By Martyn Herman
BORMIO, Italy, Feb 19 (Reuters) – Oriol Cardona Coll won Spain’s first Winter Olympics gold medal for 54 years as he claimed victory in the men’s sprint in the inaugural ski mountaineering event on Thursday.
Minutes earlier, Switzerland’s Marianne Fatton also made history as she beat big favourite Emily Harrop of France to become the first Olympic champion in the multi-discipline sport that is making its Games debut in Bormio.
After coming through heats and a semi-final in a relentless snowstorm, Cardona Coll dominated the six-man final, making no mistake through the various transitions on the up and down circuit to beat Russian Nikita Filippov.
France’s Thibault Anselmet took the bronze.
Spain’s only previous Winter Olympics gold was won by Alpine skier Francisco Fernandez Ochoa at Sapporo in 1972 and they had not won a medal at the Milano-Cortina Games until Thursday.
“The feeling is amazing. I’ve been dreaming about being here, about winning the race a lot of times and finally the dream has come true,” the 31-year-old world champion said.
“It means a lot for us as a country. Also means a lot for the ski mountaineering family to be here.”
Filippov was competing as a neutral athlete without a flag or anthem after the International Olympic Committee banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from the Games following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Harrop, a four-times SkiMo overall champion, was the overwhelming favourite to win gold in Bormio. But she lost time after the stairs section of the course and could do nothing to catch the storming Fatton, taking silver.
Ana Alonso Rodriguez’s bronze was Spain’s first medal of the Games but compatriot Cardona Coll went two places better with a commanding race to gold.
ABSORBING SHOW
The world’s best SkiMo athletes had to wait until near the Games conclusion to take centre stage but produced an absorbing show for fans braving the snowstorm.
With its roots in sedate 19th century ski touring, the Olympic sprint version is a heart-pounding version with heats taking little more than three minutes.
Skiers battle head-to-head, first climbing 60m in altitude up a steep slope with skins giving grip to their skis, before tackling a 10m staircase in boots with skis on their backs.
Another short flat skiing section is followed by a slalom ski back down to the bottom of the Stelvio course.
Crucially, time can be lost in the transition stages. Taking off and putting on skis and removing ski skins does not sound hard but with heart-rates going through the roof and lactic acid levels soaring even simple motor skills are fraught with danger.
“The main error I made was not getting my skis back on and not being precise enough and that shows how important details are,” said Harrop. “But I think it was an exciting show.”
Regarded as the “Queen of Sprint”, the former Alpine skier was in charge on the opening climb and bounded up the stairs but then took too much time putting her skis back on.
Harrop was overtaken by world champion Fatton who never looked back, the Swiss cruising over the line and falling joyously into the snow.
The fabled Stelvio slope has been kind to Switzerland at these Games, with four of the five men’s Alpine skiing gold medals also going to the Swiss team.
“There are good vibes for us I think,” Fatton said.
Cardona Coll, who also competes as a mountain runner, led for the whole race and once he ripped off his ski skins for the final push down he could afford to celebrate before the finish.
Asked what he was thinking when he crossed the finish line, Cardona Coll said, “Many things. First of all to all the people who came here from Spain, all the people watching from home, and especially to my grandfather who died a few years ago. I’ve been thinking about him a lot and this victory is for him.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; additional reporting by Marleen Kaesebier; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Ken Ferris and Christian Radnedge)
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