It’s been a very long time coming, however ski mountaineering is debuting on the 2026 Olympic Video games in Italy, and two skilled path runners, Cam Smith and Anna Gibson, are set to symbolize Workforce USA. It’s a mash-up that’ll unite followers of each sports activities.
Anna Gibson and Cam Smith rejoice successful the 2025 ISMF Solitude World Cup and qualifying Workforce USA to compete on the 2026 Olympic Video games in ski mountaineering. Photograph: Owen Crandall
Whereas each are extremely completed mountain runners — they each represented Workforce USA on the 2025 World Mountain Working Championships this previous September, with Anna putting third and Cam eleventh on the Uphill race, and the pair respectively ending thirteenth and twenty fourth within the Up and Down race — their ski mountaineering (skimo) expertise couldn’t be extra totally different. Cam is a 13-time U.S. skimo nationwide champion who has been dreaming of the Olympics since 2021, when the Worldwide Olympic Committee introduced the game would debut on the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. However, Anna has solely a few skimo races on her resume to this point.
It was definitely a threat to attempt to deliver Anna onto the U.S. skimo nationwide group lower than a 12 months earlier than the Olympics, however Cam noticed potential. Anna grew up racing on skis, each Nordic and downhill. Plus, she was arguably one of the best short-distance path runner within the U.S. and among the best on the earth. Cam says of her, “It’s the operating, the snowboarding, the killer mentality, the power to study new issues, the actually calm demeanor that she brings to the group, and constructive angle. She’s simply actually the prototype athlete.”
An unlikely duo, a singular Olympic qualifying journey, and a sport’s debut on the Olympic Video games already make this an iconic sports activities story, even earlier than the Olympics start.
Path Runners and Skimo
Skimo has many similarities to path operating. In its most elementary kind, racers should climb uphill on skis with skins connected — which give traction on the snow — then, on the prime, take the skins off the skis and ski again down. Most races additionally contain a bootpack part the place racers put their skis on their again and climb up a steep slope with steps lower into it. Though the power to climb and descend shortly is extremely vital, the technical capacity to transition between the uphill, downhill, and bootpack segments can also be important.
Skimo, now ruled by the Worldwide Ski Mountaineering Basis (ISMF), has a protracted aggressive historical past. The ISMF administers biennial world championships and annual world cups, which have been held since 2002 and 2004, respectively. Skimo turns into an Olympic occasion for the primary time on the 2026 Olympic Video games, additional elevating the aggressive facet. There’ll be three occasions, the ladies’s and males’s sprints, in addition to a combined relay.
Heading into the 2025 ISMF Solitude World Cup race, held in December 2025 simply exterior Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah, there have been a few methods Workforce USA may earn a berth on the Olympics, however the easiest and most easy was to win the qualifying spot designated for a group from the Americas. To snag the spot, the U.S. must beat Canada on the slopes of Solitude and cross them within the 2025 World Cup rankings. There was a one-point break up between the groups headed into the race.
Cam Smith placing skins on his skis throughout a transition on the 2025 ISMF Solitude World Cup. Photograph: Owen Crandall
Within the combined relay, two group members — a girl and a person — do two laps of a course individually, buying and selling off in between — two solo melded into one race end result. Cam and Anna are extremely totally different of their backgrounds and skimo expertise, however as Anna places it, “We’d like very various things to succeed, which is partly why we’re an incredible group, as a result of we very a lot stability one another out.”
Whereas Cam says that, on paper, they’re not a favourite for an Olympic medal, he doesn’t assume it’s exterior the realm of chance. Nobody thought they’d win a World Cup the primary time racing collectively on their option to incomes that Olympic spot, both. However they did, and by a convincing 51 seconds, an enormous margin within the comparatively short-format race.
The Ask
Coming into 2025, Cam had been fascinated with recruiting Anna onto the skimo nationwide group to see if she may add the additional oomph wanted to assist the U.S. qualify for the Olympics. They’d been pals for various years, assembly on the 2022 Run the Rut, and Anna adopted his skimo racing, saying, “I’ve recognized how a lot of a legend he’s, clearly within the path world, but in addition within the skimo world.”
