting enterprise.

“It’s such a unique opportunity,” Cooper said.

Skimo arrives at a critical moment when the Winter Olympics is recalibrating. This is the first new sport added to the program since the reintroduction of skeleton in 2002, and the way these Games are organised has changed a lot since then. The IOC’s ‘New Norm’ strongly encourages host nations to use existing or temporary venues; for Milano Cortina, 80 per cent of them fit that bill, and few as neatly as this.

For skimo, all you really need is a mountain.

Whether it remains an Olympic sport beyond this year will be decided in June, but discussions about French Alps 2030 are positive and ongoing, Cooper said.

The version of skimo being rolled out now is what he described as the “T20 version” of the sport: there are men’s and women’s sprints, which run for only a few minutes with a 70-metre climb, and then a mixed relay where athletes complete the circuit twice each.

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Fittingly, Australia’s two entrants have, like Cooper, also come from other sports: Phillip Bellingham has competed at three previous Olympics in cross-country skiing, while Lara Hamilton is a convert from trail running, the same athletic background as many of skimo’s biggest stars. The actual skill of skiing is secondary to having a good engine and the ability to transition between elements quickly.

The more traditional version, analogous to Test cricket, can go for more than an hour across an ascent of up to 1600m and descents off-piste – and that is what Cooper wants to see at the Olympics, maybe at the next edition, to show off the scenery of the host nation.

“In the classic disciplines, we have athletes that are traversing mountain coves and ridgelines and reaching summits, and really showcasing the beauty of the mountains,” he said.

“Where we live in here in Europe, there’s just so much to explore, and it’s such a great way to do it. We see all of the snow sports happening in the mid-mountain range – but we don’t see really many sports at all at the moment that are happening at the summit. And that’s where we hope in the future we can take our sport to the summit during the Games and offer something really unique.”

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Cooper is now passionate about skimo, but he had never tried it himself until he started running it.

“The athletes that are racing here, they’ve got skis that are 60mm underfoot, they’re wearing Lycra, they’re wearing carbon boots, and they’re super lightweight. And I’m not doing that,” he laughed.

“I’ve got comfortable boots, I’ve got fat skis, I’m wearing baggy clothes.

“It’s very interesting, because you see athletes that will probably be competitive or make themselves competitive in the ascent, in the skinning sections – but then you’ll see people who lose the race in the transitions. They’re doing it in like five seconds. It’s unbelievable. There’s a lot happening.”

The Winter Olympic Games is broadcast on the 9Network, 9Now and Stan Sport.

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