Canceled. The North American leg of the World Cup became a blip as the weight of a pandemic became too much to bear for organizers. Minneapolis canceled. Canmore canceled. And….finally…Québec canceled. We discuss what was a crazy week when, accordingly, the globe shut down pro and amateur sport.
We spoke with Kershaw when he was six days into a 14-day quarantine. Kershaw had been in Germany for World Juniors and upon his return to Norway, was part of a general quarantine for individuals who had traveled abroad since Feb. 27.
Kershaw spoke to us from a snowed-in cabin in Sjusjøen, Norway. But it’s not exactly paradise. True fact, Kershaw was running low on food: Johaug to the rescue. And as for velvet corduroy skiing (while keeping social-distance) in the Lillehammer area, grooming has been suspended.
Kevin Bolger on his way to qualifying 16th overall and finishing 18th on the day: Planica, Slovenia’s World Cup skate sprint in December 2019. (Photo: NordicFocus)
You may have heard that the World Cup is returning not only to North America, but also to American soil, within the next few weeks. The world’s best skiers will be contesting sprint races in Québec City on March 14 and 15; a sprint in Minneapolis on March 17; and distance races plus a mixed relay in Canmore on March 20-22.
For all six races, including the five across the border, the U.S. has an expanded nation’s group start quota (thanks, Canada, for letting us count as Canadian for a week), meaning that a remarkable thirty skiers total will toe the line in that distinctive candy-cane uniform. Here is a brief overview of the fourteen men currently announced with start rights in the three sprints (some of the sprinters will not be racing in Canmore, where some distance-oriented athletes will have starts instead).
In alphabetical order, with pictures where available (an asterisk by a name denotes an athlete making his first World Cup start in Québec City):
Kevin Bolger of the U.S. Ski Team on his way to qualifying 32nd in the Ruka, Finland classic sprint in November 2019. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Kevin Bolger
Team and club: SVSEF Gold Team; United States Ski Team (USST) B-Team
Currently lives in: Idaho
Selected career highlights: 11th in his first-ever World Cup sprint, March 2018; 18th, skate sprint, 2019 World Championships; 1st, 2017 U.S. nationals classic sprint; 2nd, 2018 U.S. nationals skate sprint
Instagram page: @kevinbolger
Age: 26
Logan Diekmann as a University of Utah freshman (Courtesy photo)
Logan Diekmann*
Team and club: University of Utah
Currently lives in: Montana
Selected career highlights: 38th, 15km classic, 2020 U23 World Championships; 10th, classic sprint, 2020 U.S. nationals; 11 top-five finishes in RMISA races, member of 2017 and 2019 NCAA championship teams
Instagram page: @logandiekmann
Age: 22
In his return to World Cup sprinting, Simi Hamilton skis to 14th overall on Stage 3 of Ski Tour 2020. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Simi Hamilton
Team and club: Stratton Mountain School, or SMS; USST A Team
Currently lives in: Vermont
Selected career highlights: Three-time Olympian; four individual World Cup podiums, including one win; 6th, team sprint, both 2014 and 2018 Olympics; 9th, individual skate sprint, 2019 World Championships
Instagram page: @simihamilton
Age: 32
Logan Hanneman of the U.S. during the Falun, Sweden classic sprint qualifier in February 2020. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Logan Hanneman
Team and club: Alaska Pacific University, or APU
Currently lives in: Alaska
Selected career highlights: 2018 Olympian; 26th, 2019 World Championships; six individual top-30 World Cup results; two national championship podiums
Instagram page: @logan.hanneman
Age: 26
Peter Holmes during the qualifier in the 1.6 k classic sprint at the 2019 U23 World Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: Doug Stephen)
Peter Holmes
Team and club: SVSEF Gold Team
Currently lives in: Idaho
Selected career highlights: 27th, classic sprint, 2019 U23 World Championships; multiple top-1o finishes, national championship and SuperTour sprints
Instagram page: @vacationholmes
Age: 24
Mulleted and proud: Luke Jager destroys the field, opening a gap of 25 seconds on the lead-off leg of the 2020 World Juniors relay earlier this month. (Photo: Doug Stephen)