Cam nervously deliberate when to ask the query, figuring out it was a giant ask for a professional runner like Anna to chase an arguably hairbrained concept. He was going to ask on the Sunapee Scramble in early June this previous 12 months, the place they had been each racing, however it was wet. The circumstances weren’t conducive to hanging out and chatting. After returning dwelling and admitting he hadn’t made the pitch, Cam’s spouse instructed him simply to name her. Sheepishly, he replied that he’d ask on the 2025 Damaged Arrow Skyrace a couple of weeks later, the place they’d each be racing once more.
Anna Gibson leads the ladies on the 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent, which served because the 2025 U.S. Mountain Working Championships for the Uphill self-discipline. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
They sat down after the weekend of racing, the place Anna had gained the Ascent and positioned third within the 23k, and Cam had taken third and seventh at those self same occasions, and Cam laid out his ideas. Cam says, “She was letting me ramble. So I simply defined to her the place we had been in, how useful she could possibly be, that there was no assure she can be named to the group, no assure she’d be allowed to race at Solitude, no assure that we’d then earn the spot, and no assure that she can be chosen for it if we earned it.”
Anna was solely partially shocked, saying, “I had no concept that Cam was going to present me the arduous promote on this again in June, however it additionally didn’t really feel like that loopy as a result of I used to be like, ‘Yeah, we’ve talked about this earlier than. Right here we’re. Me being tempted to do skimo. What else is new?’”
Cam Smith (proper) chasing down Tyler McCandless for third on the 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent, which was the 2025 U.S. Mountain Working Championships for the Uphill self-discipline. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
It was in the end Cam’s enthusiasm that satisfied her to attempt. “Seeing Cam gentle up about this factor, and seeing the hope in his eyes, and simply the potential of what this could possibly be for us — I felt actually enticed.” Anna goes on to say, “I had this realization that if I gave six months of my life to perhaps make this factor occur and make all these individuals’s goals come true and within the course of have this actually unbelievable expertise myself and turn into an Olympian, that might be so unbelievable.”
Constructing Expertise
Cam grew up in Rockford, Illinois, with operating as his predominant sport. He says, “I actually loved it, however wasn’t actually going anyplace with it. I didn’t have any massive faculty alternatives.” Initially, he deliberate to stroll on at Western State Colorado College in Gunnison, Colorado, however a sequence of accidents in his senior 12 months led him to rethink his choices. As a substitute of operating, he joined the Mountain Sports activities program, an umbrella group for sports activities together with skimo, Nordic snowboarding, massive mountain snowboarding, freestyle snowboarding, alpine ski racing, path operating, and mountain biking. The varsity’s location in central Colorado made it a hotbed of outside mountain pursuits. He says, “I didn’t do any of them for aggressive motivations. I wished to know how you can do every thing as a result of that’s like the way you hang around with your pals in Gunnison.”
In 2014, his older sister, who was additionally a pupil at Western, wished to race the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse, a skimo occasion the place pairs journey from Crested Butte — situated simply up the valley from Gunnison — to Aspen, masking over 40 miles and seven,000 ft of elevation acquire. They rounded up some used ski touring gear and discovered how you can use it. In preparation, Cam lined up for the Irwin Guides Ski Mountaineering Race and was in final place when he in the end DNFed. He laughs when he says, “I had a reasonably inauspicious begin.” Nonetheless, Cam and his sister went on to complete the Grand Traverse later that winter, solidly midpack, and Cam was in love. Extra racing adopted, and he began doing properly within the native — and aggressive — Crested Butte races. Quickly, he was successful his age group at larger Colorado races, scraping collectively higher gear by means of the race prizes, and studying from the robust skimo group in Gunnison and Crested Butte.
Cam Smith (in pink) on the 2014 Irwin Guides race. Photograph courtesy of Cam Smith.
