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By Angie Kell
On the last day of cross-country ski racing during U.S. Nationals week, skiers and their teams had the opportunity to exercise their adaptability skills in Lake Placid. With Mother Nature reminding athletes who is in charge, adjustments were made last night to move today’s SuperTour classic sprint races one hour earlier, in hopes of avoiding an impending storm bringing high winds, rain, and temperatures in the 40s (F).
Spoiler alert: a one-hour jump was insufficient to complete the quarterfinal heats for the juniors, and after a particularly gnarly junior men’s heat featuring gusts of wind that took out cameras and safety netting, the juniors’ races were ultimately cancelled.
While the open heats went off first and were completed in their entirety for both men and women, it was nonetheless a trying day on several fronts. The wind was still an issue, oftentimes taking out cameras used for the live feed (side note, the cameras available on the course for the free stream should make the World Cup envious, chapeau to Bullitt Timing and the venue as a whole for this one), and you could see the athletes’ race bibs and ponytails flailing about.
But it was also difficult to nail the ski preparation in such warm and wet conditions. If there had been reliable internet in the waxing huts, we would be clued into the nuances and considerations via Zach Caldwell of Caldwell Sport, the wizard of such things, who was onsite for the week (check him out on social media, it’s incredibly educational).
In the qualification round, Sammy Smith of Stanford/Sun Valley dominated the ski selection, the elements, and the winding and challenging course of Mount van Hoevenberg with the top time of 3:14.95.
Smith was over six (!) seconds faster than second-place qualifier Katie Weaver of Alberta World Cup Academy (3:21.58), and just over seven seconds faster than the third-place qualifier, Hailey Swirbul of APU (3:22.50). Ava Thurston of Dartmouth and Erin Bianco of BSF rounded out the top five.
The top spot from the qual was a prelude of what was to come in the ensuing rounds of racing.
Smith, who opted for heat one in the quarterfinals, appeared to still be finding her ski legs in this round. After another successful soccer season at Stanford, the prominent dual-sport athlete only recently began skiing after the NCAA national championship game for soccer. This occurred on the night of December 8, barely a month ago; Smith’s first day on snow this winter was December 11 in Anchorage, following two days of travel. On December 12, she was promptly second in a SuperTour skate sprint.
All of which is to say that Smith can be forgiven for a slight slip at the gun as the first heat of the day went off. But she quickly gained her stride and won the heat anyway in 3:31.12, advancing to the semifinals along with Sofia Pedersen (University of Utah).
Rinse and repeat for semifinal heat one, where Smith won here too, in a time of 3:26.95 to advance herself the finals. But this heat wasn’t without a challenge, as Lauren Jortberg of Mansfield Pro, whose speed check on the descent following the Grindhouse Hill climb proved to be the best amongst the heat, found herself in the lead. Smith, though, used her astute positioning prowess to pass Jortberg on the hairpin turn towards the finish, and Smith’s doublepoling to the finish line could not be matched. Jortberg eventually faded to third, as Thurston passed her in the final few meters to the finish.
The final, then (embedded above), comprised the strongest six women in the field on the day — and, presumptively, the best skis. Lining up alongside Smith were Thurston, Jortberg, Emma Albrecht (BSF and lucky loser from semifinal one), Erica Lavén (University of Utah), and Swirbul.
Interestingly, Smith’s major at Stanford was mentioned on the livestream on a few occasions: Environmental Engineering. Focus? Energy. Of course. Energy for sprint finals, no doubt, for which we give her an “A.”
Once again, as in the quarterfinal, Smith faltered ever so slightly at the start of the final, and Thurston shot ahead of the field off the line. By the first left turn leaving the stadium, however, Smith slid into the inside corner to resume the position she’d been claiming all day. Upon their last ascent up Grindhouse Hill, Smith’s tempo was unmatchable. She held a commanding lead at this point, too big to be overcome by draft or tactics. Smith stayed comfortably ahead all the way to the finish to take the win with a time of 3:29.32.
