STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sun Valley’s John Steel Hagenbuch and Sammy Smith continue to find success on the Nordic tracks around the world.

Smith took second in last week’s U20 World Junior Ski Championships skate sprint in Planica, Slovenia, and Hagenbuch took third in the U23 category.

The setting—against a backdrop of steep limestone walls--was in the Julian Alps in a place where, if you miss one turn, you’ll find yourself in Austria. Miss another and you’ll find yourself in Italy.

This is the same stage where American Nordic skier Kris Freeman, Andy Newell and Kikkan Randall—all of whom have raced in Sun Valley—first popped onto international podiums.

Smith and Hagenbuch raced during slushy T-shirt weather despite it being February, and they had to endure a mix of ice and rain by the end of the week.

Following a qualifying race, Smith chased a Norwegian and Swedish skier up the long climb. She moved steadily, managing to carve out a place for herself in the semi-finals. There she came up against Gina Del Rio, from the tiny country of Andorra in the Pyrenees mountains, as both propelled into the finals.

Smith stayed in the pack in the finals, alongside Del Rio and Norwegian Milla Grosshaugen Andreassen. As they skied onto a bridge signaling the home stretch, Smith seized the opportunity, bypassing Andreassen and comng in second just behind Del Rio.

The next day Hagenbuch clicked into his skis for the Men’s U23 on the slushy course. As he does so often, he turned up the tempo on the climb to get into the semi-finals. In the finals he surged to win his first World Championships medal, right behind Norwegians Aleksander Elde Holmboe and Matz William Jenssen.

The bronze gave the Americans podium finishes on back-to-back days, with Sun Valley athletes doing the climbing on both days.

Smith scored 16th in the Junior 20K, while Hagenbuch finished 17th in the U23 race. Smith then followed up her skate sprint podium with a sixth-place finish in the Junior 10K classic race, despite being pelted by driving rain. Hagenbuch was the top American finish in the U23 Classic 10K coming in 22nd.

On the final day of competition, the course resembled a frozen pond, with rain bouncing off it. In the Junior 4x5K mixed-gender, mixed technique relay, Smith took the baton from Zach Jayne and turned in a performance that lifted the United States into third place with the fastest split on the Women’s classic leg by nearly 15 seconds.

Unfortunately, Ava Thurston ceded 15 seconds to an Italian skier, and the United States came in fourth.

Hagenbuch, Hayley Brewster and Kendall Kramer skied hard in the U23 mixed relay. But they were not able to overcome miscues by starter Brian Bushey who broke a pole on ice, then went down hard when he caught a fellow skier. The result: 10th place for the Americans.