In 2017, he was named to Workforce USA for the ISMF World Championships in Italy. “I used to be the one under-23 that wished to go. So that they had been like, ‘Advantageous, include us,’” he says, and quips, “I went again to ending final place as soon as I bought to Europe.” Cam’s referring to the truth that aggressive skimo is rather more developed in Europe to this point. By 2021, when skimo was introduced as an Olympic sport for 2026, Cam was one of many prime skimo racers for the U.S. and had gained the Grand Traverse thrice and set a number of course information in high-profile races within the U.S. He set his sights on the Olympics and continued to hone his craft each winter whereas operating in the summertime.
Whereas mountain bikes had been his love whereas in faculty, he says that after out of faculty, “I wasn’t actually focused on making an attempt to self-fund a motorbike racing profession.” So operating it was for summertime, and the 2025 season was his seventh summer season of racing trails. His prime finishes over time have included a number of podiums on the Pikes Peak Marathon, fourth place on the 2025 U.S. Mountain Working Championships Up and Down race on the Sunapee Scramble, and third on the 2025 U.S. Mountain Working Championships Uphill race on the Damaged Arrow Ascent. Each these nationwide championships performances earned him spots to compete within the two disciplines for Workforce USA on the 2025 World Mountain Working Championships, held in September in Spain.
Cam Smith ending in eleventh on the 2025 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
The Multi-Modal Athlete
In the meantime, Anna grew up in Jackson, Wyoming — an epicenter for giant mountain sports activities — and gained 17 highschool state titles between cross nation, monitor, and Nordic snowboarding. For some time, downhill ski racing was her predominant sport. Her mother and father uncovered her to quite a lot of out of doors actions as she was rising up, one thing she credit with a lot of her athletic success. In 2017, she grew to become the junior nationwide champion within the 10k traditional in Nordic snowboarding. She ran collegiately for the College of Washington, and amongst her prime performances was a 3rd place within the 1,500 meters on the 2022 Pac-12 convention championships. In 2023, she did her first skimo race, the Vertfest at Mount Bachelor in Oregon, and gained. Later that 12 months, she gained the Damaged Arrow Ascent and was second within the 23k, the early days of her path operating profession.
Anna Gibson takes the win on the 2023 Damaged Arrow Ascent. Photograph: Peter Maksimow
By June of 2025, Anna was well-established within the mountain operating world with a sequence of prime outcomes and a life as an expert runner. She was additionally dabbling in gravel bike racing. When Cam floated the thought of making an attempt to earn a spot on the skimo Olympic group, she’d simply gained each the U.S. Mountain Working Championships Up and Down and Uphill races on the Sunapee Scramble and Damaged Arrow Ascent, thereby qualifying to symbolize Workforce USA in each disciplines on the 2025 World Mountain Working Championships. With a full summer season of racing already deliberate — each on the bike and on foot — Anna didn’t begin incorporating skimo coaching till August. Even then, the one further coaching she did exterior of her operating was practising the ski transitions — ripping skins off skis and placing them again on — which she did on a yoga mat in her yard a number of instances per week.
Every week earlier than the 2025 World Mountain Working Championships in Spain in September, an occasion that she’d been concentrating on all 12 months, Anna joined the U.S. skimo nationwide group for a coaching camp in Italy. She says, “It was a really dangerous choice, however I’ve zero query now that going to that camp and attending to spend time with the skimo group — who at the moment are a few of my favourite individuals — performed into me doing properly on the mountain operating world champs.” Anna positioned third within the Uphill and thirteenth within the Up and Down race.
Anna Gibson finishes third on the 2025 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
The skimo group embraced Anna’s unconventional entrance to the game. She says, “I confirmed up, and I used to be so self-conscious. I used to be like, ‘I don’t know any of the norms about this sport. I don’t know what’s cool. I don’t know something. I’m such a noob.’” The group helped her with all of the intricacies. She says, “I discovered shortly, not as a result of I’ve expertise, however as a result of the group was so beneficiant with educating me issues. I actually couldn’t have finished this with out them sharing all this data readily with me.”
