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.
After an unusual and unprecedented season, many athletes have announced their retirement as they move on from professional ski racing. Aside from the three notable retirements from the U.S. Ski Team, Sadie Maubet-Bjornsen, Sophie Caldwell-Hamilton, and Simi Hamilton, twelve international athletes have said goodbye to World Cup competitions.
Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby racing to 2017 victory in the men’s 15 k classic at the pre-World Championships World Cup in Otepää, Estonia. (Photo: NordicFocus)
Perhaps the biggest name among them is Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway, who after a somewhat inauspicious start to his World Cup career in 2005 when he DNF’d at the Oslo 50 k, went on to become a staple of men’s cross-country skiing. Sundby leaves the stage with five Olympic medals, including two gold medals (both from team events), four Championship medals, and thirty World Cup victories to his name. Results aside, Sundby was an important presence on the Norwegian men’s team for many years, taking on the responsibility of team captain.
Sundby was sanctioned in 2016 for an anti-doping violation when he exceeding the allowable amount of salbutamol – an asthma medication – in his system.
Putting his veteran strength on display, Martin Johnsrud Sundby skis to 7th in his first international competition of the [2020/21] season. (Photo: NordicFocus)In a goodbye letter by Norges Skiforbund President, Erik Røste, Røste writes, “Martin never gave up [in spite of challenges]. And that’s what really characterizes Martin. Because in addition to a fantastic talent, Martin is a struggler. One who has put in more effort and training than most to achieve his dream of becoming the best in the world… Thank you for all the contributions both on and off the trail.” (Translated from Norwegian).
Also retiring from team Norway is Mari Eide, who is expecting a child. Eide made her World Cup debut in 2010 and contested 70 World Cup starts since that time. At the 2019 Seefeld World Championships, Eide earned a bronze medal, finishing third in the skate sprint.
Viktor Thorn (SWE) racing the individual sprint in Ulricehamn, Sweden (Photo: NordicFocus)
From Sweden, Viktor Thorn and Hanna Falk have both announced an end to their ski careers. While Thorn is only 24 years old, he has been struggling with ongoing back pain and thus decided to step away from the sport. In a statement Thorn said, “I have struggled with back problems for almost five years and have come to the stage that I feel it is no longer worth spending all the time it takes to be able to be in the absolute elite level, when the last percent to be able to perform at the level I want to be hindered by my back … I feel ready to take on new challenges in life. A tough decision as the skis have been a big part of my life for so long, this decision still feels right. I am grateful for everything that this sport has given me and I will always be a skier but just not at the elite level anymore.”
Sweden’s Hanna Falk (r) smiles as she wins the fourth World Cup race of her career and first race in Falun, Sweden, with a victory in the women’s freestyle sprint at 2018 World Cup Finals. (Photo: Svenska Skidspelen/Instagram)
Hanna Falk, who has also struggled with health problems throughout her career, announced retirement after a lengthy career. Falk began World Cup racing in 2007 and earned her first victory in 2009 at the Düsseldorf (GER) City Sprints. After a period of health issues, Falk returned in form during the 2016/17 season, proving herself to be a force on the sprint circuit. She retires with 113 World Cup starts, including eleven podium finishes.
American Simi Hamilton (l) goes head-to-head with Germany’s Sebastian Eisenlauer (14), Norway’s Eivind Østnor Bakken (26), and Sweden’s Gustav Nordström (13) during their 1.2 k freestyle sprint quarterfinal on Saturday at the World Cup in Planica, Slovenia. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
From Germany, 31-year old Sebastian Eisenlauer has announced his intention to move on from professional ski racing. Eisenlauer began his World Cup career in 2010, going on to start 131 World Cups and represent Germany at two Olympics (Sochi and PyeongChang). Of his career, Eisenlauer said, “That’s it. An incredible time comes to an end and it feels like the right time to move along new paths. Every race was worth the step from every stage of my career, I find people that I can call friends now still. Thank you to everyone who joined and supported me on this journey.”
Finland’s Susanna Saapunki has decided to transition from professional ski racing to professional mountain running. Saapunki spent six years racing on the World Cup circuit, totalling 42 World Cup starts and one World Championship start in Lahti, Finland. Saapunki has now chosen to focus solely on running.
Anna Zherebyateva of Russia is concluding her World Cup career. Zherebyateva is engaged to Alexander Bolshunov and intends to focus on starting a family.