Luke Jager*
Team and club: University of Utah/APU; USST D Team
Currently lives in: Alaska
Selected career highlights: Gold medal, relay, 2019 and 2020 World Juniors; silver medal, relay, 2018 World Juniors; 10th, 10km classic, 2020 World Juniors; 2nd American, classic sprint, 2020 U.S. Nationals; three podiums in RMISA races this season
Noel Keeffe during the 1.6 k classic sprint qualifier at Junior World Ski Championships in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: Doug Stephen)
Noel Keeffe
Team and club: University of Utah/Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club; USST D Team
Currently lives in: Colorado
Selected career highlights: 12th, classic sprint, 2019 World Juniors; 3rd, skate sprint, 2019 U.S. Nationals; three top-10 finishes in RMISA races; made World Cup debut in Oberstdorf earlier this season
Instagram page: @noel.keeffe
Age: 20
APU’s Tyler Kornfield (126) celebrates as he crosses the line first in the men’s 30-kilometer classic mass start on Sunday at 2018 U.S. Cross Country Championships in Anchorage, Alaska. Eric Packer (118) finished second and Denver University’s Eivind Romberg Kvaale (124) placed third.
Tyler Kornfield
Team and club: APU
Currently lives in: Alaska
Selected career highlights: 2018 Olympian; seven national championship podiums, including three national championships; 19th, skate sprint, 2014 U23 World Championships
Instagram page: @tkornfield
Age: 29
Forrest Mahlen (APU) racing to fifth in the men’s 1.4 k classic sprint qualifier in February 2020 at the SuperTour in Craftsbury, Vermont. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
Forrest Mahlen*
Team and club: APU
Currently lives in: Alaska
Selected career highlights: 10th, classic sprint, 2019 U.S. Nationals; dozens of SuperTour top-10 finishes, including one victory; 3rd, 2018 Tour of Anchorage
Instagram page: @forrest_mahlen
Age: 26
Andy Newell during the sprint qualifier in Obertsdorf, Germany, in January 2020. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Andy Newell
Team and club: Bridger Ski Foundation
Currently lives in: Montana
Selected career highlights: Four-time Olympian; three individual World Cup podiums; 5th, classic sprint, 2007 World Championships; 7th, team sprint, 2015 World Championships; top-10 in Sprint Cup standings six times from 2006–2013; made the heats in every World Cup sprint he started for nearly a decade straight
Instagram page: @andynewellskier
Age: 36
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8HtYWxHUVo/
Thomas O’Harra*
Team and club: APU
Currently lives in: Alaska
Selected career highlights: 6th, skate sprint, 2020 U.S. Nationals; 5th, 2019 American Birkebeiner; first, 2017 Tour of Anchorage; ten top-10 SuperTour finishes since 2016/2017 season
Instagram page: @thomasoharra
Age: 23
Ben Saxton races in the sprints at 2020 U.S. Nationals. (Photo: Reese Brown)
Ben Saxton
Team and club: SMS
Currently lives in: Vermont
Selected career highlights: six national championship podiums, including two national championships; dozens of SuperTour podiums; 54th, classic sprint, 2015 World Championships; 44th, Otepää classic sprint, 2018/2019 World Cup season
Instagram page: @saxtonskier
Age: 26
Gus Schumacher skis the final leg of the men’s relay at World Juniors earlier this month. (Photo: Doug Stephen)
Gus Schumacher
Team and club: Alaska Winter Stars; USST D Team
Currently lives in: Alaska
Selected career highlights: Gold medal, relay, 2019 and 2020 World Juniors; silver medal, relay, 2018 World Juniors (anchor leg for all three races); gold medal, 10km classic, 2020 World Juniors; two podiums at 2020 U.S. Nationals, including one national championship; 41st time of day, 15km pursuit, 2019 Québec City World Cup
Instagram page: @gus.schumacher
Age: 19
From left, Logan Hanneman, Hunter Wonders, and Tyler Kornfield make up the podium at a December 2018 Besh Cup race. (photo: courtesy CCAK)
Hunter Wonders*
Team and club: APU
Currently lives in: Alaska
Selected career highlights: National champion, classic sprint, 2020 U.S. Nationals; 8th place, 15km classic, 2020 U23 World Championships; fifth place, mixed relay, 2020 U23 World Championships; six top-10 SuperTour or NorAm finishes, including two podiums
Instagram page: @wonderboy_hup77
Age: 21
* The athlete is making his World Cup debut in Québec City.
