Another step forward for ski-mountaineering. After making its Olympic debut at the 2020 Winter Youth Games in Lausanne, then entering the program for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games, the discipline is gaining further ground. The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has just announced the sports program for the 9th Asian Winter Games, scheduled for 2025 in Harbin, China: ski-mountaineering is one of the six sports selected. It will share the bill with biathlon, curling, ice hockey, skating and alpine skiing. OCA Acting Director General Vinod Kumar Tiwari informed the Asian National Olympic Committees. The 2025 Asian Winter Games will feature 11 disciplines and 64 events. A coordinating committee will soon be formed by the OCA, with a mission to visit Harbin in the near future to visit the venues and assess the level of preparation. Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province in north-east China, was unanimously chosen as the host city for the Asian Winter Games at the last OCA congress in Bangkok in July. The Chinese city had already hosted the event in 1996.
