Samantha Smith was the youngest female to complete the Tour de Ski as this Boise High senior travels Europe competing in the World Cup Circuit for Nordic skiing.
"I left on Christmas day," said Smith. "It's my first time to Italy, my first time to Switzerland, and it will be my first time to Germany."
The Tour de Ski is a grueling event with seven races in nine days with two travel days mixed in taking the racers from Italy to Switzerland and back to Italy.
Smith was one of 30 women to complete the Tour de Ski out of a field that started with 73. Team USA'S Jessie Diggins took home the gold while Smith finished in 26th place.
"When your body is that tired and your system is overworked it’s where you see a lot of illness, but I was really fortunate to race and I survived," said Smith. "It was an incredible experience to race against the best skiers in the world."
Smith spent days following the Tour de Ski training in Italy before traveling to Germany for the Oberhoff Race, she will compete in Slovenia for World Cup Juniors before coming home to the United States for the World Cup in Minneapolis on February 17, it's the first time the U.S. has hosted this event in 20 years.
"I think everyone in the U.S. is super pumped to have a World Cup, I mean tickets sold out almost immediately," said Smith. "Some of the members of our team are from Minneapolis which will make the atmosphere even more special, it’s going to be fun."
However, while Smith stays busy with training and competitions she still has homework to do, but she credits the administration at Boise High School for making it possible.
"I'm very fortunate to have teachers, principals and a school that are willing to make it work," said Smith.
One day Smith hopes to represent her country in the Olympics, but she told me nordic skiing is a unique sport because the top racers are all in their late 20s and early 30s because they have built more endurance.
Smith also represents the United States in soccer. She played on the U17 women's national team that took third place in the Pan American Games back in October.
She earned Idaho Gatorade Player of the Year her junior season and this past season the Boise Brave finished as the runner up in the state championship losing in penalty kicks to Eagle, next fall Samantha Smith will join her older sister Logan to play soccer at Stanford.
"That was a big reason why I landed on Stanford is a chance to play with her, spend a few years in college with her and I’m super excited for that," said Samantha. "Stanford had a great run last year finishing second in the NCAAs."
It's taken a lot of work to get to where Smith is now as she has spent winters in Sun Valley as part of the team at the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. Spring and fall are spent at Boise High so Smith had a lot of people she wanted to thank for helping her on this journey.
