After Cooper Screening, Film Debuts Worldwide for the Olympics

POSTED ON: February 10, 2026

champions

Last week, the team behind Champions of the Golden Valley, a film which screened at The Cooper Union in December, announced that the movie will be streaming worldwide as an Olympic Channel Original. The film is available at the same time that Ski Mountaineering will debut at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, the first new winter sport to be introduced in 20 years. Mountaineering combines uphill climbing with high-speed descent, the sport depicted in Champions of the Golden Valley.

The film tells the remarkable true story of Alishah Farhang, an Afghan Olympic hopeful whose unfulfilled dream sparks a vibrant homegrown ski culture, bringing together young athletes from villages across Afghanistan and utilizing makeshift wooden skis and secondhand gear to produce a ski race like no other. One of the year’s most decorated documentaries, the film garnered 38 Jury Prizes and Audience Awards, including 17 Grand Prizes since its Tribeca Film Festival premiere. 

The Cooper Union screening was followed by a discussion moderated by executive producer and Tony- and Emmy-nominated actor Arian Moayed with director Ben Sturgulewski, and producers Katie Stjernholm, Baktash Ahadi along with executive producer and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai. 

The film is free to watch and available in 12 languages on Olympics.com. 

More News from The Cooper Union

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.