Filippov: a simple guy, not the main star of Russian sports

Silver medalist of the 2026 Olympics in ski mountaineering Nikita Filippov is not going to try on the crown of the country's main athlete. To a direct question about star fever, the 23-year-old from Kamchatka answered briefly: since childhood, he wanted to remain a simple guy — and he is not going to change himself.

A medal that no one knew about in advance

Ski mountaineering made its debut in the Olympic program only this season, at the Games in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, and few people in Russia followed this sport until February 2026, notes xrust. All the more unexpected was the story: it was Filippov who brought the country the first medal of those Games, finishing second in the sprint on the 13th day of the competition. In the quarterfinals and semifinals, he twice took second place and advanced directly to the next round, and in the decisive race he stayed in fourth or fifth place for a long time, but on the descent he managed to get ahead and hold his position until the finish. The Spaniard got the gold.

Then events developed rapidly: already on March 5, two weeks after the Olympics, Nikita won the sprint at the European Championships in Shahdag, Azerbaijan — the Russians competed there in neutral status. He completed the distance in 2 minutes 58.6 seconds, ahead of the Swiss and Spaniard. It was after this victory that Match TV journalists asked him directly: did he now feel like the main athlete of the country.

“I’m a simple guy”

Filippov’s answer turned out to be surprisingly down-to-earth for a man who stood on the Olympic podium two weeks ago. He honestly admitted that he does not consider himself number one in Russian sports — according to him, there are much more popular guys. He doesn’t worry about star fever at all: from adolescence he consciously tried to remain a simple person, and the results on the snow, apparently, did not shake this inner feeling.

For professional sports, such a position is more a rarity than a rule: success at the age of 23, and even a debut for an entire discipline at the Olympic Games, usually changes the athlete’s attitude towards his own person, if not instantly, then very quickly. Filippov, it seems, is one of those rare cases when the medal remained a medal, and the character remained the same as before it.

From Kamchatka — into history

His biography is suitable for such a character. Nikita was born in 2002 in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, a region where snowdrifts lie almost until May, and climbing mountains has been perceived as something ordinary since childhood. He started skiing at the age of two, took up karate at five, biathlon at eight, and first tried ski mountaineering at twelve, with his father. He eventually lost interest in biathlon and, in his youth, completely switched to ski mountaineering and, at the same time, skyrunning — running in the mountains with an increase in height.

At home starts, the results were not long in coming: from 2019 to 2025, Filippov became the champion of Russia 23 times. He himself admitted in an interview that at Russian competitions he does not think about the result at all — he is so confident in his victory. It was much more difficult to break into the international level: first, due to the banal lack of funding for travel from his native region, and then due to the exclusion of Russian athletes from tournaments, due to which Nikita could only compete within the country for several years.

Simple joys after Olympic silver

Filippov's selection for the Olympics took place back in June 2025, and the Games themselves were not easy: before the start, he admitted that he was aiming for gold and internally kept a minimum plan in his head — just to cling to the podium. After finishing with silver around his neck, he did not hide his relief and immediately moved on to much more mundane things: he announced that he would now finally allow himself the usual food that he refused for the sake of the sports regime — pizza, burgers and ice cream instead of boring buckwheat.

However, this does not negate his serious ambitions: in the future, Filippov hopes to move ski mountaineering forward and set records like the Norwegian Johannes Klebo in ski racing — an athlete who for many personifies dominance in his discipline for many seasons in a row.

A fan, not a star

Another detail is also indicative: despite the Olympic silver and the title of European champion, Filippov remains an ordinary football fan in his free time — he supports Spartak Moscow and admits that he dreams of attending one of the club’s matches in the spring in the stands, and not as an honorary guest. For an athlete whose name until recently was not known to a wide circle of sports fans, but is now found in the headlines of the federal media, such down-to-earthness looks more like a conscious choice than an accident.

What is ski mountaineering and why is everyone suddenly talking about it

For many Russian spectators, the very name of the discipline sounded unusual in February. Ski mountaineering, or skimo, combines alpine skiing and mountaineering: athletes climb the mountain on skis with special bindings and camus — linings that prevent the ski from sliding backwards — and in the middle of the route they switch to a walking climb, throwing their skis behind their backs. Then follows a rapid descent in the usual ski style. It is the combination of endurance, transition zone technique and downhill that makes the discipline spectacular, and mistakes in places where equipment is changed are decisive for the final result.

In his home Kamchatka, similar starts have been held for a long time, including climbing local volcanoes and the international Kamchatka Race, in which Filippov has been participating since 2014. So for him, the debut of the discipline at the Olympic Games looked more like a natural ending to a long history than a sudden success.

Financial success also did not go unnoticed: according to media reports, Filippov received about 730 thousand rubles for the Olympic silver and subsequent victories — an amount that for the debutant of a new Olympic sport looks like a solid help, although, of course, it does not compare with the prize money in more popular winter disciplines like cross-country skiing or biathlon.

As Filippov’s example shows, medals and the status of the first racket in a new sport for the country do not necessarily change a person — you can remain the same guy as before the Olympics, and at the same time methodically move towards the next competitions.

Xrust Filippov: a simple guy, not the main star of Russian sports