Hailey Swirbul of the USST D-Team races in Québec City, Québec, in March 2019. (Photo: John Lazenby/lazenbyphoto.com)
You may have heard that the World Cup is returning not only to North America, but also to American soil, within the next few weeks. The world’s best skiers will be contesting sprint races in Québec City on March 14 and 15; a sprint in Minneapolis on March 17; and distance races plus a mixed relay in Canmore on March 20-22.
For all six races, including the five across the border, the U.S. has an expanded nation’s group start quota (thanks, Canada, for letting us count as Canadian for a week), meaning that a remarkable thirty skiers total will toe the line in that distinctive candy-cane uniform. Here is a brief overview of the fifteen women with start rights in the three sprints (some of the sprinters will not be racing in Canmore, where some distance-oriented athletes will have starts instead).
In alphabetical order, with pictures where available (an asterisk by a name denotes an athlete making her first World Cup start in Québec City):
Sadie Maubet Bjornsen: Stage 4, Ski Tour 2020. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Sadie Maubet Bjornsen
Team and club: U.S. Ski Team (USST) A Team; Alaska Pacific University, or APU
Currently lives in: Alaska
Selected career highlights: Bronze medal, team sprint, 2017 World Championships; 7 individual and 5 team World Cup podiums; only American woman to ever wear the yellow overall World Cup leader’s bib; multiple national titles
Instagram page: @sbjornsen
Age: 30
Sophie Caldwell on course in Östersund, Sweden. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Sophie Caldwell
Team and club: USST A Team; Stratton Mountain School, or SMS
Currently lives in: Vermont
Selected career highlights: 3rd, Sprint Cup, 2017/2018 World Cup season; 9 individual and 4 team World Cup podiums
Instagram page: @sophiecaldwell
Age: 29
Hannah Cole racing at 2020 U.S. Nationals in Houghton, Michigan. (Photo: Karen Brown)
Hannah Cole*
Club: Crosscut Mountain Sports Center
Currently lives in: Montana
Selected career highlights: 9th, 2020 American Birkebeiner; 4th and 8th, SuperTour sprints in 2019/2020 season
Instagram page: @hanncole
Age: 24
Jessie Diggins skates to 8th in the first stage of the FIS Ski Tour 2020. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Jessie Diggins
Team and club: USST A Team; SMS
Currently lives in: Vermont
Selected career highlights: Gold medal, team sprint, 2018 Olympics; gold medal, team sprint, 2013 World Championships; three additional World Championships medals; 2nd overall and 3rd in distance standings, 2017/2018 World Cup; 26 individual and 7 team World Cup podiums; multiple national titles
Instagram page: @jessiediggins
Age: 28
The women’s podium of the 2019 American Birkebeiner. Alayna Sonnesyn took first ahead of Anja Gruber and Katie Feldman. (Photo: Screenshot Instagram @asonnesyn)
Katie Feldman*
Club: SVSEF Gold Team
Currently lives in: Idaho
Selected career highlights: 3rd, 2019 American Birkebeiner; 5th and 6th in SuperTour races in 2019/2020 season; 7th in SuperTour sprint in 2018/2019 season
Selected career highlights: 3rd, 2020 American Birkebeiner; dozens of SuperTour podiums; three top-five finishes at U.S. Nationals over the past ten years
Instagram page: @eflowers89
Age: 30
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bgi2XuQBqKj/