Swirbul also executed her move at Grindhouse Hill, claiming the inside line to pass Thurston and maintain a spot behind Smith. The duo finished 2–3 as Swirbul kept her distance ahead of Thurston to the finish. Swirbul came in 3.68 seconds back of Smith, with Thurston another 0.87 seconds behind. Smith’s win left little to doubt.
Smith spoke to Nordic Insights, who was at the venue, about her thoughts on the day. “I was really happy with the qualifier,” she said. “I mean, this is my first classic sprint of the year. I didn’t really know what to expect. And obviously, coming off of 20km yesterday, particularly a race, I was pretty disappointed with. [I] tried to rally for today.”
“Going in the heats, obviously the weather changed a lot,” she continued. “I ended up changing the skis I was on, so I feel like there were a lot of different factors at play. I just tried to focus on skiing smooth, skiing the way I could and tried to work my way up.”
Smith’s successful day (and other sprint win in the skate discipline earlier in the week) could have further implications — notably, the upcoming Olympics in Milano–Cortina, as well as World Cup starts.
“Particularly with this year being an Olympic year, and any chance I can have to kind of get my foot in the door, I think I want to take it,” she told us. “Obviously, it’ll be challenging to figure out a few things with school, but I’m hoping the university will work with me. I feel like I have some pretty good arguments to be gone.”
Smith’s abilities (and energy grade) did not escape her competitors, including Swirbul.
“I wanted to try to do as little as I could to keep moving on,” Swirbul told Nordic Insights, “and try to save for the final because I knew Sammy would be strong the whole way through.”
Thurston, too, talked about using her energy to land a podium spot today. It was her third podium this week, following a bronze-medal finish in both the skate sprint and the 20km skate earlier this week.
“I think the quarter I went out, and I was a little farther back at first (I always feel a bit colder in the quarter), and I had to really work up the final part of the hill and stay in touch. And then I was able to move up in the final stretch.”
Thurston continued, “But then I usually find myself feeling better in the semi after getting warmed into it. And I tried to just be right where I needed to be in that second position in both my quarter and semi to make sure I made it on and then final was all I had left.”
“It was exciting at the end to come in and be right in the mix and hang on for third.”
Athletes go different places from here: A handful will head to Europe for Period 3 World Cup starts, beginning January 17 in Oberhof, Germany. (These will be announced soon; athletes were being notified as of earlier today.) NCAA skiers enter the heart of the college race season. SuperTour racing resumes a month-plus from now in the Midwest. There are 10km skate and classic races at Wirth on February 14–15, then the Birkie the following Saturday.
This article has been updated to remove references to Smith presumptively qualifying for the Olympics. She is the top-ranked female domestic sprinter, but uncertainty remains as to whether there will be enough space on the Olympic roster to take anyone based off of domestic results.
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Oh, nice — Sammy was only 1 second behind Sundling in the final, and ahead of Linn Svahn! 🙂
On the diametrically opposite side of the Earth, two sprint titans, Jonna and Linn, clashed on a cold sprint day (5°F) in Falun.
It was the first sprint of the year for both of them (Jonna had been in a training block and skipped competitions, while Linn was recovering from a foot injury).
In qualifying, Jonna, in her classic way, had—by Gavin’s measure—an 80-minute advantage over the rest… except Linn, who had a 40-minute advantage over Jonna. That doesn’t happen very often!
In the final, though, Jonna skied 10 seconds faster than in qualifying and finished 2 seconds ahead of Linn.
(Linn improved by 2 seconds compared to her qualifying time.)
It’s going to be a very exciting Olympic sprint race this year:
Linn, Jonna, Hagstroem, Maja, Jasmi, Nadine, Jessie, and the enigma 🙂
(and of course it is interesting to see the form of Julia and Sammy at the Olympics!)
Ha. Yes. Should maybe adopt this as a formal unit of measurement going forward: 1 Smith = 6 seconds.
Man I hope Linn Svahn makes it to the Olympics healthy. She’s had such a rough few seasons; it’s been sad to see.