Anouk Faivre Picon of France has officially announced retirement after some years away from the World Cup circuit in which she primarily started in marathon events. Faivre Picon spent a summer training with the US Women’s Ski Team.
Also on the list of retirements this season are Livio Bieler and Anja Lozza of Switzerland, Stefan Zelger of Italy, and Valentin Mättig of Germany.
From left to right,Tiril Udnes Weng and Maiken Caspersen Falla of Norway I in second, Maja Dahlqvist and Ida Ingemarsdotter of Sweden I in first, and Evelina Settlin and Hanna Falk of Sweden II in third. (Photo: FIS cross country screenshot)
It was a weekend of sprinting in Lahti, Finland, with many World Cup athletes closing out Sunday having traversed the famed 1.4-kilometer 2016 World Championships sprint loop at top speed close to ten times.
By the time Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist got on course for the final lap of the women’s classic Team Sprint, she had already tallied nine–in Saturday’s freestyle sprint she made it through the qualifier, quarterfinal, semifinal and final (placing third), and on Sunday, she and teammate Ida Ingemarsdotter had to first complete in the 6 x 1.4 k semifinals to advance to the 6 x 1.4 k final.
Through the first two thirds of Sunday’s final, it appeared the extra kilometers had worn on the Swede. She and Ingemarsdotter remained positioned in fifth or sixth through first four exchanges, watching from behind the pace of Norway’s Team I, Norway’s Team II, Russia’s Team I and Finland’s Team I.
In her last leg and just before the final exchange, however, Dahlqvist’s teammate Ingemarsdotter made a decisive surge to the front. By the time Ingemarsdotter handed off to Dahlqvist for the race’s final sprint lap, only Tiril Udnes Weng of Norway’s Team I remained in front. Heading into the races final kilometer and half, Sweden’s Team I was positioned in second.
If Dahlqvist was feeling anything in her legs from the weekend’s sprint series, it must have been motivation. She charged into the last sprint lap chasing down Maiken Caspersen Falla, the anchor for Norway Team I and the winner of Saturday’s skate sprint.
In the end, Dahlqvist’s press proved too strong for Falla. She overcame the Norwegian and Sweden’s Team I crossed first in a time of 18:24.96 for the win. Falla crossed 1.84 seconds behind to put Norway Team I in second place. Claiming third place, 3.55 seconds back from the winners, was Sweden’s Team II of Evelina Settlin and Hanna Falk.
With World Championships just around the corner, the U.S. entered two teams in the sprint: USA I was comprised of Ida Sargent and Sophie Caldwell. The two women raced the first semifinal and finished outside of advancing to the finals, placing 12th overall. Sargent and Caldwell have partner up in the past and landed on the podium–last year in Dresden and two years ago in the Pyeongchang World Cup–so making it into the final and onto the podium had been in the back of their minds.
“Classic team sprint I think is my favorite race so I was really excited for today but unfortunately it didn’t go as well as we hoped” Sargent wrote in an email.
Sargent cited the pace of the semifinal as unlike team sprint semis that she has scrambled for in the past.
“Today’s race was the fastest team sprint semifinal that I’ve ever raced,” she wrote. “It was hard from the gun rather than building into it more like some races. My skis were really slick for the first two legs so I was using a lot more energy to stay at the front than some of the girls that I was skiing with. Then on the third lap when the pace really picked up I didn’t have much left and was just trying to not completely explode.”
Kelsey Phinney and Julia Kern were entered as USA II and placed 14th overall. The duo placed seventh in their semi-final.
Resources were stretched a little thinner this weekend in Lahti due to the simultaneous USST pre-World’s training training camp in Davos, Switzerland.
“We have a really small service staff here and they were working so hard to get us great skis,” Sargent wrote. “Today was just a trickier klister day with not much time for testing so we ran out of time. Yesterday I felt like we had the best skis in the field which was super impressive since we only had a few techs here who were all working so hard.”
U.S. World Cup coach, Matt Whitcomb indicated that he helped with skis on Sunday and because of that role, spent most of his time waxing instead of on course.
“While it was definitely a disappointment not to have any teams advance through the semis today, we did see a lot of athletes ski really well,” Whitcomb said during a phone conversation. “Unfortunately, Ida struggled a little bit with her skis and Simi struggled with his glide. … Sophie and she felt like she had really awesome skis and felt really good, so she has returned from her trip home very strong,” Whitcomb continued.
