{"id":621313,"date":"2025-12-09T03:12:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T03:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/621313\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T03:12:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T03:12:25","slug":"team-usa-to-send-ski-mountaineering-relay-team-to-sports-olympic-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/621313\/","title":{"rendered":"Team USA to send ski mountaineering relay team to sport\u2019s Olympic debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

Flags from all over the world waved at North America\u2019s first ski mountaineering World Cup Saturday, Dec. 6, at Solitude Mountain Resort, where athletes from Canada and the United States were competing for a spot at the 2026 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

Ski mountaineering, nicknamed \u201cskimo,\u201d requires athletes to climb a mountain, then ski down it as fast as possible.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only room for one North American relay pair<\/a> at the 2026 Games, so the U.S. had to best Canada in the mixed relay finals.<\/p>\n

Americans Cam Smith and Anna Gibson did just that Saturday. The two earned gold and finished a minute and a half ahead of Canada\u2019s 6th-place team, securing the Olympic quota for North America.<\/p>\n

However, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has not yet announced which athletes will head to Milano Cortina this winter.<\/p>\n

Smith skied across the finish line and straight into a big hug with Gibson, over 50 seconds ahead of second-place Italy.<\/p>\n

Smith is a standout in the U.S. skimo world, with 13 national championships<\/a> to his name.<\/p>\n

With a gold medal around his neck and a pink cowboy hat on his head, he told KPCW the relay requires a lot of trust with his racing partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just all about the trust and commitment to each other,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m racing hard for her because I know she\u2019s doing the same for me, so the teamwork comes in that accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith, who\u2019s from Crested Butte, Colorado, said securing the Olympic quota is a \u201cdream\u201d he\u2019s proud to fulfill for Team USA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just glad to carry the torch on behalf of all of our team and supporters and get the job done together,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the ultimate gift I could give back to everyone that\u2019s supported us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an emotional day for Gibson, too.<\/p>\n

An accomplished trail runner<\/a> who lives in Jackson, Wyoming, Gibson is new to skimo \u2013 Saturday was her first World Cup. She and her friends celebrated after the awards ceremony with a spontaneous dance party in the snow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of having a \u2018pinch me\u2019 moment \u2013 it\u2019s crazy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Skimo is an intensely aerobic sport that requires athletes to skin up the mountain and ski down.<\/p>\n

Relay teams are made up of one man and one woman, and the race involves four laps, two per person. Each lap includes two steep climbs and multiple \u201ctransitions,\u201d where skiers must pause, take off their skis, and prepare as fast as they can for the next climb or descent. In total, the roughly 5K relay takes a little over half an hour for the top teams.<\/p>\n

\"American<\/p>\n

American athletes put skins on their skis to prepare for the next climb at the ski mountaineering World Cup Dec. 6, 2025, at Solitude Mountain Resort. <\/p>\n

Florence Toth came from Alberta, Canada, to watch her daughter Kylie compete. Awaiting the relay finals, she told KPCW the transitions impress her most.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find the whole thing exhausting,\u201d she said, laughing. \u201cJust walking up the hill on the side tired me right out! I think the boot packing and the transitions are really amazing, how fast they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019s excited for skimo\u2019s inaugural Olympics.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have a lot of talent and a lot of willpower to do this sport,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Family and friends came from Colorado to support American gold medalist Cam Smith. The whole group wore red, white and blue hats hand-knitted by Smith\u2019s mother, Lisa Van Schoonenberg, who said she was nervous ahead of the finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a bundle of nerves, but huge excitement,\u201d she said before the race. \u201cIt was so great to see all the USA skiers do so well, and [I\u2019m] just really excited for watching the finals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cam Smith\u2019s sister, Zoe Smith, said the group jumped in the car to make it to the race after their flights were delayed. She said she introduced her brother to the sport and is thrilled to see him succeeding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all known since April, when the World Cup standings were tied at the end of the season, that it was going to all come down to this race,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Overall, it was a successful weekend for Team USA\u2019s relay athletes. Park City local Griffin Briley and partner Hali Hafeman won the \u201cB\u201d final, and another American duo, Jessie Young and John Gaston, came second in that race.<\/p>\n

The Americans did not perform as well in the individual sprint races Sunday. No skiers made it past the quarter finals.<\/p>\n

The Olympic skimo events will be Feb. 19 and 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flags from all over the world waved at North America\u2019s first ski mountaineering World Cup Saturday, Dec. 6,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-621313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115687427462258235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}