BAKU, March 4. /TASS/. Russia’s Nikita Filippov won gold on Wednesday at the 2026 Ski Mountaineering Championship, which is hosted by Azerbaijan this month.
In the men’s sprint event, Russia’s Olympic silver medalist Filippov clocked the distance in two minutes 58.6 seconds. Switzerland’s Thomas Bussard took the silver finishing 1.2 seconds behind Filippov and Ferrer Martinez of Spain won the bronze 1.6 seconds after the Swiss athlete.
Filippov is the only out of 13 athletes that represented Russia under a neutral status at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games to win an Olympic medal last month. The sport of Ski Mountaineering debuted this year as part of the Winter Olympic Games program. Filippov has enter the history books as the first Olympic silver medalist ever in the event.
Competing at the 2025 ISMF World Championship of Ski Mountaineering, Filippov finished 7th and 25th in the vertical race and sprint race events respectively.
Olympic medalist Filippov, 23, is the only athlete from Russia taking part under a neutral status in the 2026 ISMF European Championships, held at the Shahdag Mountain Resort in Azerbaijan on March 3-8.
The 2026 Winter Olympic Games took place in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, from February 6-22, 2026. Thirteen Russian athletes competed under a neutral status in figure skating, speed skating, short track, freestyle skiing, cross-country skiing, alpine skiing, luge, and ski mountaineering.
Athletes from Russia and Belarus had been cleared to participate in the 2026 Winter Games last month under a neutral designation, which prohibited the display of national flags and anthems.