From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
Impressing this season: Rosie Brennan racing in the Davos 10 k skate concludes her Davos weekend with back-to-back wins. (Photo: NoridcFocus)
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New snow and cloudy skies did nothing to hinder the fire of Rosie Brennan as she sped around the 10-kilometer course in a time of 24:49.8, securing her second-ever World Cup win after a victory in the sprint yesterday. Close behind her was Hailey Swirbul, no stranger to altitude, the Aspen, Co., native landed her first World Cup podium with a third-place finish. Rounding out the podium in second place was Yulia Stupak of Russia, formerly Yulia Belorukova.
Brennan, who started in bib 45, set the benchmark early on, gapping every skier in the field by 9.9 seconds at 2.2 k. By 7.2 k she had built a massive cushion of 24.6 seconds over eventual second place skier Stupak (RUS). Brennan closed out to win her second career World Cup in as many days by 34 seconds. “It was great, I love skiing in new snow,” said Brennan in a post-race interview with FIS, “I still am just so excited from yesterday, I really just tried to go out there and ski smooth and strong”.
With today’s victory, Brennan also takes the leader’s bib in the Overall World Cup Standings ahead of Tatiana Sorina of Russia while also leading in the Sprint and Distance standings. “That is quite honestly something I”m not sure I’ve ever dreamed of,” Brennan wrote in an email, “Obviously, we have only had a few races, but it’s something I’m proud of nonetheless and while I’m not sure I expect to keep them the whole season, I hope to do them proud while I have them and put up as good a fight as I can!”
Post-race interview with RosieBrennan.
Back from a year off to start a family, Yulia Stupak of Russia claims second overall in the Davos 10 k skate. (Photo: NordicFocus)
After missing the 2019/20 race season to pursue motherhood, Yulia Stupak (RUS) landed her fourth World Cup podium and first-ever distance podium with a second-place finish today.
Hailey Swirbul at the line for third place in the Davos 10 k skate. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Post-race interview with Hailey Swirbul.
Swirbul began just four places ahead of Brennan in bib 41, with a conservative start she was 8th through the first 2.2 k. By 5 k Swirbul had overtaken five skiers and was neck-and-neck with Theresa Stadlober of Austria who eventually finished 5th. At 7.2 k Swirbul was down 2.4 seconds to Stadlober but blazed through the final 2.8 k to finish with a time of 25:30.3, 6.3 seconds ahead of the Austrian and 40.5 seconds behind her teammate Brennan.
Jessie Diggins, racing to seventh overall in the Davos 10 k skate. (Photo: NordicFocus)
With two on the podium, the U.S. women rounded out the day with five finishes in the top 30. Jessie Diggins, who finished 3rd in Davos in this event last year, found herself in the top-ten with a 7th place finish. Katharine Ogden placed 22nd, scoring her first points of the season, followed by Caitlin Patterson in 30th.
For Ogden, this was her fourth top-30 World Cup result, with her best coming last season with a 21st in Val di Fiemme’s 10 k skate during the Tour de Skis.
Post-race interview with U.S. Head Coach Matt Whitcomb where he discusses the women’s race.
Katharine Ogden raced to 22nd in the Davos 10 k skate. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Norway’s 27-year-old Ragnhild Haga racing to gold, her first Olympic medal, in the 10 k skate at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USA, Madshus USA, Concept2, Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible. PYEONGCHANG, South Korea —Be honest. Who chose Norway’s Ragnhild Haga as Thursday’s gold medal favorite?
In pre-race hearsay, the 26 year old seemed an outside shot for the win. On the Olympic stage, other names openly circulated the 10-kilometer freestyle race. Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla was one.
The 30-year-old Swede had already proven her form — and Olympic intent — by opening the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games with a skiathlon win. Even with that hardware tucked away, Kalla was by no means overzealous to have her sights set on another distance gold medal. She’s well known on the World Cup for her 10 k podium performances. Two Olympic cycles ago, she collected gold in the Vancouver 10 k skate race.
If not Kalla, then the Norwegian name ‘Marit Bjørgen’ was certainly heard. Haga’s teammate, Bjørgen, has been first or second in all but five World Cup 10 k skate races she’s entered over the past decade. At the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympiad, the Norwegian finished two places behind Kalla to take the 10 k freestyle bronze.
Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla racing to second at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
After Kalla and Bjørgen, another name to consider was Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg. At one time perhaps considered a sprint specialist, Østberg is more a cross-country all-arounder. She has three 10 k freestyle World Cup wis, one from 2016 and two from this season.
Add to the medley Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski, who, with numerous second and third place 10 k World Cup podiums, was plenty hungry to take a freestyle win (she earned her first 10 k classic victory earlier this year in Planica, Slovenia). Another name tossed around in the stands and over the loudspeaker was Jessie Diggins of the U.S.A.
Prior to PyeongChang, Diggins made it palpably clear twice, if not more, that striving for a medal is a goal of hers at these Winter Games. Her gutsy win the Seefeld 10 k freestyle mass start — the final World Cup event before the 2018 Olympics — was the first performance nod to the direction she hoped to head in South Korea.
Her second sign off came in a Jan. 29 blog post titled “Brave Enough”.
Jessie Diggins after placing fifth in the women’s 10 k freestyle at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. It was her second top-five and her third top-six of the Games. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
In that post, Diggins makes it clear that it is not necessarily whether the suitcase she packs at the end of the games includes a gold, silver, or bronze disc strung with blue-ribbon. It is the idea that as she watches the smoke clear from the closing ceremony’s firework display and stands to depart the 2018 Olympic venue, she leaves knowing that she went after that prize the best that she could.
“I want to know that I was brave enough to want it,” she writes, of achieving the first women’s cross-country Olympic medal.
In the line just before, she writes, “I know it’s not impossible, after all.”
A 2015 World Championships silver medalist in the 10 k freestyle and known for her ability to grind through grueling uphills in skating events to the top of the field, it would be imprudent to say that Diggins was not a medal contender. By the start of Thursday’s 10 k, the 26-year-old Afton, Minnesota, native had securely nailed a spot in the polls. No one was pulling your ear.
Not necessarily in the predictions was Haga — until the Norwegian’s stats were pulled up on paper. In 10 k freestyle events, Haga has had seven top-five World Cup performances. Three of those were podiums (second or third place) that came in the past two months.
Still, while Haga has been racing the World Cup since 2010, none of those eight years produced an outright win. The Norwegian’s best performance to date was in this year’s Ruka 10 k pursuit, where she finished with the top time of day. The PyeongChang Games mark Haga’s Olympic debut and Thursday’s 10 k skate is her second only Olympic race. Last Sturday she crossed 15th in the skiathlon, which she personally described as “just a bad day.”
“It is easy to get a little bit uncertain about my shape and skis and everything,” Haga said during a press conference after Thursday’s 10 k. “We didn’t know exactly what happened, but I just tried to put it behind me.”
Norway’s Marit Bjørgen racing to a tie for third with Finland’s Kris Parmakoski (not shown) in the women’s 10 k skate in the PyeongChang Games. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Redemption came knocking. Haga covered Thursday’s 10 k course in a time of 25:00.5, which put her in the leaders chair, and later, the top of the podium with gold.
Haga didn’t start the day as number 1, but in bib 50, exactly two minutes ahead of Kalla.
At first, Kalla had the fastest splits, besting Bjørgen, who had started earlier in bib 32, by almost five seconds and Pärmäkoski (bib 48) by six seconds at the 1.4 k checkpoint. At the 5 k mark, Kalla had doubled her lead on both the Finn and the Norwegian.
“I tried to ski very offensive from the first lap,” Kalla said at the press conference. “I knew that it will be very tough today. When you are on the bottom of the long downhill you will work very hard until you are there the next time. It was hard to keep up a good technique today, because I became very tired. It was hard to get recovery.”
Østberg in bib 58 was skiing in third by the halfway point. Diggins, who started in bib 56, had moved from seventh to fifth by 5 k, 13.5 seconds away from the win and 4.5 seconds away from third.
Jessie Diggins racing to fifth at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Backtracking to the first 1.4 k, Haga had the fourth-fastest time, before moving into second behind Kalla at the halfway mark.
In another kilometer, everything shuffled. Kalla’s pace dropped in rank and she moved back into second. Haga’s pace came out 1.7 seconds faster than the Swede’s to take the lead. Diggins was now in third, skiing 17.9 seconds out from the win and 0.7 seconds ahead of Bjørgen in fourth. At 6.2 k, Pärmäkoski lingered in fifth, 2.6 seconds away from Diggins.
