Looking back at "Milan Cortina 2026"
The SAJ (All Japan Ski Federation), which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025, has revamped its name and logo and has been strengthening its organization with the aim of developing athletes who are "not only able to win, but also loved around the world."
At the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February, Japanese athletes performed exceptionally well, particularly in the snowboarding freestyle event. They far exceeded the goal set by Competition Director Takanori Kawano, which was to win a total of nine medals, including four gold medals, and have more than 20 athletes place in the top ranks. Japan won a total of 24 medals: five gold, seven silver, and twelve bronze. The number of athletes who placed in the top ranks reached 57, surpassing the 13 medals won at the Pyeongchang Games and the 18 medals won at the Beijing Games, making it the highest number of medals won in the history of the Winter Olympics
Then, in August 2026, the SAJ will change its organizational name to the "All Japan Ski and Snowboard Federation" and make a fresh start. With this restructuring, the aim is to further improve competitive performance and promote the spread and development of both sports, while leveraging the knowledge and strengths of both disciplines
The theme of the "Alpes 2030" tournament is sustainability
The next Games, "French Alps 2030," are scheduled to be held in February 2030. This will be the fourth time France has hosted the Winter Olympics, the first being the 1992 Albertville Games.
The organizers aim to create an Olympics that is "deeply rooted in the community and guided by a strong sense of responsibility towards the environment," and plan to utilize existing facilities for 93% of the venues. As the impact of climate change on winter sports becomes greater than ever before, they are also promoting the use of public transportation and developing ski lifts to connect resorts
The venues will be spread across four main areas: Haute-Savoie, one of France's premier mountain regions, home to Mont Blanc and Chamonix; Savoie, a hub for large ski resorts; Briançon, a high-altitude city at approximately 1,300 meters; and Nice, a Mediterranean resort close to the Alps
Freeride competition has been added
This year's Games will unfortunately see the exclusion of Nordic combined, an event that has been included since the first Winter Olympics in 1924, based on the IOC's popularity index evaluation. On the other hand, freeride skiing and freeride snowboarding will be newly adopted as official events
Since the first "Xtreme Verbier," the origin of the "Freeride World Tour," was held in 1996, freeride has grown into a sport with more than 10,000 registered athletes worldwide. For the 2030 competition, 22 men and 22 women, a total of 44 athletes, are expected to participate. Regarding the inclusion of the freeride discipline, FIS President Alexander Ospelt stated the following:
"Freeride combines the raw excitement of riding on breathtaking natural terrain, making it clearly an attractive addition to the Olympics."
In addition, new events will be added, including individual men's and women's ski mountaineering events and a mixed men's and women's team ski cross competition. The mixed team parallel giant slalom snowboarding event will also continue. The competition is planned to feature 126 events across 8 sports: skiing (snowboarding), skating, ice hockey, curling, bobsleigh, luge, skeleton, and biathlon, with a total of 3,046 athletes (equal numbers of men and women)
Information
Alpes 2030
Official website:https://www.alpes2030.org/en
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