While the race for a spot at this month’s Milano Cortina Olympics was heating up in November, US cross-country skier and college student Sammy Smith was focused on a different kind of pitch entirely.
Instead of snow, her immediate sights were set on helping her Stanford University soccer teammates clinch a national championship title.
The Cardinals ultimately lost their final match of the season to the Florida Gators on 8 December, but for the Boise, Idaho native, 20-year-old Smith, her next athletic pursuit was already beginning.
Just over a month after concluding her college soccer season, she was named as one of eight female athletes to represent Team USA at the Winter Olympics, her mind quickly shifting from corner kicks to the specialised kick wax used for cross-country skis.
Her selection came despite a stark lack of preparation time on the slopes.
“It’s not ideal that everyone else will have been on snow for over two months. I’ll have two weeks on snow and skis before going there,” Smith told Reuters in November, before the World Cup tour commenced.
She added: “It’s not the preparation that the other athletes have. And, obviously, I have to perform well there if I make the Olympic team.”
Smith’s first day on snow for the current ski season was 11 December. Remarkably, the very next day, she competed in the SuperTour in Anchorage, Alaska, securing second place in the freestyle sprint, just behind Olympic teammate Lauren Jortberg.
Her strong form continued into January when she made her World Cup debut, finishing 12th in the sprint in Oberhof, Germany – a result crucial in securing her Olympic berth.
Her selection by the US team with such minimal preparation underscores Smith’s extraordinary athletic prowess.
Before dedicating herself to soccer and cross-country skiing, she was also a competitive freestyle skier, tackling moguls until a high school injury. In 2021, she was recognised as Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year in track and field.
Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe was unsurprised by her Olympic call-up.
“We do fitness tests at Stanford with the women’s soccer team, and she’s always at the top,” he told Reuters.
He added: “She’s been skiing her whole life. She has that technique down… with the endurance it takes to be a high level player in women’s soccer and on our team, and I know how hard she works and the power she has, obviously it was possible.”
Her athletic gifts may also be partly genetic. Her father played soccer at Duke University, a path her brother has since followed.
Smith’s sister is her teammate on Stanford’s soccer squad, while her mother, a former Stanford rower, competes in Ironman races – an endurance challenge Smith recently undertook “for fun”.
“I didn’t really train that much,” she said of a recent half-Ironman race. “My sister and I just decided to… we talked about doing one for a while and then a few weeks before we’re like, ‘Oh, we should… just sign up and do one’.”
The grueling race, in addition to running and cycling, includes a 1.2-mile swim. Smith admitted: “I was probably only in the pool four or five times before.”
For now, her focus has firmly shifted to the races awaiting her in the Val di Fiemme at the Winter Games in Italy.
“The Olympics have been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember and, to be honest, I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I’m actually going to compete on that stage,” she said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
