In his ski mountaineering debut, Cam Smith was the biggest goober on the course. It was 2014 and Smith had just moved to Gunnison from his native Illinois to attend Western Colorado University. He was competing in the local Irwin Guides Skimo Race, looking very out of place. He wore rain pants tucke d into his boots, a bike helmet, some random workout gloves, and a hiking backpack that slowed him down. He did not have sunglasses to protect his eyes from snow glare. In his first lap, he crashed five times in his descent in powder, which the Midwesterner had never skied before, and was unable to finish the race. But what Smith lacked in style points that day, he made up for in gusto, a prevailing trait in his ascent in ski mountaineering, a fast-growing sport rooted in backcountry skiing. Nicknamed skimo, ski mountaineering combines uphill skiing (skinning), technical climbing (bootpacking) and downhill skiing. Skimo is making its Olympic debut at the Milan Cortina Games, where the Crested Butte resident will compete for Team USA. Cameron Smith of USA in action during the Sprint Race during the 2025 ISMF Ski Mountaineering World Championships Sprint Race on March 6, 2025 in Monthey, Switzerland. (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images) “I had to take (my backpack) off and then finagle my skis at the transition in that first race, and I remember then I was like, ‘What does it matter if I spend an extra minute or two in the transition?'” Smith recalled with a laugh. “Now, I’m trying to shave tenths of a second off my time. “It’s just cool to look at photos of myself from that day and reflect on how far of a journey that was from there to here… There was nothing remarkable about me at the time, other than I just kept being in the right place at the right time in this sport, and I just didn’t quit trying to get better.” Smith’s arrival in Italy — where he’ll compete in the sprint race as well as the mixed relay with Anna Gibson, the top American woman — has been fueled by a meteoric rise in the sport. Now 30, Smith is a five-time North American Ski Mountaineering champion, and holds the course record for the three largest skimo races in the United States. He is also the first American man to podium at a World Cup race, a feat he accomplished in 2022 in Andorra, and part of the first American tandem to win a World Cup stop when he and Gibson triumphed at a race in Utah in December. Anna Gibson, left, and her partner Cam Smith compete during a World Cup ski mountaineering mixed team relay at Solitude Mountain in Utah, Dec. 6, 2025. (Ron Winsett/ISMF via AP) Related Articles Avalanche star Martin Necas out with lower-body injury against Red Wings Avalanche will enter Olympic Games break as NHL’s top team. Here’s how others finished. | Journal For slumping Avalanche, nearly everything has slipped since historic start Colorado has the most Olympic Games athletes on Team USA for Milan Cortina Avalanche sign defenseman Sam Malinski to 4-year, $19 million contract One of Smith’s college coaches said Smith’s success is rooted in an athlete “who still doesn’t know how good he can be.” “Because the point of all this isn’t finding the answer to that question,” explained Eddy Cohn, who coached Smith in mountain biking in Western Colorado’s Mountain Sports Program. “The point is pursuing the answer of the question. And that’s been his mindset all along, whether it was biking, skimo, or another mountain sport. “Also, the entire time I’ve known him, it was never about winning a race. He will go to the deepest part of the pain cave anyone has imagined in an attempt to win the race, but it isn’t for the win. It’s for this intrinsic drive that he has to push himself.” Smith, also an accomplished mountain and trail runner who has qualified for the world championships in that sport, caught Cohn’s eye in one of his first mountain bike races for Western Colorado. The team was in Steamboat Springs, and it snowed ahead of the race, making an already-hard track more difficult. Race organizers also decided to make Smith’s two races on the same day. While Cohn said those conditions broke some riders, Smith didn’t blink. “The other thing that I will say that led to Cam’s development in skimo is I’ve never met anyone better at suffering. The harder it is, the better he does,” Cohn said. “The conditions were brutal that day, and while everybody was coming back to the pits after the races and complaining, and one of our riders was crying, it was one of Cam’s best weekends of racing ever.” Hopes in Bormio Fast forward a decade, and Smith and Gibson’s win at the recent World Cup race in December at Solitude Mountain Resort in Utah cemented Olympic bids for the duo, who are the U.S. representatives in a relatively small Olympic field in Bormio, Italy. Only 36 athletes could qualify, with 12 relay teams, each from a different country. Qualifying was done by region, and the U.S. entered the World Cup at Solitude one point behind regional rival Canada, needing to beat the Canucks for Smith and Gibson to earn the bid. Smith and Gibson trailed Canada after the first lap, then turned it on. The duo finished with a time of 32 minutes, 17.6 seconds, blowing away the field to win by 51 seconds. Solitude was the first of eight stops on the 2025-26 World Cup circuit, and the first mixed relay World Cup event held in the U.S. The decisive triumph