All five skiers held their positions over the next 2.2 k.
“I wanted to start first in the group because, I thought that maybe after the first lap I could go out with Ingvild Flugstad Østberg or Heidi Weng,” Bjørgen explained at the press conference.
While she waited in the finishing pen, Diggins, Kalla, Haga and Pärmäkoski were still on course.
“I heard after 5 k that I was close up to the medals,” Bjørgen continued. “The problem for me was that I was losing in the middle of the race, like I have done this winter.”
With less than two kilometers left in the race, Haga buried her competition. With legs that looked fresh, the Norwegian headed up the final climb and finished 31.9 seconds faster than Bjørgen.
“I think I had a better start than usual,” Haga said at the press conference. “I felt very good and got good messages from the coaches, that I was only a few seconds behind. On the last lap I was very afraid that some of the others were going to speed up. So I increased my speed and got some more seconds. I just focused on staying on my feet on the last downhill and to give it all to the finish line.”
Jessie Diggins pushing toward the finish in the Olympic 10 k skate. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Back out on course, the American was visibly working every turn, every hill, to her max.
“Of course you want a medal, you always want a medal, that’s why we are here, that’s like the point of the Olympics,” Diggins told FasterSkier after the 10 k. “But there are other things that are also really important besides the actual hardware. I think it’s important to not put other people’s expectations on me. To be that close and to be skiing with the best in the world. I have looked up to Marit my entire life.”
To take a quick tick back in history, Diggins was born eight years before Bjørgen’s World Cup debut in 1999. The American came onto the World Cup circuit in 2011. When Bjørgen competed in her first Olympics at the Salt Lake City 2002 winter games, Diggins was 11 years old.
Bjørgen would go on to compete at four more Winter Games and take home six Olympic gold medals before tallying her 12th Olympic medal on Thursday. The 37-year-old Norwegian is a nordic-powerhouse presence, one that Diggins, and many others, idolized growing up. The only difference is now Diggins finds herself vying for the same Olympic step.
On Thursday, she tied that result, placing fifth (+35.2) in the 10 k. This time around, she was 3.3 seconds away from third (shared by Bjørgen and Pärmäkoski) and 3.3 seconds away from the bronze medal.
“I could not have gone any harder,” Diggins reflected. “I can honestly look back and say, I don’t know where I would have found those seconds. I pushed my body way past its limit, I killed myself out there, and I thought I was gonna pass out on that last climb. I was completely locked up. That’s a really good feeling to know you gave it everything that you had and more than you thought you could give. I’m really proud of today.”
The women’s 10 k freestyle podium on Thursday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, with (from left to right) Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla in second, Norway’s Ragnhild Haga in first, and Norway’s Marit Bjørgen and Finland’s Krista Parmakoski tied for third. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Diggins was bumped into fifth due to a tie finish between Bjørgen and Pärmäkoski. The Finn and the Norwegian were each awarded an Olympic bronze medal.
“I think that it’s better that both of us stand on the place today,” Pärmäkoski said at the press conference. “Of course Marit is one of my idols when I was younger. It’s really nice to stand on the same podium today.”
The Olympic medal is the 27-year-old Pärmäkoski’s third, after she placed third in the skiathlon last Saturday and second in the relay at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. .
“I am really happy for a bronze today,” Bjørgen said at the press conference. “I can still sit there and think about that I could do something better there, but I have no chance to do it again, so I’m really happy to sit there and share it with Krista.”
In second with silver and her second medal of the 2018 Games was Kalla.
“It was for sure a different feeling from the mass start. In the mass start you know exactly what position you have. Today you have to work hard all the time,” Kalla said. “I fight the hardest that I could, and I’m satisfied with my performance.”
Haga retained the top time through them all, earning her first Olympic medal at her first Olympics in the color of gold.
“It was just a perfect day,” Haga said, adding with a laugh, “My uncle was in the Olympics and I think he finished eighth once. I wanted to beat his result.” Her uncle, Anders Bakken, raced in the 1980 Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York, according to her Olympic bio. “So now maybe I’m best in the family, too.”
Three Americans in Top 20
Following Diggin’s fifth place, her fellow U.S. Ski Team members Sadie Bjornsen placed 15th (+1:42.1) and Kikkan Randall finished 16th (+1:49.9).
