Ski touring is a trend sport. With ski mountaineering, the hype will now also have a stage at the 2026 Winter Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. With rock-hard, steep ascents and breakneck descents on the most challenging terrain, the extremely tough winter sport of ski mountaineering, or skimo for short, definitely has what it takes to become the new supreme discipline. Johanna Hiemer is training hard for the Olympic premiere of this demanding winter sport, which has fascinated her since childhood.

The mixture of persistent climbing, technical demands and challenging descents is what makes the sport so fascinating for the 29-year-old top athlete. As early as the age of five, she and her parents went up the local mountain in Schladming. Back then, they used long cross-country skis on a wide forest trail uphill and took the gondola back down to the valley. At the age of seven, Johanna crossed the imposing Dachstein massif with her family. A tour that Johanna raves about just as much as when she talks about her first Gaudi ski race, in which she competed as a teenager "just for fun" in Schladming. When she talks about it, her alert eyes still sparkle today and her wonderfully distinctive dialect resonates with a sense of honor and passion in every syllable.

School, studies and top-class sport

However, her school days at the sports performance school for cross-country skiing were not fun. On the contrary: it was hell, pure torture. Day in, day out. "For four years, if I may say so, I was constantly "punched in the face". From coaches as well as from my classmates. But giving up was not an option for me." When Johanna looks back on her difficult time at boarding school, she still fights back tears from time to time. "It was a pure fight for survival." Shortly before her final year, she showed everyone that she could fight and deliver with a top performance in the world's toughest triathlon, the Ironman, and her subsequent transfer to the ski touring squad. Both were important key moments in gaining sporting and personal self-confidence. Johanna successfully returned to the game from the sidelines and from there usually straight onto the podium. With fast, goal-oriented stretch runs, Johanna also completed her law degree in record time, married her husband Lukas and moved to the Allgäu region, where her two boys Emil and Paul were born shortly afterwards.

Top-class sport and an afternoon of games

Johanna knows speed and timing like the back of her hand. This is the only way she masters her everyday life as a young mother and top athlete. Her training schedule is geared towards her family and varies between 15 and 20 hours a week with just one recovery day. The alarm clock rings at 5 a.m. for the Hiemer family in Füssen. Then it's time to get out of bed and into their sports gear for the first sports session. Afterwards, a quick shower, breakfast together and then it's off to take the kids to nursery. On the way back, a quick stopover at the supermarket to pick up fresh ingredients for lunch and do the housework so that we can eat together afterwards. This quality time with her three men is just as sacred to Johanna as a good cup of coffee and a short power nap. For dessert, there's already the second training session followed by some playtime with the kids and a short time slot for private appointments before the lights usually go out at the Hiemer home before ten o'clock in the evening.

Today, every hundredth counts!

And everything is reduced: the super-light, narrow speed skis and special ski boots, their skin-tight and super-thin racing suits. Maximum, on the other hand, are the stamina and mental strength required to survive even in the most adverse snow and weather conditions in open terrain away from groomed pistes. And with the fast-paced course sequence for ascent, descent and changeover - i.e. sticking the skins to the skis or pulling them off - it's always against the clock. Speed is everything. Changing skins alone can make the difference between victory and defeat and must be specially trained. Even in summer without snow, then with a stopwatch in the family gym. Balancing children and a career is often extremely difficult for top athletes. Johanna knows that if you want to keep up with the best in the world, you have to give it your all and be flexible. She is ambitious anyway, but also wonderfully refreshing and humorous. A real rocket who never loses her grip, even when flying high, and is willing to change her route plan to reach her destination. She masters steep climbs as well as rapid landing passages. She refuels with her family and friends and perfects take-offs and landings with her teammates and coaches in order to really take off at the 2026 Olympics. For her "one moment in time" - when she`ll be racing with destiny.