Felicia Gesior*
Club: Crosscut Mountain Sports Center
Currently lives in: Montana
Selected career highlights: 10th, 2020 American Birkebeiner; 5th and 10th, 2019/2020 SuperTour races; four top-10 finishes, 2018/2019 SuperTour
Selected career highlights: Bronze medal, 10 km skate, 2015 World Championships; five-time champion, American Birkebeiner; multiple national championships
Instagram page: @caitlincgregg
Age: 39
Elizabeth Guiney races at the PyeongChang World Cup in 2017. (photo: Nordic Focus)
Elizabeth Guiney
Club: Craftsbury Green Racing Project, or Craftsbury
Currently lives in: Vermont
Selected career highlights: 8th, 2020 American Birkebeiner; six top-10 results, 2019/2020 SuperTour; 3rd, 2015 Nationals
Instagram page: @lizzie_guin
Age: 29
Julia Kern skis to 15th in the qualifier in Dresden in January 2020. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Julia Kern
Club: USST B Team; SMS
Currently lives in: Vermont
Selected career highlights: bronze medal, skate sprint, 2020 U23 World Championships; 3rd, Planīca skate sprint, 2019/2020 World Cup season; multiple other World Cup top-30 finishes; bronze medal, relay, 2017 World Juniors
Instagram page: @juliakernski
Age: 22
Kaitlynn Miller (front) during the women’s classic sprint at the 2020 Senior Nationals. (Photo: Reese Brown)
Kaitlynn Miller
Club: Craftsbury
Currently lives in: Vermont
Selected career highlights: Five national championship podiums, including 2016 classic sprint national championship; 17 SuperTour podiums; 34th in World Cup 10km skate race in 2018/2019 season
Instagram page: @kaitlynnbmiller
Age: 28
Becca Rorabaugh on course during the 10-kilometer individual start classic in Lahti, Finland, last month. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Becca Rorabaugh
Club: APU
Currently lives in: Alaska
Selected career highlights: Five national championship podiums, including 2014 10km classic national championship; 14 SuperTour podiums; 24th in sprint in 2012/2013 World Cup season, 39th in World Cup 10km classic last month
Instagram page: @beccarorabaugh
Age: 30
Alayna Sonnesyn (bib 2) races in the skate sprint heats at 2020 U.S. Nationals. (Photo: Reese Brown)
Alayna Sonnesyn
Club: SMS
Currently lives in: Vermont
Selected career highlights: winner, 2019 American Birkebeiner; three podiums at 2020 national championships; three SuperTour podiums; finisher, Ski Tour 2020
Instagram page: @asonnesyn
Age: 23
Hailey Swirbul (APU) during the women’s 10 k skate at 2020 U.S. Nationals. (Photo: Reese Brown)
Hailey Swirbul
Club: USST B Team; APU
Currently lives in: Alaska
Selected career highlights: silver medal, 5km classic, 2018 World Juniors; bronze medal, 10km skiathlon, 2018 World Juniors; 21st, Davos skate sprint, 2019/2020 World Cup season; three other World Cup top-30 finishes this season; bronze medal, relay, 2017 World Juniors
Instagram page: @hai.swirl
Age: 21
Callie Young, of Newport, Vt., racing to second overall in the women’s race at the 2017 App Gap Challenge in Fayston, Vt. (Photo: Laurel Minde)
Callie Young*
Club: Dartmouth
Currently lives in: Vermont
Selected career highlights: Fourth, FIS Junior Invitational “Rising Stars” Race, Québec City, March 2019; first, 2020 Bates Carnival; 54th, sprint qualification, 2020 World Juniors
Instagram page: @calliey0ung
Age: 19
* The athlete is making her World Cup debut in Québec City.