Caldwell recently returned to the U.S. to spend time with her mother.
“I have no real regrets,” Whitcomb said. “Our team, staff, athletes, we all tried and executed the plan we intended to, sometime it all doesn’t work out as perfectly as planned.”
Athletes will remain in Finland for two days before heading down to Cogne, Italy on Wednesday for the final World Cup races before World Championships in Seefeld, Austria.
“While the results were a little bit disappointing today in Lahti, I really believe we have a team that is well prepared for World Championships,” Whitcomb said. “We like to go into the Championships having knocked a few races out of the park and we had a couple hits this weekend, but not as many as we intended to. So we will be looking to swing hard in Cogne. I feel very confident about our Seefeld Championships with this team, its a strong crew.”
An all Swedish podium, from left to right: Jonna Sundling, Stina Nilsson and Maja Dahlqvist after the women’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint in Dresden, Germany. (Garrott Kuzzy /LumiExperiences.com)
With the 2019 Tour de Ski complete, World Cup athletes returned to competition on Saturday for a 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint. The race took place in the city of Dresden, Germany–an icy, two lap sprint course along the Elbe river offered racers the non-traditional backdrop of cathedrals and other gothic architecture. Temperatures hung around 40 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday and the snow that was trucked in to cover the streets made for a hard packed, icy racecourse. Wind gusts between 15 and 25 mph added another challenge to those competing.
“It was really windy, so I just wanted to save some energy the first lap and be in a good position the whole last lap,” Sweden’s Stina Nilsson said during an interview with the International Ski Federation (FIS).
Nilsson went on to take the overall win, finishing the final first in a time of 3:48.49 after also winning both her quarterfinal and semifinal. The 25 year old Swede now has 16 individual World Cup sprint titles, this being Nilsson’s fourth successive sprint win in a row.
Two more Swedes finished on the podium, with Maja Dahlqvist claiming second (+0.24) and Jonna Sundling third (+0.54) after she bested Switzerland’s Nadine Fähndrich by 0.02 seconds in a photo-finish.
“When I realized there were three [Swedish] girls on the podium I was really happy because we have such a strong team and I am really proud to be a part of it,” Nilsson told FIS after the race.
The podium finish is Dahlqvist’s fourth in the individual top three at the World Cup level. Last year in the Dresden sprint, the 24 year old placed second (then to her teammate Hanna Falk). Dahlqvist has yet to win an individual World Cup sprint.
Following Fähndrich’s fourth place finish (+0.56) was American Sophie Caldwell in fifth (+2.61). Caldwell started the day with the second fastest qualifying time of 3:42.34, Sweden’s Hanna Falk posting the fastest qualifier in a time of 3:41.85. The U.S. skier went on to cross second in her quarterfinal, which was won by Fähndrich, and then second again in her semi final, this time to Nilsson.
In the final, Caldwell remained in contact with the group for the first two thirds of the race. Until the race’s midway mark, she was positioned in third, just behind Sundling and Fähndrich who led the first half of the final. Cornering into the last half kilometer, Slovenia’s Alenka Cebasek fell and Nilsson took over the lead. Caldwell clung to the three Swedes and Fähndrich, but the four broke away their last time up the courses lone, short uphill.
“My strategy was to conserve energy for the first lap and try position myself well with fresh legs for the second lap. This worked quite well in my quarter and semi, but in the final I was bopping around not quite in the draft at the beginning of the second lap and definitely lost my legs a bit for the last half of the lap,” Caldwell wrote in an email. “That said, it’s always a good day when you make it into the final, and these long courses used to be a challenge for me, so I was really happy to ski into the final with confidence.”
Sophie Caldwell racing the qualifier of the women’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint in Dresden, Germany. (Photo: Garrott Kuzzy /LumiExperiences.com)
“She’s pretty happy with the day,” the U.S. Ski Team’s World Cup head coach, Matt Whitcomb, told FasterSkier after the race. “At the end, I think the 1.6-kilometer course coupled with it being very flat and then one thing tactically went very poorly near the end where she ended up having to break some wind and she just got tired. No real mistakes out there, she executed the plan like she wanted to, there were just a lot of good women out there, it was a strong final. She also had a very strong semi-final which made for an exciting day.”