Sadie Bjornsen racing to 15th in the women’s 10 k freestyle at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
“I decided I was not gooing to pace, just go on sending mode and see what I could do, see if I could hold it,” Bjornsen told FasterSkier. “I guess I wasn’t able to hold it as much as I would have liked, but I still am really happy. I think that’s my best Olympics result yet, and I think there is more yet to come, some awesome races still around the corner.”
Bjornsen actually finished one place better in Tuesday’s classic sprint, where she was 14th overall.
The third-best American on Thursday, Randall may have earned her spot in the U.S. women’s relay on Saturday.
Kikkan Randall racing to 16th in the women’s 10 k freestyle at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
“I was looking at pictures of Breck on the way up [to the race venue] and just knowing that if I skied happy and skied my own race I would perform well and I think it worked,” she told FasterSkier after Thursday’s 10 k. “I know my skate shape has been good all year, so just was happy to be able to lay it down after kind of a frustrating end to the skiathlon. The team events are the ones I look forward to the most over the last four years and would love to be in a position to go for it.”
Liz Stephen was the fourth American finisher on Thursday, finishing in 30th (+2:35.4).
“I think you did something wrong if you get to this point and your not smiling at least. I mean it’s the Olympics,” Stephen said to FasterSkier while smiling in the mixed zone. “I definitely didn’t have the best race I was hoping for, but I mean, our team has so much good to focus on, and that’s what I plan on doing.”
Liz Stephen racing to 30th in the women’s 10 k freestyle at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
PyeongChang marks Stephen’s third Olympics. For a moment after the race, the 31 year old reflected on the fact that it is most likely her last.
“It is a little emotional for sure,” Stephen said of the significance of the moment. “I definitely had thoughts out there like, ‘Hey, this could be your last race, this could be your last ever Olympic race, don’t leave anything out there,’ so that’s motivational in a good way. It wasn’t ever a negative, like, ‘Oh, this is going to be my last race. I don’t want to end this way.’ It was like, ‘This is maybe my last race, let’s go get it.’ So we will see, maybe I will get another one, but if I didn’t, goddamn, this has been fun.”
Emily Nishikawa racing to 32nd in the women’s 10 k freestyle at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Competing for Canada, Emily Nishikawa (+2:41.) led the way in 32nd. Dahria Beatty (+2:48.4) was 37th, Cendrine Brown (+3:11.9) 43rd, and Anne-Marie Comeau (+4:10.8) 62nd.
“I had all these little process goals just to ski each section of the course the best I could,” Nishikawa told FasterSkier. “I think I really did that. I just focused on technical aspects and just little things like pushing over the tops and working the corners well, and I think I did a really good job of that so I am really, really happy with my race today.”
For more quotes and photos from Thursday’s 10 k, click here.
Women return to the race venue for the 4 x 5-kilometer relay Saturday.
— Jason Albert, Ian Tovell, Chelsea Little, Harald Zimmer, and Alex Kochon contributed
Norway’s Marit Bjørgen congratulates her teammate Ragnhild Haga on Haga’s win in the women’s 10 k freestyle on Thursday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
The women’s 10 k freestyle podium on Wednesday at Day 1 of 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska, with (from left to right) Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg) in second, Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) in first, and Chelsea Holmes (Alaska Pacific University) in third.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — It was what most locals, or those familiar to the area, referred to as standard Anchorage weather: heavy, wet snow, temperatures reading around 31 degrees Fahrenheit, and a darkened sky that seemed to be brooding over whether or not to let the sun out of bed — the sky covered in a shroud of gray.
With the Pacific Ocean just 600 meters to the southwest and Kincaid Park’s nordic venue, the host of this year’s 2018 U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships, nestled in the state’s gulf socket, low-visibility and unpredictable weather was, ironically, a foreseeable factor to Wednesday morning’s women’s race.
After all, during the first week of January, sunrise in Anchorage is scheduled around 10:15 a.m. and the opening race of this year’s championship event, a women’s 10-kilometer freestyle individual start, was not slated to get underway until 15 minutes before then. The internal dialogue for a few early starters was whether a personal light might be a good addition to the commercial ones dotting the four-lap, 2.5 k manmade loop.
“For a moment while I was warming up, I was wondering if I’d have to wear a headlamp,” Rosie Frankowski, who skis for Alaska Pacific University (APU) and started in bib number 20, said after the race. “But that’s Anchorage.”