Jessie Diggins (U.S. Ski Team) racing in front of a North American crowd during the women’s 10 k freestyle pursuit at 2017 World Cup Finals in Quebec City. She finished the season sixth overall in the FIS World Cup. (Photo: John Lazenby/Lazenbyphoto.com)
Following the 2017 World Cup Finals in Canada, John Munger, executive director of the Loppet Foundation, received a phone call from a fellow Minnesotan. Jessie Diggins had just completed her 2016/2017 season, and she had a question for Munger. If Quebec could host a World Cup, why couldn’t Minnesota?
“She was really jealous of her colleagues in Canada,” Munger recalled in a phone interview on Sunday.
The North American home crowd in Quebec City had caught Diggins’s attention. The last time a World Cup was held in the U.S. was 2001, when she was nine. By the time she raced 2017 World Cup Finals in Quebec at age 26, Diggins, of Afton, Minnesota, wanted a World Cup in the states and as close to her backyard as possible.
“We started to talking to U.S. Ski & Snowboard last summer,” Munger explained, adding that it took until last fall for cross-country skiing’s national governing body to consider collaborating “more seriously” with the Loppet Foundation.
“U.S. Ski & Snowboard and the Loppet Foundation have worked together on smaller projects, but I think it took a while for U.S. Ski & Snowboard to realize that we’re not a little club … we do have some capacity and have run some big events,” he said.
In the last seven years, the Loppet Foundation has hosted 2011 Junior Nationals, 2012 International Paralympic Committee (IPC) World Cup races, and most recently, the 2018 Masters World Cup.
The Olympic gold Diggins won with her former U.S. teammate Kikkan Randall last February in PyeongChang, South Korea, promoted the two organizations to seize the moment.
“I think we all turned to each other and were like, ‘OK, now is the time,’ ” Munger said. “Then we pretty quickly made the decision last April to go to the FIS [International Ski Federation] meeting and and get on the calendar.”
Currently, the World Cup will be one day of freestyle sprints at Theodore Wirth Park, with a preliminary 1.6-kilometer course for the women and 1.8 k for the men.
Racers at the City of Lakes Loppet in Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo: Bruce Adelsman/Skinnyski.com)
“It’s quite a bit different from our normal course to make it hard enough for the World Cup,” Munger said of the sprint course. “It’s going to utilize what is typically our tubing hill, which we make snow on, but is a much bigger climb than what many people do or are used to.”
He added that “there is no question” as to whether the park will make snow for the event.
“Last year we made 7.5 k [trails] of snow,” Munger said. “Our typical year is more like a 5 to 6 k loop. But even that’s a long loop, I actually think it’s probably the longest snowmaking loop in North America. I haven’t checked everywhere, but I haven’t heard of anything longer than that.”
In order to make the event happen, the Loppet Foundation will need to raise $1.6 to 1.7 million dollars. It is currently working on sponsorships and fundraising.
“We’re the ones taking on the financial risk here,” Munger said.
“It’s like a four-headed or five-headed monster,” he added of the groups involved with holding the event, which include FIS, U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the Loppet Foundation, and a host committee and volunteer organizing committee.“To make this accessible, we’ve got to have the whole community involved.
“One-point-six to 1.7 million dollars is not a lot of money if you’re hosting the Super Bowl and have hundreds of millions of dollars to throw around, but in the nordic community, that’s a big chunk of change,” he continued. “But I feel really good about the chances of getting there.”
Whether or not the race will be included as part of the 2020 World Cup Finals is still up in the air.
“We’ll know that in about two weeks,” Munger said. “The first World Cup for us is just going to be the one day, likely March 17 or 18, a Tuesday or Wednesday.”
For Diggins, it will be a dream fulfilled.
“Every sports professional dreams of getting to race in front of the community that raised them and nurtured their love of the sport,” Diggins told the Twin Cities Business. “More than anything, I want all of these young skiers to experience the World Cup atmosphere, because I never had that growing up.”
