Everything you need to know about skimo, the sport making its debut at the Winter Olympics

By Ben Church, CNN

Milan, Italy (CNN) — It’s around 102 years since the very first Winter Olympics were held in the French resort of Chamonix, but this year’s Games will be the first to feature the sport of skimo.

Short for ski mountaineering, skimo is the only sport making its debut at Milan Cortina this month, but it boasts a long and fascinating history that stretches back decades.

CNN Sports spoke to the two skimo athletes, Cam Smith and Anna Gibson, who are set to represent Team USA at the Winter Olympics this year, to discover what fans can expect from this unique event.

What are the rules?

Skimo is an energy-sapping mix of uphill climbing and downhill skiing, with athletes tasked with changing their specialist equipment depending on the section of the course they are tackling.

Within the sport, there are several disciplines, including individual races, sprints and team relays.

For this year’s Games, only the men’s and women’s sprints and the mixed relay will be included in the schedule.

The sprints are full of adrenaline, with races typically lasting around three minutes, involving one ascent and one descent. With so little margin for error, there is huge pressure on nailing the transition of equipment.

Athletes first wear skins – material that prevents skiers from slipping down snow – attached to their skis, which allows them to climb the first ascent. They then switch to ski boots to climb a short distance, before transitioning back to skis for the final uphill section.

Competitors then take the skins off their skis before slaloming down the descent to the finish line.

The relays, meanwhile, involve one man and one woman who together complete four alternate laps of the course. The relay course is slightly bigger and involves two accents and two descents per lap.

“I think what makes the sport really dynamic is that you have this uphill aerobic component, you have this downhill gravity racing component, and then the transitions in between make the racing incredibly dynamic,” Smith tells CNN Sports.

“The lead changes constantly and something is always happening, and no lead is ever safe in the race.”

Contact and frantic transitions

With so little margin for error, much focus is on the transition sections where athletes switch out their equipment.

Given the snowy conditions and fatigue levels, these are nervous moments for the athletes, with mere seconds separating winning from losing.

There are also penalties for unsportsmanlike behavior, with contact between athletes common in such a chaotic environment.

“It certainly can be physical because you’re racing for the same line, you’re trying to get ahead of the other competitors before the descent, trying to find the more advantageous place in the transition area,” Smith says.

“So it’s definitely competitive. There’s contact and there’s strategy from that component of trying to get out of that chaos and get ahead of it. You have to be strong and resilient when you are in the midst of it.

“But it’s very rare to have a penalty be called for something that’s unsportsmanlike conduct. I think athletes know where that line is.”

Military background

Skimo has roots in backcountry skiing, which, before ski lifts were invented, was the only way of getting around snowy mountains.

The sport, therefore, has a strong relationship with the military, with troops in such environments regularly skinning up mountains before skiing back down. The practice was particularly used by patrolling troops during World War II, according to Smith, who has educated himself in the sport’s long history.

The tradition still lives on today, with some national teams still sponsored by military organizations in their countries.

This, however, is not true of US Skimo, which has been rapidly professionalizing as a governing body since the sport was announced as a future Winter Olympic event back in 2021.

Meet Team USA

Smith and Gibson are the only two American athletes set to compete at the Winter Games this month in skimo, and both have been waiting patiently for the events to get underway in Bormio.

And while the two friends are both experts in the field, each has a very different journey to becoming an Olympian.

Gibson only started competing in skimo back in July. Incredibly, in just seven months, she has developed into an Olympic-level athlete with ambitions of medaling at the Games.

Her progression, though, is less surprising than you might think. That’s because Gibson had been training for the event her entire life – without even knowing it.

Growing up in Jackson, Wyoming, Gibson spent her childhood outside in the mountains. Skiing was naturally her first love, but the passion was merged with track and trail running in her teens – Gibson is also a professional trail runner.

“I’ve always wanted to be an Olympian,” she tells CNN Sports.

“When I was 10, if you had asked me, I would have said I wanted to go for downhill skiing. If you’d asked me when I was 15, I might have told you that I wanted to go for Nordic skiing. And then for track from that point forward.”

It’s a foundation that was unwittingly perfect for the world of skimo, which demands the very skills that come somewhat naturally to Gibson after years of dedication and sacrifice.

Smith, a friend of Gibson for years, recognized this and set about convincing her to try for the Olympic team.

Initially unsure about whether to take the plunge, Gibson eventually decided to dedicate the rest of the year to earning Olympic qualification. The pair achieved as much in Gibson’s very first World Cup event, with the duo winning the mixed relay race to secure a spot for the Games.

“My background definitely helped me pick up the sport quickly. I just had to put the skills that I had in a new context and then compete,” she adds.

As for Smith, his journey to the Olympics has been a story of resilience.

Like Gibson, he has a long history of trail running, but has been competing in skimo for far longer.

He’s witnessed the sport professionalize over the years and is excited about the possibility of adding more skimo races at future Winter Games.

While both are hoping to get their hands on a medal, Smith is just relishing the chance of competing at his very first Olympics after recovering from several serious injuries in recent seasons.

“The Olympics was just something I was a fan of and I always thought it was the best sporting spectacle,” he says.

“I didn’t have any reason to believe that I would be an athlete in summer or winter and so it wasn’t necessarily something I dreamed of as a kid. It was just something that I enjoyed watching as a fan, which makes it even more special that now I can be a part of that from the inside.”

The skimo events start on February 19 with the individual sprints, before the mixed relay starts on February 21.

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