Ancient Sport Skimo Makes Olympic Debut in Italy 2026

On February 19, the world will witness something remarkable: athletes racing uphill on skis at breakneck speed, then tearing back down in a sport that blends the best of cross-country and alpine skiing.

Ski mountaineering, nicknamed "skimo," is making its Olympic debut at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. And while it might sound new, this sport has roots stretching back 8,000 years to when humans first strapped wooden planks to their feet to survive harsh winters.

Team USA's Anna Gibson and Cam Smith will represent America in this historic moment. Gibson, a professional runner who only started competing in skimo last December, is already Olympic-ready thanks to her background as a semifinalist at the U.S. Olympic Track Trials and her state titles in high school cross-country and Nordic skiing.

She'll compete in the women's sprint alongside Smith in the men's sprint. Together, they'll tackle the mixed relay, racing against 17 other teams in a breathtaking combination of speed-skiing uphill and racing back down.

Here's how it works: athletes attach fabric "skins" to their skis for uphill traction, clip into special bindings that let their heels move freely, then rip the skins off to ski downhill at full speed. Sometimes they even strap their skis to backpacks and run on foot.

Before ski lifts existed in the 1930s, this was simply how people skied. Norwegian archaeologist Julian Post-Melbye discovered a 1,300-year-old ski frozen in Norway's mountains in 2021, but the oldest ski fragments date back to 6000 BCE in Siberia.

For thousands of years, mountain communities relied on skis for hunting and survival across Europe and Asia's high peaks. Vikings sent tax collectors on skis in 950 CE, and soldiers used them in Norway's 1161 Battle of Oslo and later in the Napoleonic Wars.

The sport evolved through European military training and exploration. Italian and Austrian troops ski-mountaineered through brutal alpine combat during World War I, carving tunnels through the Dolomite mountains where next month's Olympic races will take place.

Why This Inspires

Italy hosting skimo's Olympic debut isn't random. The sport's modern competitive form was refined in the Italian Alps, where necessity transformed into athletic excellence over centuries.

Gibson sees the deeper meaning: "Italy is the perfect place for the debut of skimo in the Olympics due to the rich history of the sport in the area, which I know is not a coincidence."

What started as survival has become a celebration of human endurance, connecting ancient mountain dwellers to today's elite athletes through the simple act of climbing mountains on skis. Now the whole world gets to watch this ancient tradition take its place on sport's biggest stage.