Winter Olympics 2026: France’s Emily Harrop makes her mountaineering debut and roots for Great Britain

Emily Harrop says she was born with bands on her feet and poles in her hands.

And on Thursday, she could have a Winter Olympic medal around her neck.

As a three-time world champion in ski mountaineering, the 28-year-old is the favorite to be on the Milan-Cortina podium as the sport makes its Olympic debut.

However, in a parallel universe, it would have been the red, white and blue French flag flying in her honor, not the French flag.

Born in the French Alps to an English mother and father, she was first an alpine skier and was British downhill skiing champion in 2015 – but her choice of allegiance was not given much thought.

“My father wanted me to go with the British,” Harrop told BBC Radio World.

“I grew up in France and all my coaches and all my training partners were all through the French system. It was difficult for me to turn my back on all that.”

Harrop didn’t take up ski mountaineering – or snowboarding for short – until she was 20 years old after injuries veered her career away from alpine skiing.

“At Skimo, at least when I started, the British team didn’t really exist and they weren’t actually competing in the World Cup,” she said. “So the question [of allegiance] “I wasn’t really asked.”

And Harrop never looked back. She entered the Olympics as a three-time world champion in the mixed relay and team events, with individual silver and bronze medals also to her name.

She has twice won the Beira Minta – “the Tour de France of the snowboarding world” – and has four World Cup titles.

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