Nina Silitch Worked To Grow Skimo In America Long Before It Was An Olympic Sport

By the time Nina Silitch began competing in major international ski mountaineering races, she was well into her 30s and the mother of two young sons.

Fortunately, Silitch and her family were living full time in Europe. As a result, she was the rare American athlete who had the opportunity to regularly compete on the world cup circuit in a sport that almost no one back in the States had heard of, never mind understood.

Often the lone U.S. athlete during those early days in skimo — which sees athletes scale up a mountain before skiing down it — Silitch thrived and became the first North American to reach world cup podiums, with wins in 2012 and 2013. 

“What really allowed me to be competitive was that I lived and trained over there in that environment,” Silitch said. “That really allowed me to be successful and competitive.

“I won my first gold medal at age 40. I had two kids. I was an older athlete, and I never expected to do this.”

Though her competitive career ended in 2013, the now-52-year-old Silitch remains close to the sport and looks forward to its Olympic debut at next year’s Winter Games in Milano Cortina, Italy.

“It was my dream to have it become an Olympic sport,” Silitch said. “I’m really excited to see it as an Olympic sport. That was ultimately our goal, and I think everybody has worked so hard — not just the United States but all these countries.”

Silitch’s background in skiing began as an alpine racer while growing up around Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine. In high school, Silitch picked up Nordic skiing and went on to become a member of the mountaineering club at Dartmouth College, where she graduated in 1994. 

When she and her husband, Michael, moved to Europe, she took a job as head of an outdoor program for girls at an international school in Villars, Switzerland, which is where she first heard of skimo. 

“I just started to do a little bit more and more,” Silitch said, adding that it’s part of the “culture in the Alps. It’s really rooted in their lifestyle, whereas here it’s a new sport.”

The combination of her background in Nordic and alpine skiing as well as mountaineering proved a perfect fit for skimo. She eventually joined the U.S. national team in 2008. 

“By 2010 I decided that I was going to try doing more of the world cup circuit,” she said. “I got more into it, and I was successful. I was really the only American (ski mountaineering athlete) who was living over there full time.”

That gave Silitch a huge advantage, and she made the most of it. On top of her two world cup wins, she added a silver medal in the sprint at the 2013 world championships. The sprint event will be central to skimo’s Olympic debut next year, with a men’s and women’s race on the program. Skimo athletes will also compete in a mixed relay in Milano Cortina.

Silitch, who now lives in Park City, Utah, teaches elementary school and continues to apply her experience and skills in occasional skimo clinics. In the summer, she returns to New England, where she’s assistant director of a girls’ camp on Lake Fairlee in Vermont.

To encourage younger athletes to try skimo, she founded a ski mountaineering team in Park City in 2015 after she and her family returned to the U.S. Silitch noted that the growing popularity of mountain biking provided the ideal crossover sport for skimo.

“When I moved back 10 years ago, there were very few youth teams,” she said. “Now we have more youth teams popping up all over the country, which was a real goal to get the younger generation excited about skimo. I still think it’s a young sport in the U.S., and there’s a lot of growth.

“One of my visions is to start building up that younger generation. I want them to be able to hold onto the essence of ski mountaineering. When I was competing, people were getting into it from other sports.”

Silitch added that she’s enjoyed seeing so many women — including older ones with children — competing and being successful in skimo.

Silitch considers herself fortunate to have competed on the world cup circuit for so many years in what has become an increasingly global sport.

“For me, it’s really about getting to know people from other cultures because you’re always with the same people at the different races,” Silitch said. “That is so much a part of it.”

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 usaskimo.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.