BY BERIT CAMPION

Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation alums Sammy Smith and John Steel Hagenbuch posted solid finishes in their respective 10km interval-start classic races at the Stifel World Cup Finals for cross-country skiing in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Both Smith and Hagenbuch, SVSEF XC Gold Team skiers, made their Olympic debuts at the Milan-Cortina Games in February.

On the first day of medals competition at the World Cup Finals, throngs of fans lined the sides of the wooded, hilly Mt. Van Hoevenberg racecourse to cheer on elite women and men as they completed two 5km laps, respectively, in challenging, late-season, low-visibility conditions.

Site of the 1932 and 1980 Olympic cross-country skiing and biathlon events, the remote, Adirondack State Park venue has a base elevation of 2,200 feet.

Large flakes of snow fell throughout both races, which saw even some of the best Nordic skiers in the world falter momentarily on the uphills.

Smith, a sophomore at Stanford University, is a regular starter on the women’s soccer team — including in the NCAA Division I championship game against Florida State last December.

In January, Smith won the 1.5k cross-country skiing sprint race (freestyle, not classic) at the National Championships. She recently finished taking exams remotely.

At Lake Placid Smith clocked a time of 33:11.5 in the 10km classic race, 4:07.1 minutes behind race winner Linn Svahn of Sweden.

Jessie Diggins, the top American finisher, took fifth place in the final World Cup classic race of her storied career--32.5 seconds behind Svahn. Diggins was the only non-Scandinavian in the top 13. The race cemented her status as World Cup overall distance champion--her fourth title.

Due to race conditions and heavy snowfall, the FIS reported the race event was one of the slowest 10km World Cup classic races on record.

By the time the men’s race began, conditions had deteriorated even further. About two inches of new snow covered the track, making the race a gritty slugfest as the skies continued to nuke snow.

On some of the uphills, even 10-time Olympic gold medalist Johannes Hosfløt Klæbo of Norway--momentarily lost grip in the kick zone beneath his skis and slipped backward a few inches.

Hagenbuch, a senior at Dartmouth College, was the second American out of the gate. At his first split time, he briefly led the strong, international field before being overtaken in that department by his U.S. teammate Ben Ogden, who collected two silver medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina.

On Hagenbuch’a gritty second lap, he overtook fellow American Zanden McMullen halfway up the steep climb past the stadium and finished the 10km course with a time of 28:44.6, just over two minutes behind Klæbo, the race winner.

He finished in 32nd place out of 75 competitors. Gus Schumacher took seventh as the top U.S. men’s finisher with a time of 27:25.0. Ogden finished 11th with a time of 27:38.2.

Less than a week ago, Hagenbuch won his second consecutive NCAA individual cross-country skiing title in the 10km classic, interval start race — this time in Soldier Hollow, Utah. Two days later, he took silver in the men’s 20km mass-start freestyle race finishing just .40 seconds behind the winner and narrowly missed breaking an NCAA record of four individual cross-country victories.

Like Smith, Hagenbuch recently finished taking exams. He spent the night after the race working on a term paper that was due the next day and studying for his last exam of the winter trimester.

Smith also raced in the freestyle sprint races and the women’s 20km mass-start freestyle event.

Smith, who took 23rd in the Skate Sprint at a World Cup race in Falun, Sweden in early March, skied to seventh in the Junior World U23s in Skate Sprint in Lillehammer, Norway.

Hagenbuch raced in the 20k mass-start freestyle event on Sunday, his strongest discipline. He was the top US finisher in the Olympic 10k freestyle event last month in Italy.

The race, skied in light rain, was won by—guess who?!!!--Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, who  swept the Crystal Globes in World Cup Overall, Sprint and Distance, in addition to winning all six of the cross-country events he raced in at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

Klaebo also became the first man to post 100 individual career wins.

His teammate Harald Amundsen finished 0.8 seconds behind Klaebo’s time of 41;57.0. Norwegian Einar Hedegart finished third—2.5 seconds back.

American Gus Schumacher finished 20th. JC Schoonmaker 38th, Zanden McMullen, 39th and Hagenbuch 69th with a time of 46:56.6.