SkiMo-Cardona Coll makes history for Spain with men's sprint gold, Fatton claims women's title

BORMIO, Italy, Feb 19 : 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.

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