By the time the first women’s starter, Becca Rorabaugh, also of APU, departed the start gate, the continual glow from a few stadium lights outshone the dim carpet-colored sky. Close to half an inch of slushy snow covered the trail and more was well on its way.
Skiers would not be deterred, however, as potential spots for the U.S. 2018 Olympic team were on the line.
“I haven’t skied up here in a few years, but Alaska is sort of always unpredictable — this weird combo of manmade and freshly falling snow with bad visibility,” said Caitlin Patterson, who grew up in Anchorage, went to college at the University of Vermont, and currently trains and races with the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) in Vermont.
“Until yesterday, I’d never skied that wall hill before; we’d always used that as a downhill, but otherwise I’m pretty familiar with [the trail],” the 27 year old continued. “The loop in the stadium and all these things were ones we used for Alaska State over the years, so even when I couldn’t see through my glasses, to know the corners and so forth was good.”
Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) racing to first in the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle on Wednesday at the 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.
Familiarity with the course wasn’t the only edge Patterson had heading into the race. She also entered Wednesday’s 10 k as the overall SuperTour leader, an honor garnered thanks to her win in the 10 k freestyle at Sovereign Lake, British Columbia, and her second- and third-place finishes in the 10 k classic mass start and freestyle sprint qualifier, respectively, in West Yellowstone, Mont.
The victory was her third national title. In 2016, she won both the 10 k classic and 20 k freestyle mass start.
Combined with her World Cup performances in previous seasons, Patterson was a prime candidate for Wednesday’s win, which she claimed in a time of 27:09.1, though there were moments on course when she questioned the outcome of her race.
“I wasn’t sure if it was going to turn into a win even midway through the race,” Patterson said.
Patterson was the fourth starter to push past the wand and by the time she looped through the stadium for her second lap, APU’s Chelsea Holmes (bib 16) and Team Gregg’s Caitlin Gregg (bib 17), were starting their first laps. Though she was ahead of Gregg, Patterson received what she called “backwards splits”: Gregg’s pace on laps that Patterson had already completed.
“I could see Caitlin [Gregg], see how the gap was progressing, and I also got some splits … how her first and second lap were comparing to my first and second, and I think I was running a few seconds down at that point,” Patterson recalled.
Caitlin Gregg (CXC/Loppet Nordic Racing/Team Gregg) racing to second in the women’s 10 k freestyle on Wednesday at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.
Gregg was also getting splits off Patterson, most of which informed her that the two were on par. It was in the final kilometer and half that Gregg learned she was losing time.
“I was getting splits and I was pretty even for it seemed like three and half laps,” Gregg said after. “Then that last little bit she put a bit of a gap on me.”
Patterson’s final half lap was fast enough to put close to 20 seconds on Gregg, and Gregg finished 19.7 seconds back in second. Having felt like she put in a solid race effort, Gregg was slightly surprised by the time gap, though quick to acknowledge Patterson’s strength on course.
“I thought it was going to be really close there, but obviously she skied super strong,” Gregg said.
Gregg, 37, who earned an individual bronze medal in the 10 k skate at 2015 World Championships and is aiming to qualify for her second Olympics (after making the Olympic team in 2010) holds high regard for the current women’s U.S. race circuit. Even after 19 years of U.S. nationals racing, the veteran skier is not immune to competition-day nerves.
“I still get nervous,” Gregg said. “The weight of these races are super high and I think we have a lot of really fast domestic women right now, I mean Chelsea Holmes has been top 30 on the World Cup and last year Caitlin Patterson was in the top 30, so I’m really hoping that we get a good domestic representation at the Olympics.
“We’re doing our part; working hard and skiing fast,” Gregg added. “Hopefully that gets recognized.”
Chelsea Holmes (Alaska Pacific University) racing to third in the women’s 10 k freestyle on Wednesday at the 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska.
Rounding out the women’s podium on Wednesday was APU’s Chelsea Holmes, 24.4 seconds back in third. Holmes raced World Cup Period 1 this season, with a season-best of 29th in the 10 k freestyle last month in Davos, Switzerland.
“My body didn’t have quite what I wanted today, but that’s OK,” Holmes, 30, who grew up just south of Anchorage in Girdwood, Alaska, wrote in an email. “I actually don’t mind the short course, the race felt like it blew by and it was fun to get to lap by friends and family.”