also came in Gibson’s first World Cup race after the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, native and elite trail runner picked up the sport last summer at Smith’s behest. “How quickly (Gibson) has emerged as a dominant force in this sport has been incredible to witness,” Smith said. For Smith, appearing in the Olympics will be another watershed moment in his career. Former national team member Rory Kelly says Smith’s success has shown younger American skimo racers “what is fully possible” in a sport traditionally dominated by mountainous European countries. “To see him get third place in the vertical (race at the World Cup) in Andorra, it kind of just made the sport feel different (for Americans),” said Kelly, who is now Team USA’s athletes commission representative for skimo. “In particular, people coming up behind him saw that and thought, ‘Wow, (skimo in America) is a real thing.’ If Cam can do it, we can too. So I think that his success has driven a lot of the interest from the younger racers. “That, in combination with it being an opportunity to go to the Olympics, has drawn folks from trail running, from biking, from Nordic skiing, from some other endurance sports who are looking for a winter sport, and made it more popular.” Once a niche European endeavor, skimo has become increasingly professionalized over the last decade. It has surged in popularity in the U.S. and specifically in Colorado. And as Smith explained, going into the Milan Cortina Games, the Americans are ahead of their timeline to put their stamp on the sport on the world’s biggest stage. “For a long time, our goal was just to put the U.S. flag on the start line in the Olympics in 2026, then we’d build in 2030,” Smith said. “And then by 2034, when the games came home (to Salt Lake City) and a lot of our really talented younger athletes got closer to their primes, then we’d hunt for a medal then. But it’s kind of like we accelerated things eight years.” Anna Gibson, left, and her partner Cam Smith compete during a World Cup ski mountaineering mixed team relay at Solitude Mountain in Utah, Dec. 6, 2025. (Ron Winsett/ISMF via AP) While the sprint event isn’t tailored to Smith’s endurance strength, seeing as the race takes only a few minutes, Kelly believes Smith and Gibson have a legitimate chance to medal in the mixed relay, which is a much longer race. Spain is the favorite going in, while France, Switzerland and Italy are also top contenders. “We’re one of probably four or five countries that could get that last step on the podium to get a bronze,” Kelly said. “But racing is funny. Strange things can happen, especially with a more crowded race (because there is not a preliminary).” Smith said that after entering December’s World Cup race ranked 13th, and then winning it, he and Gibson are capable of another shocking result in Bormio. “We do our best with the most pressure and on the biggest stages,” Smith said. “So I think we can definitely surprise everyone when the lights come on on the big day.” ‘A mission-based dude’ While Smith competes in skimo’s Olympic debut, back home in Crested Butte, the mountain town of about 9,000 will be following him closely. When he’s not competing internationally or training for the Olympics, Smith’s day job is as an instructor for the Adaptive Sports Center in Crested Butte. In that role, he helps empower individuals with disabilities to experience high-altitude sports such as skiing and mountain biking. Even in the lead-up to the Milan Cortina Games, Smith insisted on staying involved with the Adaptive Sports Center in a part-time capacity because he wants “to be an Olympian that also works at Adaptive.” One particular anecdote from last summer sums up Smith’s dedication to the gig, when he was working with an individual who had recently suffered a spinal injury and was learning how to mountain bike. The three-wheeled bike kept tipping on the trail, so Smith put his own mountain bike down and sprinted behind the client all the way down the mountain, acting as a spotter to prevent tipping while coaching along the way. “That was a pretty amazing feat because when the person was feeling comfortable and the bike was going full bore, it’s a pretty good clip to be running to keep up with that,” said Chris Read, Smith’s longtime co-worker at the Adaptive Sports Center. “That story goes to show, Cam’s a mission-based dude. He’s super intentional in everything he does. He’s sharp, he’s dedicated. Everything that makes him a good adaptive instructor are the exact same things that make him a good elite athlete.” What Smith does after the Olympics is to be determined — his sponsor Dynafit has given him increased support over the past few years, and it’s possible Smith might focus on training full-time — but what’s certain is that Smith will keep pushing his limits in skimo. “What has helped me get to this point is that I continue to have curiosity about what can I do and where is the ceiling is,” Smith said. “And after going through some years of major injuries and season-ending injuries, and doubting whether I wanted to continue this sport at all, it’s like, ‘Well, I can’t let (the Olympics) be that ceiling and be the end of that pursuit of potential.’ “At the end of the day, I’m just going to stay curious about what’s possible.” Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams. ...read more read less