Stanford soccer player and world-class skier Sammy Smith ’28 makes Olympic debut

Sophomore Sammy Smith went from starting in the 2025 NCAA Women’s College Cup for soccer to racing in the Winter Olympics for cross-country skiing in just two months. 

Smith made the quarterfinals of the sprint classic in Milan on Tuesday, taking fourth in her heat which was led by Sweden-native and eventual silver-medalist Jonna Sundling. She earned her spot by placing inside the top-30 of 89 skiers in qualifiers, though she was unable to latch on to the lead pack of three that took off after the biggest climb of the 1.5 km course.

Smith placed 19th overall and was the youngest of four women representing Team USA, with only second-time Olympian Julia Kern advancing beyond the quarterfinal. The race only marked her third international start of the season, making the Olympic berth a gamble. 

Choosing to play on Stanford’s varsity soccer team in the fall meant missing the primary qualification route through results on the international World Cup circuit. Instead, she had to depend on the final unclaimed Olympic quota spots available through domestic racing. Although wins in both the classic and skate sprints at U.S. Nationals in January kept her in contention, she still needed a career-best performance at the World Cup stop in Oberhof, Germany on Jan. 17 to clinch her spot. 

She delivered just that, placing a career-high of 12th in the skate sprint to become an Olympian. She made a tactical decision to race in a quarterfinal heat with three-time Olympic medalist Jessie Diggins, knowing that Diggins would leave everything on the line.

“I knew exactly what I had to do going in, but I didn’t really fully believe that I was going to be able to do it,” Smith told The Daily, who eventually overtook Diggins to win the heat. “It was a pretty surreal moment when I crossed the line and realized I was going to move on to the semis and had secured a top-12 finish.”

Although she had been following the start of the World Cup season in November to gauge her chance at the Olympics, her focus was on soccer at that time. Stanford women’s soccer had just won the ACC Championships and was advancing through the NCAA tournament. 

Throughout the fall, the sophomore appeared in every match for the Cardinal, starting 14 times as a defender. She even started in each of Stanford’s final four matches at the NCAA Championships, logging a full 90 minutes in the semifinal against Duke. 

“I tried just to focus on what I could control and that was just being there with my soccer team,” Smith told The Daily. “And playing hard and giving everything I could to practices and games.”

Four days after the national final, where Stanford fell 1-0 to Florida State, Smith raced to a second-place finish on skis at the U.S. SuperTour in Alaska. 

Bouncing back and forth between sports is nothing new for Smith. In high school, the Boise native was named Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year in both soccer and track and field, and she competed internationally on the Under-19 U.S. National Soccer team. 

When it came to skiing, Smith preferred freestyle skiing at first, where she was nationally-ranked in moguls. Cross country skiing, however, was her sister Logan’s first love, and when injuries ended Sammy’s freestyle career, the adrenaline junkie naturally pivoted to her sister’s favorite discipline. Winters were then reserved for cross country skiing on both the domestic and World Cup circuits, and her family frequently moved from Boise to Sun Valley, Idaho to support the training. 

While senior Logan Smith and Sammy have been teammates on Stanford’s varsity soccer team for the past two years, they have been competing on the same team in everything from hockey to skiing and track since preschool. Growing up, Sammy took on everything that Logan wanted to do, and everything was a competition between the sisters, according to Logan.

“That is honestly what has allowed both of us to reach our potential in our respective sports, and it was always so much fun,” Logan told The Daily. 

Although either sister could have chosen to specialize in cross country skiing, soccer offered the team environment and sisterhood that neither wanted to give up. 

“[Sammy]’s really making the balance work,” Logan said, “and I just love getting to see her so happy.” 

The two sisters even room together at school. For Sammy, playing college soccer alongside her sister was one of the reasons she chose to attend Stanford. 

Ahead of Milan, Sammy attended pre-Olympic training camp with Team USA in Livigno, Italy, where she roomed with Diggins, the skier she grew up watching and admiring.

Logan joked, however, that if Sammy could room with anyone at the Olympics, it would be the Smith family’s golden retriever Maverick, who Sammy loves “more than anything in the world.” The family often takes Maverick downhill skiing and on ski tours. 

Depending on whether she is announced for the team sprint event next week, Sammy’s run in Milan may have ended with the classic sprint. Results, however, are less on her mind than making sure the Olympics will be an unforgettable experience. The first-time Olympian and dual-sport phenom simply wants to “soak it all in,” she said.

The post Stanford soccer player and world-class skier Sammy Smith ’28 makes Olympic debut appeared first on The Stanford Daily.