Two months after starting on the backline in the 2025 NCAA College Cup championships match with Stanford, Sammy Smith will be poised on another line—the start line at the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympics, as one of Team USA’s 16 cross-country skiing athletes.
The 20-year-old native of Boise, Idaho, has balanced soccer and cross-country skiing throughout her time at Stanford and is set to become the first student-athlete from the university to compete at the Winter Olympics in a sport other than their varsity sport since 1984.
Smith earned her Olympic qualification with wins in the skate sprint and classic sprint, two separate cross-country events in the U.S. Cross-Country Championships in January in Lake Placid, New York, the site of the 1932 and 1980 Olympics…