a totally made-up sport for the galleria; depending on the sponsoring & views ratings, the IOC will decide to maintain it or not.
After seeing the ‘sprint’ male/female this morning, I am certain the setup will be modified. It is not enough competitive on the descent - by the time they de-skin, you know who’s going to be the winner…
p.s. I’m a splitboarder 
Yeah it was odd. Way too short and fast, ski mountaineering should be a longer distance endurance event. Multiple up and downs so the skins have to be put back on - and the stairs were just weird!!
I just read the most legit praise about it. Add 20 kilos of goods to make it historically accurate:
In Bormio, ski mountaineering is a legacy of smugglers
Even though Bormio is famous for its men’s downhill race, the Upper Valtellina resort has a less intimate relationship with alpine skiing than with ski mountaineering, which it is hosting at the end of the Olympic Games. The first local “champions” were merchants who loaded their bags with cigarettes, salt, and coffee to make a living.
“Have you visited the historic center of Bormio? It dates back to the Middle Ages and bears witness to a prosperous era, when our town lay on the route taken by Venetians to transport their goods to Switzerland and Germany. But later, merchants found more direct, easier routes, and poverty descended upon the entire valley. Before the development of tourism, people eked out a living from agriculture, and they were heavily reliant on smugglers who transported goods through the mountains – it’s a real local peculiarity. These same smugglers played a significant role in the development of ski mountaineering.”
Yes, add a few kilos of a heavily taxed or restricted goods and it’s as real as biathlon.
RoFL
Someone so enthusiastic about curling it makes me want to watch it!
Wow!
Curling is fascinating but I think she has got some of the physics wrong. Generally balls turn with the spin. A spinning stone on ice has its own specialities, apparently bigger controversies have been about brushes that rough up the ice rather than just cause melting.
What the?
" The wheelchair curling event victim of an unusual theft!
While the Milan-Cortina Paralympic Games will kick off on Friday, the mixed wheelchair curling event has been the victim of a theft of… stones.
The Paralympic Winter Games were the victim of a not insignificant theft in Cortina. As revealed on Wednesday by the Canadian media "CBC", relayed by “Blick”, two curling stones were stolen from the competition site before the start of the mixed wheelchair event.
“Authorities are currently investigating the theft,” confirmed World Curling spokesman Chris Hamilton. For the time being, the vagueness around this incident remains. The two stones, which had already been used in mixed doubles at the Olympic Games, could be replaced in time without the tournament, which began on Wednesday, being impacted.
The Paralympic Games will officially kick off on Friday at the opening ceremony in the Verona Arena. The event, during which nine athletes will represent Switzerland, will last until March 15."
I don’t know why people joke so much about curling. At least it’s a 2 teams game, in which an inexperienced watcher can read and understand the basic rules in like 1 minute and have a rough understanding what the players want to achieve and how good or bad the situation on the field is.
There are many much more boring spots like bobsleigh, luge and skeleton. I don’t understand why anyone would watch it. I mean, they are just sliding down the ice track. In ski jumping they are at least flying, which is kind of breathtaking for a few moments.
Let me put on my conspiracy hat. 
A particular team might have benefitted from a hidden modification to these stones, so now said stones need to disappear so that whatever team used them doesn’t get caught.
