Training For Ultra Running Started Gwen Rudy’s Path To The U.S. Skimo National Team

Gwen Rudy grew up skiing. But by the time she moved to Leadville, Colorado, in 2019, competing in ultra marathons had become her athletic focus.

Rudy hired a local trainer for ultra running, and he gradually started to include winter workouts — like skiing uphill — into Rudy’s training.

What had started as a way to become a better runner turned into an introduction to a new sport altogether. Eventually, Rudy bought used ski mountaineering equipment and began participating in the sport in which athletes ascend a snow-covered mountain on foot and then ski down it.

Known as skimo, the sport has been growing in popularity around the world and will be included in the Olympic Winter Games for the first time next year in Milano Cortina.

Rudy said making that Olympic team “would be a dream come true,” though for now the 31-year-old has nearer term goals.

She just departed for six to seven weeks of racing in Europe. In addition to four world cup events, she will take part in the ISMF World Championships relay race March 3 in Morgins, Switzerland, as well as the women’s vertical on March 4 and the women’s sprint race on March 6. The sprint and mixed relay events are both the program for the 2026 Winter Games.

“I’m excited,” she said of the busy trip. “I think it’s fun.”

Rudy, like skimo itself in the U.S., has had an eventful last couple years. She entered her first national championships in 2022 and, with no expectations, placed seventh in the women’s vertical — where athletes only ascent up a mountain on skis — in nearby Vail, Colorado.

“I wasn’t too far back from some of the lead girls,” Rudy said.

Having enjoyed that experience, she began racing more the following year. She can admit now that she had “no idea” what she was doing in the sport during her first season, but she kept racking up good results. By the end of the season, she had six podium finishes in sanctioned races to qualify for the national team.

Being a trailblazer of sorts in American skimo fits Rudy’s athletically nomadic lifestyle.

The daughter of parents who were in the Peace Corps, Rudy isn’t one to back down from a challenge. When the family moved to Bulgaria during her high school years, she traded soccer for trail running.   

“I’ve always just been super active,” she said. “I joined in a few local trail races every year at the mountain outside of the city (where) we lived. It was nothing competitive.”

While at Colorado Mountain College, Rudy continued her active lifestyle with trail running, rock climbing and skiing. Later, after earning a Master of Science in Oriental Medicine, she opened a sports medicine acupuncture practice in Leadville, the former silver mining town situated more than 10,000 feet above sea level in the heart of the Rocky Mountains.

Rudy continues to run the clinic as she works toward a potential Olympic berth next year.

“I’m super grateful for that,” Rudy said. “It just feels like such a cool opportunity and a cool time to be part of the sport.”

Injuries cut short Rudy’s first season on the national team in 2023–24. She had surgery on a broken right ankle in early March and on a torn ACL in her right knee in June, which led to doubts about her ability to recover in time for the 2024–25 season.

Noting that Leadville is a “volume culture” where athletes focus on racking up vertical feet or miles in training, Rudy said the injuries have changed her perspective.

“After all these injuries, I had to focus on saving energy and prioritizing weight training in the gym and building strength and muscle,” she said. “My mantra this year has been stop a lap early and save energy for the gym. And I think that’s actually been beneficial for the sport, especially the version of it going to the Olympics.”

As Rudy pointed out, the Olympic medal events will be shorter and emphasize power and explosiveness. The sprint competitions will have an ascent of roughly 80 meters, and races typically last only 3-4 minutes.

“I think a lot of the athletes are doing less volume and more intensity and more in the gym,” she added. “So, it’s been pretty good.”

At the national championships in January, Rudy placed second in the sprint, third in the vertical race and second in the mixed relay with David Sinclair. She’ll race with John Gaston in the mixed relay in Switzerland after Sinclair had to pull out of the event due to an injury.

While Rudy felt good about her performance at nationals, a more recent trip to Spain and Andorra didn’t go quite as well, as she felt sick the entire time. She’s hoping to bounce back and establish herself as the top American female racer in a sport dominated by Europeans.

“It’s hard,” Rudy said. “Each race we do, I think we’re all learning so much and improving. I think we’re getting there each race.”

Leaving her acupuncture practice for several weeks isn’t the best business move, she said. However, if she can somehow balance work and competition, Rudy thinks she could be on the skimo circuit for years to come.

“I definitely think so,” she said. “You can see where we have to improve. We’re only going to keep getting better. I know, in a few years, we could be in the mix.”

Bob Reinert spent 17 years writing sports for The Boston Globe. He also served as a sports information director at Saint Anselm College and Phillips Exeter Academy. He is a contributor to teamusa.com/ski-mountaineering on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.