Julia Kern racing the qualifier of the women’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint in Dresden, Germany. (Garrott Kuzzy /LumiExperiences.com)
In her first World Cup start of the season, American Julia Kern ended the day in 19th after qualifying in 23rd. She advanced to the same quarterfinal as Nilsson and Sundling and for the first lap of the race, Kern was in second, right on Sundling’s tail. During the second lap, Nilsson ramped up the speed and took over the front pace. Kern was able to hang onto the pack and ultimately crossed fourth after a photo finish with Canada’s Dahria Beatty.
“I was really psyched to lay down a good qualifier and make it into the heats!” Kern, 21, wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “My family is here watching (parents, grandparents, and aunt and uncle) so I wanted to qualify for heats so they could watch me more than once.”
“I think coming off a strong start to season, I carried in more confidence and excitement coming into this World Cup which put me in a great place to go for it and have fun!”she added.
Saturday’s heats were the first of the season for Beatty. The 24 year old Canadian qualified in 20th and ended the day in 16th overall.
“I am really happy to have made my first World Cup heats of the season…16th is one of my best ever World Cup results.” Beatty wrote in an email. “I would have loved to make the semis and was pretty close today but I will keep chasing that goal. My skis were amazing and the atmosphere was great, I made a few small mistakes tactically in my heat but hopefully I can have another shot next weekend in Otepää.”
U.S. Ski Team member, Hannah Halvorsen racing the women’s qualifier for the 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint in Dresden, Germany. (Garrott Kuzzy /LumiExperiences.com)
Also in her first World Cup start, American Hannah Halvorsen placed 35th with a time of 3:55.73. The 20 year old was 1.54 seconds away from scoring World Cup points and qualifying for the day’s heats.
The next U.S. finisher was Ida Sargent in 38th.
“Today was rough for me,” Sargent wrote in an email to FasterSkier after Saturday’s sprint. “I have been having an issue this year with my femoral nerve and I think the icy conditions really flared it up. I’m hoping to be able to manage it better tomorrow. My energy is good though so I’m looking forward to more racing.”
Another World Cup rookie, Hailey Swirbul of the U.S. Ski Team D-Team, finished 41st on Saturday.
“It was exciting to have a city sprint be my first World Cup experience,” Swirbul wrote in an email. “I thought I skied powerfully and as smoothly as I could for the conditions. Each race is an opportunity to learn something and I absorbed as much as I could from these incredible teammates and athletes around me. I can’t wait for another shot at the World Cup at some point!”
Hailey Swirbul racing the qualifier of the women’s 1.6-kilometer freestyle sprint in Dresden, Germany. (Garrott Kuzzy /LumiExperiences.com)
“[R]eally awesome to have some of our D Team girls here and have Julia get a top 20!” Caldwell wrote. “I’m really proud of them all and it should be a fun day of team sprinting tomorrow. I’ll be teaming up with Julia and I’m really looking forward to it! Ida and Hannah will also have a really strong team and Hailey will be cheering strong with her relay socks.”
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, Ebba Andersson, Charlotte Kalla and Anna Haag faced the cameras after winning the silver medal in the women’s relay at the 2017 Nordic World Championships in Lahti. (Photo: John Lazenby)
Welcome to FasterSkier’s World Cup Preview, where we check in with the top-10 teams from last year’s FIS Cross Country World Cup tour before the season starts. The World Cup begins with a classic sprint in Ruka, Finland on Nov. 24th
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Sweden
Overall in Nations Cup Last Year: 2nd
Women’s Ranking 2017/2018: 2nd
Men’s Ranking 2017/2018: 5th
Swedes to Watch:She’s fast. She’s fierce. And she’s Swedish. While last spring gave rise to the retirement of many veteran cross-country ski names, 31-year-old Charlotte Kalla wasn’t one of them.
Kalla, who has been racing World Cups since 2006, is back for her 13th season on the circuit and not about to slow down. She finished last year, on a limited World Cup schedule, ranked seventh in the women’s overall, after securing five top three performances, two thirds of them victories.
Her singular focus remained peaking for the Games. She entered the 2018 season scorching fast, winning the the overall in the opening Ruka triple weekend. She won the following weekend’s 15-kilometer skiathlon in Lillehammer, Norway.
