Fanny Smith


Fanny Smith is a Swiss freestyle skier. She represented Switzerland at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics. In 2010, she came in 7th and received an Olympic diploma for this performance. She has 39 podiums in the World Cup circuit and 60 top ten finishes. At the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Smith won a bronze medal.

Career

Born in Aigle to an American father and English mother, she was brought up in the Swiss ski resort of Villars. Smith has been skiing since the age of two, and at the age of 14 she was selected into the Swiss National Educational Performance Center of Brig. When she graduated in 2009, there was no Swiss junior ski cross program, so with the assistance of family and sponsors, Smith created her own program. Smith started to train with Guillaume Nantermod, the Bordercross World Champion, and after their partnership immediately showed signs of success, they were integrated into the Swiss National Team.
At just 17 years old, Smith secured her first World Cup podium position, with second place at the Lake Placid World Cup in January 2010. Her first win came a year later in Innichen/San Candido. She took two more second places in the 2010–11 season, but fell and tore her anterior cruciate ligament, forcing her out of competition for 11 months.
She returned to competition aged 22, and dominated the 2012–13 season, winning the first three races of the year, taking four victories, on the podium in six out of the ten races, and won the Crystal Globe as the world's top-ranked ski cross racer. To top her perfect return to ski cross she took the Gold Medal at the World Championships in Voss, Norway.
The 2013–2014 began well with Smith securing second place in the first race in Nakiska. She won the title in Innichen and was beaten into second place in a photo finish in Kreischberg by Ophélie David. Smith finished in second place in the 2014 overall World Cup standings.