2025 Skimo World Championships and the first Olympic Allocations

The 2025 Skimo World Championships took place this past week in Morgins, Switzerland. More was on the line than ever before, with 2026 Olympic Quota spots up for grabs for the top two NOC’s in the Olympic events: Mixed Gender Relay and Sprint. If you want a refresher on the Skimo Olympic Program and the path for USA, check out this blog here. 

What Went Down:

In the Mixed Relay, defending 2023 World Champions France’s Thibault Anselmet and Emily Harrop, took the win, thoroughly establishing themselves as the team to beat next year in Italy. The duo outlunged Spain’s Ana Alonso Rodrigues and Oriol Cardona Coll by a mere .9 seconds in what was one of the most exciting races of this years World Championships. 

USA’s team of Cameron Smith and Jessie Young advanced to the final (if you are confused on this new mixed relay format read this) to finish 12th, in a solid performance that bodes well for USA’s mixed relay ranking, and path to to securing a quota spot in the Olympics.

France's Anselmet and Harrop at the finish of the mixed relay

France’s Anselmet and Harrop followed up their relay performance with second place finishes in the sprint, further securing automatic Olympic spots for their country in this event as well. Oriol Cardona Coll looked smooth all day. He improved on his silver medal from the relay, ultimately taking a dominant win by 5 seconds and another Olympic Spot for Spain. 

Marianne Fatton of Switzerland (left) and Spain's Oriole Cardona Coll (right) securing golds in the sprint at world championships and Olympic quota spots for their respective NOC's

Switzerland’s Marianne Fatton added to the nations that will be represented at next years Olympics with her world champs win in this event. Ian Clarke, winner of US nationals, was the only American to crack the top 30 in the qualifier, male or female, finishing an impressive 28th in his second international race. Ian’s ability to qualify has set him apart from the rest of the American field this year on the world cup. He finished 17th in Bol Taull and has been instrumental in accruing nation ranking points and clearing the path towards the Olympics in the sprint for the USA. I can’t emphasize enough how important both him and Griffin Briley, who I will discuss later, have been to steering USA towards an Olympic spot. If we do qualify, I hope USA skimo has been taking note…

Remi Bonnet continued his domination of the classic skimo formats, winning both the men’s vertical and Individual for his third consecutive world championship in each event. Tove Alexandersson from Sweden took home the gold in the women’s individual, while Axelle Gachet-Mollartet of France did the same in the sprint. USA’s top finishes in these events came from Hali Hafeman and Cameron Smith who took home a pair of 20th place finishes in the vertical accordingly, and David Sinclair who ended the day in 18th in the individual.

Remi Bonnet after taking his third World Championship in the Vertical in a row

The big story that developed in Morgins, was USA’s Griffin Briley becoming U20 World Champion in all three events, vertical, sprint, individual. Griffin represents a crop of young US skimo athletes that are making their names known on the world stage, and in my opinion are the future of USA Skimo. 

Griffin Briley after becoming U20 sprint world champion 

Success breeds success. Look no further than USA cross country skiing, and its current group of world cup athletes such as Gus Schumacher, Ben Ogden, JC Schoon Macher. These skiers were the first American men to truly break through at the world junior stage. They’ve successfully made the jump to the senior level with Gus winning the first world cup for an American man since 2013 (and before that 1983) in Minneapolis last year, and Ben and JC also having secured world cup podiums.  It’s no coincidence their success on the world stage occurred together, or that the USA has experienced subsequent success on the junior stage after they broke through. Shared belief and a working model of the training, and habits it takes to be the best is a fundamental development asset. I am not drawing direct parallels, but I certainly see similarities to what Griffin is doing on the Skimo circuit. He is setting an example of what is possible to juniors and our skimo community back across the pond, raising the overall level of skimo in the USA. The first breakthrough is the most difficult, as by nature a model doesn’t exist.

Griffin on the podium

I hope USA skimo invests in junior skimo development for the long term. They must understand that this process takes time. It is built from beneath, by providing the support, patience, and ultimately the environment necessary for the racing opportunities today, to be valuable experience and investment to even greater success tomorrow. 

Quota Breakdown

8 total quota spots (4 male, 4 female) were on offer at world championships. If a team finished in the top two of the mixed gender relay they were awarded a male and female quota spot, giving them a start in the relay and each of the sprints. If an NOC finished in the top 2 of either the men’s or women’s sprint they were awarded a quota spot for that gender and subsequently a start in the mens or women’s sprint accordingly. In other words, finishing in the top two in the relay is highly advantageous as not only can an NOC field a team in the relay event at Cortina, but also in each of the sprints. 

*four quotas (2 male, 2 female) is the maximum any one NOC can earn, giving them the maximum single start in the mixed gender relay and two starts in each of the sprints.

26 of the total 36 quota spots remain, as Italy is automatically awarded a male and female spot as the host nation. The remaining spots will be allocated at the end of the Olympic qualification period on December 21, 2025. If you would like to learn how this procedure works and USA's pathway read this.