STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley Community School students got a lesson not in math or literature Friday but in the value of setting a goal and keeping after it.

Students gathered in the school theater to cheer on—not one—but three school alumni competing in the Olympics. A fourth alum—Sammy Smith--had already made her Olympic debut earlier in the week.

“To be able to watch three Cutthroats in the space of 24 hours is amazing,” said Jonna Mendes, director of the Sun Valley Ski Academy, a partnership between the Sun Valley Community School and Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation. “And I’m so happy to see the community support around these athletes.”

Banners and posters championing the school’s four Olympic athletes line the walkway outside the Sun Valley Community School.

Students have been prepping for the Olympics for weeks, learning about the Olympics, the local athletes representing the United States and the various sports featured in the Winter Olympics.

The Community School brought three stacks of pizzas for students, Sun Valley ski patrollers, SVSEF coaches and others who crowded into the Community School Theater Friday morning.

And volunteers decorated the gymnasium with large red, white and blue balloons, posters featuring the school’s Olympians and a giant American flag that hung from the rafters for a evening watch party that was to start at 8 p.m. and conclude Saturday morning.

Students were rewarded early with a solid performance by John Steel Hagenbuch, who made his Olympic debut in the 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) freestyle cross country-ski competition.

Boone, Georgia and Shannon Brandenburg were excited about the opportunity to watch Giant Slalom racer Ryder Sarchett, who was in Italy with Will Brandenburg, himself a former Olympic ski racer.

The 24-year-old 2020 graduate, who has won the prestigious 50km American Birkebeiner, ended up the fastest American in the event, even though he took the wrong turn uphill and had to retrace his tracks. Hagenbuch finished in 14th with a time of 21:41.1 on a day that was so warm that Hagenbuch wore just his ski bib.

He finished a minute behind race winner Johannes Klaebo of Norway, easily acknowledged as the GOAT of men’s cross-country skiing. Teammates Zanden McMullen, Zak Ketterson and Gus Schumacher, who has been the strongest racers on the American team the past few years, finished 32nd, 38th and 39th respectively in a race that featured 113 racers.

Soon after Hagenbuch’s race flashed across the screen, students settled in for three-time Olympic snowboarder Chase Josey’s halfpipe competition.

Students waved mini-American flags  as they watched snowboarders compete in the night halfway around the world while bright sunshine from outside streamed into the theater through the open door.

John Steel Hagenbuch had reason to cheer Friday, having posted the highest finish of four American men in the 10K freestyle cross-country race. PHOTO: Flying Point courtesy of U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team

They let out a collective gasp as Josey fell on the first of three runs. Then they settled in to watch the top boarders in the competition, voicing some approving “Wows!” as competition leader Yoto Totsoka of Japan couldn’t seem to stop twirling in the air 18 feet above the halfpipe.

They rallied as Josey made his second run, cheering every time he did some flips in the air and holding their collective breath until they saw he was firmly back on the floor of the halfpipe between runs.

When he crossed the finish line, Mendes jumped out of her seat cheering.

The entire auditorium clapped vigorously as Josey’s score—70.25--flashed across the screen, even though it wasn’t as high as the leader’s score of 90.01.

Ryder Sarchett was one of three Sun Valley Community School alum competing in the Winter Olympics over a 24-hour period. PHOTO: Dustin Satloff, courtesy of U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team

Josey went on to finish 11th—not quite as good as earlier seventh and sixth place finishes at the Olympics, even though he had a clean run and laid down some good tricks. But even he acknowledged that today’s winners are performing moves that he never dreamed of when he first competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang, South Korea.

The top American finisher—17-year-old Alessandro Barbieri of Portland, finished just one spot ahead of Josey.

“It’s really just putting a run together with all of those tricks and pushing the amplitude, the style, the execution,” said Josey to a USA Today reporter."It's just a combination of all of those. So for the U.S. to get on that level? We're not far behind, really. They are just so consistent and clutch. We're pretty hot on their heels, and I think Alessandro is going to have his moment on the podium before we know it.”

Seven-year-old Georgia Brandenburg and her 5-year-old brother Boone sat on the floor waving flags as their mother Shannon Brandenburg showed photos and a text she’d gotten from her husband Will Brandenburg who was in Bormio, Italy, with alpine skier Ryder Sarchett who would race the Giant Slalom later that day.

The text included a selfie of Brandenburg, who competed at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, and a smiling Sarchett with the news that conditions at Stelvio Ski Centre were perfect.

“He is ready!” Brandenburg wrote about Sarchett, a 2021 graduate of Sun Valley Community School.

“These guys have been locked in, making signs and everything. We won’t stay overnight,” Shannon said. “We’ll probably go home about 10. But--how cool—this is what the Community School is all about.”

Torin Vandenburgh, herself a star soccer player and hockey player at Sun Valley Community School, agreed: “I’m so excited. It’s so cool having four Olympians at our school. I think it really teaches the students a lot about hard work and perseverance.”

SVSEF Executive Director Scott McGrew stopped by, alternating between a watch party at Apple’s Bar and Grill at the base of Bald Mountain and the one at the Community School. He said SVSEF is trying to figure out if it can get the four Olympians together for a homecoming party.

“I just love watching the community come together to support the athletes. And this watch party just shows what’s possible--the idea that kids in this room could be the next one at the Olympics,” he said.

Those who stayed overnight watched as Lucas Pinheiro Braathen dominated the first run of the men's giant slalom, the next closest racer trailing by nearly a full second. As of 6 a.m. Sun Valley time Marco Odermatt of Switzerland was in second and his teammate Loic Meillard in third.

Sarchett, 22, impressed on the difficult course, coming in 29th. His teammate Kyle Negomir did not finish his first run. With his second run, Sarchett ended up in 25th place; River Radamus finished in 17th. Braathen, Odermatt and Meillard retained their top three places.

Mendes, a two-time Olympic Alpine skier and World Championship Super-G medalist, said the support of the community she grew up with in Tahoe was so important to her.

“I remember how excited people got, how people I didn’t even know embraced my Olympic career,” she said. “I got so many letters from little kids saying they were rooting for me. That meant a lot.”