Olympics-From corner kicks to kick wax: soccer player lands US cross-country ski spot

By Liz Hampton

DENVER, Feb 2 (Reuters) – As the race to gain a spot at this month’s Milano Cortina Olympics gathered pace in November, U.S. cross-country skier and college student Sammy Smith had yet to step onto snow.

Instead, her most immediate sights were set on something else: helping her teammates on the Stanford University soccer team clinch a college national championship title. 

The Cardinals lost their final match of the season on December 8 to the Florida Gators but for the Boise, Idaho native the next athletic pursuit was just beginning.

Just over a month after closing out her college soccer season, Smith, 20, was named as one of the eight female members to represent Team USA at the Winter Olympics.

Her mind turned from corner kicks to the kick wax used to provide grip under cross-country skis.

“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 said in a November interview with Reuters before the World Cup tour kicked off.

“It’s not the preparation that the other athletes have. And, obviously, I have to perform well there if I make the Olympic team,” she added.

Smith’s first day on snow for the current ski season was December 11. The following day she raced the SuperTour in Anchorage, Alaska, finishing second in the freestyle sprint behind Olympic teammate Lauren Jortberg. 

Smith came out strong when she finally hit the World Cup tour in January. In her first World Cup race of the season, she finished 12th in the sprint in Oberhof, Germany, which was good enough to help win a place on the Olympic team. 

Smith’s selection by the U.S. with so little preparation speaks to her unusual athletic prowess.

COMPETITIVE FREESTYLE SKIER

Before zeroing in on soccer and cross-country skiing, she was also a competitive freestyle skier, tackling moguls until facing an injury in high school. In 2021, she was named Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year in track and field. 

“We do fitness tests at Stanford with the women’s soccer team, and she’s always at the top,” said Stanford head coach Paul Ratcliffe in an interview with Reuters. He was not surprised to learn she had a spot on the Olympic team.

“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,” he said. 

Part of it may also be genes.

Her father played soccer at Duke University and her brother has followed in his footsteps as a collegiate player there.

Smith’s sister is her teammate on Stanford’s soccer squad. Her mother, a former Stanford rower, also competes in Ironman races, an endurance challenge Smith recently took up 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 race, in addition to running and cycling, includes a 1.2-mile swim. “I was probably only in the pool four or five times before,” added Smith. 

For now, she is focused on the races ahead of 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.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Ken Ferris)