How a love for competition brought Washington alum Anna Gibson to the Winter Olympics

When ski mountaineering makes its Olympic debut in the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, so will Team USA's Anna Gibson.

A former track and field student-athlete at Washington, the Jackson, Wyoming, native will be competing in just her second ski mountaineering competition. 

Her first competition was only two months ago, when Gibson and teammate Cam Smith won the mixed-relay event at the International Ski Mountaineering Federation World Cup in Utah and stamped their passports to Italy.

At the Olympics, Gibson will compete in the women's sprint race Thursday before joining Smith on Saturday for the mixed-relay event. 

At its core, ski mountaineering, or skimo, involves competitors climbing up a mountain both on skis and by foot before reaching a certain point and descending on skis. Sprint events are quick races that cover 70 meters of elevation gain at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, while the mixed relay covers 140 meters and has teams of one male and one female athlete who take turns navigating the course.

Even though Gibson is new to the sport, her past experiences, including her time at Washington, and her love for competition have prepared her for this opportunity.

Becoming a multisport talent

Gibson's desire to push herself to new limits is showcased in every race she's in, regardless of sport.

Her pursuit of endurance sports began as a kid on the slopes in Wyoming, where she first took up skiing.

"I've actually been skiing for my whole life. That was the original sport for me," Gibson said. "I was an Alpine skier first, and then I raced Nordic through high school."

In addition to skiing, Gibson ran cross country and track at an elite level. By the time she finished high school, she set a state record with 17 state titles across the three sports. 

When it came time for college, Gibson spent her first three semesters at Brown before transferring to Washington. As a Husky, Gibson qualified for two NCAA indoor and two NCAA outdoor track and field championships, earning multiple All-America honors, and she helped set an NCAA record in the distance medley relay in 2023.

Even while competing as a collegiate athlete, Gibson still found time to keep skiing during her free time. On weekends, she would venture to the slopes of Vancouver, Canada, to stay close to the sport.

"It's something that I've always loved a lot and had always known I might come back to competing in it," Gibson said.

An opportunity too good to pass up

After college, Gibson became a professional runner, taking an interest in trail running, in addition to track. In 2024, she qualified for the 1,500-meter semifinal at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Oregon. A week before the trials, she was in California, winning the Broken Arrow vertical kilometer race at Palisades Tahoe ski resort. No matter what else was going on, Gibson was going to continue pursuing her passions.

It was this kind of attitude and ability that caught the attention of her future teammate, who is also a professional trail runner.

"Cam was the one who had the original idea to come ask me about doing skimo," Gibson said. "We've known each other for four or five years now … so he came up to me at a race that we were at in June and said, 'Tell me if the answer's no, and I will never ask you about this again, but you should try skimo.' And I could not get the idea out of my head. … I just had this extreme curiosity and excitement about trying it."

From then on, Gibson and Smith have been training and competing together. Though she had to slowly learn the more technical parts of the sport — like mastering the quick transition from skis to boots — Gibson's strengths from her other sports have translated seamlessly to skimo. These include skills like increasing speed and building up endurance, as well as soft skills like how to work as a team.

"One of the biggest takeaways from being (a student-athlete) for me is just the teamwork element, because that's a very close-knit team environment," Gibson said. "Every athlete is pushing each other all the time. So I think taking that into my professional career where I'm doing these sports that are more commonly individual events has been a good reminder of how other people can help elevate you to be your best."

Making a historic debut

It isn't lost on Gibson that she and Smith will make history as part of the first skimo competition at the Olympics. 

"It's really cool to be a part of the debut of ski mountaineering," Gibson said. "I think it's especially cool to have it happening here in Italy, where there's a lot of ski mountaineering history and kind of the birthplace of the sport in general." 

Even though she's competing in a new sport, and on the world's biggest stage, Gibson feels ready. Tackling new challenges has become second nature; many of her past accomplishments have come in instances where the odds seemed to not be in her favor. 

"One of my favorite moments from college was breaking the distance medley relay record on the indoor track with a couple of my teammates," Gibson said. "We weren't expected to (set) the record, and it just sort of surprised everybody. It was super fun."

Surprising people is exactly what Gibson is looking to do when she competes for an Olympic medal this week.

How to watch

Follow Team USA's journey throughout the 2026 Winter Olympics through NBCUniversal's coverage. Every event will also be livestreamed and available on demand on Peacock. Daily broadcast schedules are available at nbcolympics.com/schedule.