New sport to be included in 2026 Winter Olympics program in Italy
President of the National Olympic Committee, Gennady Golovkin, met President of the Kazakh Mountaineering and Sport Climbing Federation, Nursultan Shokanov, Kazinform News Agency has learned from Olympic.kz.
They discussed the federation's goals for the next Winter Olympics (Milano Cortina 2026) and Summer Olympics (Los Angeles 2028) and the goals of the national team for the upcoming Asian Winter Games Harbin 2025.
The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) and the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF) oversee two Olympic sports, including sport climbing and ski mountaineering. While sport climbing has gained foothold in the Olympic Games program, arousing great interest among fans at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics and Paris 2024 Olympics, ski mountaineering has yet to gain the same level of popularity among spectators.
Ski alpinism is a winter sport that is set to debut as an official sport at the Winter Olympic Games 2026 in Italy. The discipline entails ascending a mountain on skis, engaging in downhill skiing, and utilizing mountaineering techniques to surmount challenging terrain.
To date, Kazakhstan already has athletes who are capable of competing at the international level. Prior to this, however, they will have to compete in their maiden significant event, the Asian Winter Games Harbin 2025, scheduled to take place between February 7-14.