Meet Team USA's First-Ever Ski Mountaineering Athletes at Milan-Cortina 2026
Preview
Ski Mountaineering, known as skimo, is a new sport at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
The ski discipline consists of sprint races in the men's and women's disciplines, as well as a longer-distance mixed-gender team relay.
In sprint races, athletes race uphill with climbing skins attached to their skis, navigating obstacles, then transition to downhill mode as quickly as possible and race back to the finish line. Men's and Women's sprint races will take place on Thursday, February 19.
The team relay has 12 teams, each with a male and female competitor who will sprint two ascents and descents of the course, in alternating order. Mixed Relay will take place on Saturday, February 21.
In the sport's Olympic debut, Team USA will be represented in the relay race by the first-ever US Olympic Ski Mountaineering Team.
So, who are the two athletes representing the US in this historic Olympic moment?
Following their victory at the mixed relay ISMF World Cup qualification event at Solitude Mountain in December 2025, Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith will represent Team USA in Ski Mountaineering.
Keep reading to learn more about them.
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Cameron Smith
Cameron Smith, 30, started SkiMo racing the first chance he got, which happened to be in 2014. Smith, who hails from Rockford, Illinois, joined his older sister at Western Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado, and the two competed in the Grand Traverse ski mountaineering race the same year.
Since then, Smith has become the 11-time US Ski Mountaineering national champion and a five-time North American SkiMo Champion. He also holds course records for the Power of Four, Grand Traverse, and Gothic Mountain Tour, which are the US's three largest SkiMo races.
Smith currently resides in Crested Butte, Colorado, and works as an instructor for the Adaptive Sports Center of Crested Butte.
Photo: Connor Burkesmith/Courtesy of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort
Anna Gibson
Anna Gibson, 26, hails from the ski mecca of Jackson, Wyoming. While attending the University of Washington, Gibson excelled in cross-country running and track and field, which led her to the 1500m semi-finals at the 2024 Olympic Qualifiers.
Gibson then represented Team USA at the World Mountain and Trail Running World Championships and won a bronze medal in the 6km uphill event. Gibson has medaled at numerous other trail running events and set several course records.
Gibson was recruited to USA SkiMo by her Olympic teammate, Cameron Smith, after racing the USA Vertical Championships, where Smith took third and Gibson took first. Gibson then attended a USA Skimo training camp in Italy, where she competed in a selection event.
During the event, she beat one of the top female SkiMo racers in America by a massive margin in all three races and earned her spot with Smith in the mixed relay at Solitude.