Also a hopeful for the 2018 U.S. Olympic team, Holmes indicated she would be leaving no race unanswered at this year’s U.S. nationals. She plans to compete in both sprints over the next week as well as the 20 k classic mass start, which she won last year.
“I’ve been working on my ‘Klaebo’. It’s pretty legit,” she wrote.
Pressure can encroach upon many athlete’s performances this week, especially with Olympic spots on the line. Processing that pressure, for Holmes, came in the form of the season’s preparation.
“As for the pressure, for sure it is there — even if it’s only from myself. How could it not be? Certainly I care immensely and I will do my best when the time comes to race, but between now and then I won’t be doing anything special,” she wrote. “I’ve prepared the best I know how and hopefully that is good enough. If not, I’ll still be me.”
Finishing in fourth (+41.7), 17.3 seconds off the podium, was Frankowski.
“I am definitely satisfied with my result today. Honestly, the new snow played into my hands as I like mushy, soft courses,” Frankowski wrote in an email. “On the other hand, a course with no A climbs and only two uphills that take 30 seconds to a minute, is not a course I’d tend to excel on. So I was quite surprised with being that close to a US Nationals podium, especially when the podium is made up of three ladies who I believe could score World Cup points on any given day (as Chelsea proved multiple times in Period 1).”
Frankowski, 26, who was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, indicated that her next target would be the 20 k classic (though she also maintains a ritualistic “season-long goal” of being in the top four of the SuperTour rankings to, as she puts it, “get free race entries.”)
“In all seriousness, I do hope they can find a way to add some longer and more grinding climbs to the 20k classic course with all the fresh snow Anchorage received today,” Frankowski wrote. “I believe it is important to have a race that is even slightly comparable to the Olympic or a World Cup venue, and although the organizers did a good job with what Mother Nature dealt earlier last December, I hope the priority is on utilizing the new snow to create a course that challenges racers who will be representing our country on an international level.”
Also in the top 10 were three University of Colorado Boulder (CU) skiers, with Petra Hyncicova of the Czech Republic in fifth (+56.7), Norwegian Christina Rolandsen in sixth (+1:02.4) and Swedish freshman Hedda Bångman in 10th (+1:37.8). Erika Flowers of the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team placed seventh (+1:26.0), the University of Alaska Anchorage’s Hailey Swirbul placed eighth (+1:30.2), and Becca Rorabaugh (APU) finished ninth (+1:36.5).
U.S. nationals continues Friday with classic sprints at Kincaid.
Swirbul Top Junior in Eighth
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdgT2kzhNtr/
Hailey Swirbul, a U20 skier for the University of Alaska Anchorage, led a strong showing by several junior girls in eighth overall. Hannah Halvorsen (U20, APU) was 14th overall, with Novie McCabe (U18, Methow Valley Nordic) one spot back in 15th.
“I’m really pleased with how my body felt today,” Swirbul wrote to FasterSkier after the race, “and the result I was able to pull off with the help of fast skis (thanks to my coaches) and pacing from the skiers around me. I think the key today was to not stress about whatever the weather was doing and be light and quick through the slushy sections. It was important to pace the race well for me, because the conditions were slower than what we all were expecting after skiing on the race course the previous few days. My main goal was to qualify for World Juniors, and shoot for notable results compared to the western NCAA Division skiers. Overall, I can’t complain about how my first race of the week went!”
Swirbul almost wasn’t on the starting line in UAA green and gold. 14 months ago, she called it “ridiculous” and “outrageous” that the college ski team in Anchorage had been cut when U.S. nationals were on the horizon, and lamented that no UAA race suits were going to be at the starting line. But the decision was ultimately reversed, the ski team was reinstated, and six UAA skiers raced on Wednesday.
The women’s 10 k freestyle podium on the first day of 2017 U.S. Cross Country Championships at Soldier Hollow, with (from left to right) Chelsea Holmes (APU) in second, race winner Caitlin Gregg (Team Gregg) and Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) in third on Saturday in Midway, Utah.
MIDWAY, Utah — With four grueling uphills per lap, the new U.S. Cross Country Championships women’s 10-kilometer course at Soldier Hollow (SoHo) totals some 400 meters of solid incline. Divide those 400 meters by eight and what do you get? The hill metricCaitlin Gregg, based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn., has used as a race-season springboard for the past nine years.