Solitude, However a Workforce Effort
Anna and Cam gained their respective group qualifying races in November 2025 and earned their spots to race collectively on the 2025 ISMF Solitude World Cup in December. It was Workforce USA’s final likelihood to safe a spot on the Olympics.
Lining up, Anna had by no means raced a skimo combined relay earlier than, and this was simply her third skimo race ever. However she confirmed up relaxed, saying, “If I had come into it with equal preparation and equal expectation as I got here into the mountain operating world champs, it could have felt very intense, and it could have felt like a really massive stage and been a bit terrifying.” With a low-snow begin to the season, Anna had little time to coach on snow and apply. All Anna may do was her finest on the day with the preparation she had.
Anna Gibson coming right into a transition zone on the 2025 ISMF Solitude World Cup. Photograph: Gracie Hinz
The ladies led off the primary of the four-lap race. Coming into the primary handoff, Anna was in fourth, simply behind Workforce Canada. When describing it, Cam says wryly, “Fourth would have been nice really, however the issue is that we had been behind Canada.” Nonetheless, Cam knew they had been in an incredible place as he headed out on his lap. “When she was snowboarding as much as me, she was yelling, ‘You bought this.’ And I used to be yelling again at her, ‘That was superior.’ We each knew that we had been in the midst of an incredible race, even when we weren’t within the entrance but.” Cam took the lead throughout his first lap, and Anna discovered herself main an ISMF World Cup race with a considerable hole on her second lap. She maintained the lead, and when Cam completed the fourth and last lap, they’d a 51-second benefit on second-place Italy, and a ticket to the 2026 Olympic Video games. Anna says, “I had not even thought of the chance that Cam and I may win the world cup race.”
Cam Smith descending forward of Workforce Canada on the 2025 ISMF Solitude World Cup. Photograph: Gracie Hinz
Path to the Olympic Video games
The combined relay is a group occasion, however it’s additionally very a lot two particular person efforts, and Anna and Cam are approaching their last preparations in several methods.
Cam is now in Europe to race and prepare, and shall be there by means of the Olympics. Anna, in the meantime, determined to remain dwelling in Wyoming for many of January, saying that after a summer season and fall of continuous racing, “I used to be simply feeling very overwhelmed by the thought of going to Europe for 2 months, residing out of a suitcase, and having all of this be a very new expertise. That simply didn’t sound like one of the best ways for me to indicate as much as the Olympics feeling my finest.” They speak and textual content one another steadily, sharing their particular person experiences, very a lot a group. Anna appreciates the group facet, saying, “When individuals out and about are congratulating me, I get to say, ‘We’re so excited.’ And that simply feels actually totally different than saying. ‘I’m excited.’ I’m proud to do it with one other individual, and never solely Cam, however it took such a group effort to qualify and to present us this chance. It feels much more particular to share.”
The 2025 ISMF Solitude World Cup combined relay podium (left to proper): 2. Italy, 1. USA, 3. Switzerland. Photograph: Owen Crandall
The 2 will meet up in Spain on the finish of January for an ISMF World Cup occasion and race collectively a last time earlier than the Olympics begin on February 6. Neither is fearful about not coaching collectively within the lead-up to the Olympic Video games. Anna explains, “The most effective factor that you are able to do to your teammate is perceive what sort of power it’s essential deliver for them and be there extra in an emotional sense. And happily, Cam and I’ve recognized one another for a very long time. I do know what Cam must strategy a race feeling good. I do know what to say to him to make him really feel robust and assured.”
No matter how the Olympics in the end shake out, Anna and Cam get to be a part of historical past on the first Olympic combined relay skimo race. And maybe, a couple of years down the highway, path operating will even have its likelihood to shine on the Olympic stage, and we’ll see the pair once more with sneakers on their ft as an alternative of skis.
Name for Feedback
- Are you a path runner who additionally races skimo?
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