Welcome to your go-to information to the 2026 Winter Olympics. We’re monitoring the whole lot—from real-life heated rivalries (sure, they exist) to under-the-radar sports activities and shock standouts—so you possibly can compensate for all of our protection in a single place.
Earlier than the Winter Olympics, you in all probability had by no means heard of ski mountaineering, also referred to as skimo. It’s the primary brand-new Winter Olympic sport in almost 30 years after the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) unanimously authorized skimo’s inclusion in July 2021.
Skimo is sort of a mixture of path working and snowboarding, however on snow-covered mountains. Athletes run uphill on light-weight skis utilizing particular skins for grip, then change to downhill mode and race down. Races normally contain steep climbs, quick descents, and sections the place you carry your skis on foot. It’s equal elements endurance and technical ability.
Making her Olympic debut is Anna Gibson, a newcomer to the Olympics and the game itself. Gibson, a 26-year-old from Wyoming, has a aggressive working background and began her skilled profession as a path runner. It wasn’t till June 2025 (sure, simply eight months earlier than the Olympics) {that a} pal, and now teammate, satisfied her to strive skimo.
“He was like, ‘Right here’s the deal: We’re on the sting of constructing the Olympics, and you would contribute,’” Gibson informed the Bozeman Day by day Chronicle. “I used to be simply standing there like, ‘Okay, the reply just isn’t no, however I’m not fairly able to commit but.’”
It seems Gibson is a pure. Coming from a aggressive working background, she already had the endurance wanted to climb uphill. And Gibson credit her mother and father’ affect to strive completely different sports activities, like alpine snowboarding and nordic snowboarding, for making her a powerful general athlete.
“I had a whole lot of moments in my childhood the place there was fairly robust stress from coaches or different individuals, even different athletes, considering that I wanted to decide on what I wished to do,” Gibson informed Yahoo Sports activities. “I by no means purchased into that coverage. So I stored doing the whole lot, switching from one sport to the following, from season to season. I simply did the issues I beloved doing.”
Gibson received gold on the World Cup in December 2025 for skimo, securing a spot within the Olympics together with her teammate Cameron Smith. She’s now one to look at, and a number one contender to be America’s first feminine skimo Olympian.
“It’s been enjoyable to dream about extra than simply taking part within the Olympics,” Smith stated. “Now we’re going there to struggle for medals.”
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