Maybe flats are easier to find on Gregg’s Twin City turf than the hills that abound in SoHo. But the 36 year old still considers herself a climber.
Gregg proved a point after she won by 2.2 seconds in the women’s 10 k freestyle on Saturday, the first day of nationals: put a hill, any hill, in front of her and she’s going to climb it — whatever form that hill happens to take.
Caitlin Gregg of Team Gregg on her way to a first place finish in the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle event on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
In 2014, Gregg missed making the U.S. Olympic team, after competing in Vancouver in 2010.
Now representing Team Gregg with her husband Brian, she has her sights set on 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Gregg’s chances for world champs, however, depend greatly on her performances this week at U.S. nationals.
So far, with her first place finish in 27:00.6 — Gregg’s eighth national title, according to the International Ski Federation (FIS) records — she’s off to a good start.
“My competition has been really strong this year and that is something that I don’t think is a negative at all,” Gregg told FasterSkier on Saturday. “The goal of this entire country is to really step it up and be more competitive on the international field.”
“I want it to be the top athlete, whoever it is [who goes to World Championships],” Gregg said. “Whether it is me or not, I just want [today’s 10 k] to be an opportunity for domestic athletes to get there.”
The other domestic athletes Gregg referred in particular were her Saturday podium counterparts, Chelsea Holmes of Alaska Pacific University (APU), who finished second (+2.2), and Caitlin Patterson of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) in third (+9.1).
Holmes earned World Cup starts last season and competed in the Ski Tour Canada, where she scored her first World Cup points. She explained she is taking the U.S. nationals day by day.
“For me, I just try focusing on every day doing my best,” Holmes said. “I’m not a number person. I just try to do as best as I can and I kind of see where it gets me.”
Caitlin Patterson leading her Craftsbury Green Racing Project teammate Kaitlynn Miller during the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.
Patterson, on the other hand, recently returned to the U.S. after racing on the World Cup for Period 1. She also scored World Cup points in November, and entered nationals confident she was a podium contender.
“I had some pretty solid races [in Period 1] – some ups and downs there, too – and I was certainly hoping to come back and be able to have a strong showing here today,” Patterson said on Saturday. “Today was actually a little bit of a tough day for me, I didn’t quite feel as snappy as I was hoping, but I ended up OK.”
Both Patterson and Holmes started in front of Gregg, who indicated she received no specific splits. But she did hear her positions being called out. At various points they ranged from second to fifth and sixth.
“I didn’t really have a rabbit,” Gregg said. “So I tried to catch as many people as I could. I knew it really wasn’t really the longevity that was the issue it was just the right moment to attack. So I made a plan to attack at about 6 k and attack hard.”
Around 6 k, Gregg did as she planned and put down the hammer, especially on the uphills. Despite being “in the hurt train” during her last 4 k of racing, she finished with just over two seconds to spare on second place.
“It was more about racing against myself,” Gregg explained. “Be patient and then go.”
Katharine Ogden of the U.S. Ski Team and Stratton Mountain School was fourth (+20.0) and the first under-23 finisher. Becca Rorabaugh and Rosie Frankowski finished fifth (+58.4) and sixth (+1:05.0), respectfully, to give APU three of the top six.
“I felt like I was able to move pretty well, most of it, but you really had to keep the pressure on the whole time,” Rorabaugh said. “Your body didn’t want to do it today, but you had to kind of just go there anyway.”
Originally from Fairbanks, Alaska, Rorabaugh said the cold weather on Saturday morning — which delayed the women’s start by an hour — suited her.
“I mean, I’m from Fairbanks. I can’t help it, I like it a little bit,” she said. “I wouldn’t consider myself as much of a skate skier, so this is my best skate result at nationals in a distance race so I’m excited about that. But I think the cold, definitely I have a comfort in the cold.”
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![Left to right: Chelsea Holmes of Alaska Pacific University, Caitlin Gregg of Team Gregg and Caitlin Patterson of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project standing on the podium for the women's 10-kilometer freestyle event on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/IMG_4613-1.jpg")
![Caitlin Gregg of Team Gregg on her way to a first place finish in the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle event on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/IMG_4520-e1483857116185.jpg")
![Caitlin Patterson of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project leading her teammate Kaitlynn Miller during the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle event on Saturday at U.S. nationals in Midway, Utah.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/IMG_4440-e1483857096558.jpg")