Anna Gibson is an accomplished multi-sport athlete — an elite trail runner, ski mountaineer, and gravel cyclist. Top athletes can often turn their hand to more than one trade and Anna is proof that talent is rarely restricted by the boundaries of a discipline. Some skills are learned — some are innate. Most athletes choose to double-down on their primary sport, narrowing and refining the necessary skills to achieve goals. Progress through repetition and practice. Few — like Anna — explore the practical application of skills from other sports. But the benefits are paying off, as demonstrated by her qualification to compete for the US Team at the winter games.

And with that achievement adding to a growing list of accomplishments and visibility, across different sports, comes intrigue from other athletes.

“I feel like there's also a lot more people who are reaching out to me now with questions like, ‘How did you get into this? What gear should I get for this? What race do you recommend? Or, how do you train?”

Sometimes the accumulation of fitness is enough to be competitive on a new start line, but having a big engine doesn’t necessarily make you a great driver. “I think I also have learned a lot just by being very confident in my fitness but then moving into a space where I'm not confident in my skills.” Confidence earned through discomfort. Not necessarily the physical discomfort of effort, but the mental load of going beyond the range of her skills. Gravel racing has at times felt like a baptism of fire. “I'm going into this environment where I've never ridden in a peloton of 100 pro men and women in a bike race, but I know that I'm fit enough to be with them. And so, how do I mentally deal with that and be strong when there are reasons to doubt myself? I think, being in that environment and then taking that into my running career has been huge for me this year. That's probably the biggest take away that I've had.”

The risk is that, by straddling different sports, an athlete could dilute their focus and weaken the intended trajectory of progress. But for Anna, there’s strategy at play here. It’s not about spreading herself thinly across different sports — it’s about taking the unique skills from each discipline and elevating her overall athletic ability. It’s a web or learning where everything is interconnected. Take experience and skills and apply them in new places. Easy to say, but not always easy to do.

“Going into the big bike races I was shaking. I was so nervous, almost sick to my stomach. And then as you  go through it, and every time you navigate a challenging situation, you're like, ‘OK, dodged the bullet. I'm good. I got this’. Every time I had one of those moments, it gave me more confidence.”

Being able to quarantine self-doubt means Anna is able to benefit from the learning outcomes that are a result being in new or uncomfortable environments. Perhaps at the time the precise learning is imperceptible, but these small, subtle things start to stack up and become second nature.

“Even if there was nothing that I could take from the bike racing or the skimo races and apply it to the running world, I would still do it. But I think the added benefit is just that I'm learning so much that's making me a better athlete. Mentally, physically, tactically — I'm learning so much from these other sports.” And it gives Anna options — that she’s able to see the transferable benefits and feel comfortable that training can pivot if necessary. The physical effect still drives fitness forward but she’s also in some way insulating herself from injury. There’s mental relief in that as well — not being tied strictly to one sport in a way that’s more than cross-training. It offers a break while also continuing to feed the raw competitive hunger that still needs nourishment in every elite athlete.   

“In some ways I like to see myself as like an experiment of training. And I think I also see myself as a nutrition experiment. There's a million variables changing all the time and I'm applying the same set of products to very different scenarios in different race environments or training environments.”

It’s the foundation of good fueling — to do what’s right for you. To master your own fueling. To learn what the body can tolerate and what the sensations of those scenarios feel like. It makes sense that experiencing the logistics and knowledge of fueling in different, high-intensity moments and different sports would offer an edge.

Perhaps Anna’s robust and versatile mindset stems from a specific moment that, although traumatic at the time, enabled her to set a bearing that has defined the athlete she is now. Just a couple of weeks into a freshman year at Brown, Anna tore a tendon in her foot. Immobilized, on crutches, in a cast for months on end, and being away from family, all while trying to navigate the medical system was sudden and distressing. The impact of immediate inactivity struck like a blunt force. But, in a way, it was instantly maturing. A cold-water shock of what life could also be like. “I had never been hurt like that before and it was a very emotionally challenging time for me, I had a sense of this loss of my identity as an athlete and as a runner.” As in sport, Anna went through it and emerged on the other side stronger and better equipped.

“I now have a view of what my life is like without sports and without being competitive or being able to move my body, and I don't like it.”