Team USA Clinches Ski Mountaineering Olympic Quota Spot With Dominant Performance At Solitude

Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith won the mixed relay event on Saturday, securing the U.S. a spot in ski mountaineering’s Olympic debut.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - It may be months until Team USA is breathing in the Alps of Milano and Cortina, Italy, competing with the best of the best for Olympic gold, but Anna Gibson and Cameron Smith showed what the U.S. is capable of this weekend at the Solitude Mountain Resort.

Only needing to outplace Canada to secure an Olympic quota spot for the U.S., Gibson and Smith instead raced past their entire competition on Saturday at the 2025-26 International Ski Mountaineering Federation World Cup season opener. The Americans finished with the best time of the day at 32 minutes, 17.6 seconds in front of an energized home crowd filled with family and friends rooting them on.

“Nothing about this was planned. I had no expectations about the result,” Smith said. “I just had a feeling that something great would happen and I didn’t know if that would be succeeding in our goal of making it to the Olympics or failing objectively, but I knew that we would have a great race and celebrate with the crowd.”

The American pair dominated the mixed relay event, as Gibson and Smith led for a majority of the race, with Italy’s Alba De Silvestro and Michele Boscacci — who placed second in the event — taking 51.1 seconds longer to cross the finish line

Following Italy, Switzerland’s Thibe Deseyn and Arno Lietha finished third (+1:03.8), thanks to the 30-second penalty Germany received for losing one of its skins (+1:08.6). Canada’s Emma Cook-Clarke and Aaron Robson finished in sixth.

While Smith and Gibson only needed to beat Team Canada in this race to secure their place in Italy for skimo’s Olympic debut, both athletes were clearly more focused on competing to the fullest of their abilities rather than worrying about a rivalry with Cook-Clarke and Robson

“We’ve been pushing back against the U.S. verse Canada narrative,” Smith said. “I think it's easy to kind of isolate that because that was the barometer for making it to the Games. So, we were just focusing on racing our best because we have so much love and respect for those guys.”

Gibson started the race for the U.S. and trailed Cook-Clarke early, even falling to sixth place after reaching the first of two summits and making it into the transition zone ahead of the following descent.

Throughout the rest of the leg, Cook-Clarke stayed in front of Gibson, even jumping out to first as the Canadian climbed toward the second summit. But Gibson kept a great pace on her ascents and descents, eventually climbing back up to fourth place before handing it over to Smith.

Though Italy led at the handoff, Canada was still in good position at second and, most importantly, ahead of Team USA.

But the lead wouldn’t last long as Smith powered his way forward, shaving what was an 8.7-second difference between the U.S. and Canada as he climbed his way up the course.

Soon after that, Smith jumped out to first place and continued to build Team USA’s lead, competing with ferocious speed whether he was weaving downhill or putting skins on his skis.

Gibson provided a strong performance on the third leg, building the United States’ lead to +39.5 at the final handover.

“I had a moment of, ‘Wow, that really hurts,’ but then it turned into a lot of nerves because [of] watching Cam race,” said Gibson. “We had a pretty big margin at this point, and I knew all we need right now is for no risks to be taken… And so I just was super anxious down here waiting.”

Now, it was all up to Smith to finish strong and race without mistakes to secure an Olympic quota spot for the Americans.

“Yeah, I was just trying to stay focused on the moment. Thoughts creeped in of like, ‘Wow, are we in first place,’ and I would try to push back on those (thoughts),” Smith said. “But coming down the last descent, I knew we were going to do it, and I just wanted to get to that celebration as fast as possible cause I knew it was going to be awesome. So, I was just trying to hustle to the finish line so that Anna and I could celebrate what we did today.”

They certainly celebrated, embracing each other at the finish line as the emotions of the race started to show.

The win for Team USA was especially remarkable considering Gibson had only become a skimo athlete six months prior to the competition. Just this past September, Gibson competed in the World Mountain and Trial Running Championships and won a bronze medal for Team USA in the women’s uphill 6k race.

“It feels so normal to be here, which is crazy, because this is my first one. It just feels right you know?” Gibson said. “I’m all about this sport. This is so fun. I’m not about to stop doing anything else I’m doing, but there will be lots more of this in my future.”

Quentin Carney is a contributor to TeamUSA.com on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.