Kalla dialed back the racing in mid-December, did not race the Tour de Ski, and returned to World Cup racing on January 21, in Planica, Slovenia. She placed second in the 10 k classic.
Kalla returned from the Pyeongchang Olympic Winter Games with four medals, two for individual performances–most notably a gold in the women’s skiathlon.
Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla leads American Jessie Diggins and Norway’s Ragnhild Haga during the 2018 Holmenkollen women’s 30 k freestyle mass start at the World Cup in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
When not name dropping Kalla, the Swedes have plenty to look to in the remainder of their women’s team. There’s the ever shining sprint star, Stina Nilsson, not to mention the up-and-comer Ebba Andersson. In between those two, with the retirement of Anna Haag, there’s sprint power houses,Hanna Falk and Ida Ingemarsdotter. Throw in Anna Dyvik and you’ve got your female Swedes for the season.
On the men’s side, despite the retirements of Emil Jönsson, Martin Johansson and Marcus Hellner, Calle Halfvarsson remains a name to watch out for on course. Halfvarsson ended last season ranked 13th in the overall, with six individual top-10 finishes, four of those on the podium.
Then there’s the 36 year old veteran, Daniel Rickardsson, as well as the 23-year-old Oskar Svensson, who both landed in last season’s World Cup top-30 more than once.
The women’s 10-kilometer podium at Sunday’s FIS cross-country in Beitostølen, Norway. L to R: Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, Therese Johaug and American Sadie Bjornsen. (Photo: Aleks Tangen)
Welcome to The Rundown, your quick primer of need-to-know information about the day’s racing. We’ll be updating this digest as the day goes on with additional results, photos and quotes. The Rundown is NOT a race report; stay tuned for complete race reports later today with interviews from the day’s top racers.
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FIS cross-country Beitostølen, Norway: 10 k/15 k freestyle
The FIS Beitostølen cross-country races came to a close on Sunday November, 18 with a men’s 15-kilometer freestyle race and a women’s 10 k skate.
Norwegian Sjur Røthe won the men’s 15 k, covering the course in a time of 33:45.7. Røthe’s Norwegianteammate Simen Hegstad Krüger, finished 11.1 seconds back in second place.
Taking third place on Sunday was another Norwegian, Martin Johnsrud Sundby. Sundby finished seven tenths of a second behind Krüger and 11.8 seconds back from Røthe.
Andrew Musgrave of Great Britain placed seventh on Sunday (+1:07.8) while his teammate, Andrew Young placed 11th (+1:11.8).
American and U.S. Ski Team (USST) member, Scott Patterson, placed 22nd (+1:45.2) just ahead of Canadian Russell Kennedy, who finished in 24th (+1:53.2). Canadians Maks Zechel and Brian McKeever placed 85th (+4:07.5) and 91st, respectively.
On the women’s side, Norway’sTherese Johaug won the 10 k event in a time of 24:21.5. Another Norwegian,Ingvild Flugstad Østberg, finished 26 seconds behind Johaug for second place. The USST’s Sadie Bjornsen placed third (+1:45.9).
Bjornsen was the only North American woman to enter the Beitostølen 10 k on Sunday.
FIS cross-country Bruksvallarna, Sweden: 1.4 k freestyle sprints
In Bruksvallarna, Sweden races convened for a men’s and women’s 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint. Winning the women’s qualifier in a time of 2:55.84, was swedish skier, Hanna Falk. Falk went on the win the final event, finishing ahead of her Swedish teammates Maja Dahlqvist and Stina Nilsson in second and third respectively.
No North American women competed in the Bruksvallarna 1.4 k freestyle sprints on Sunday.
In the men’s 1.4 k sprint in Bruksvallarna, Victor Thorn of Sweden won the qualifier in a time of 2:53.19. The final, however, went to Sweden’s Teodor Peterson. Behind Peterson in the final for second place was Sweden’s Karl-Johan Westberg followed up by Thorn in third.
The women’s 1.4 k freestyle sprint podium at 2018 World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden, with (from left to right) Sweden’s Jonna Sundling in second, Sweden’s Hanna Falk in first and Norway’s Marit Bjørgen. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
FALUN, Sweden — Even the sky had predictions for Sweden. Without a cloud in sight, cerulean blue and a golden sun served as Falun’s backdrop for the opening race of the 2017/2018 World Cup Finals on Friday: the 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint.
Exactly nine weeks ago in the city sprint held in Dresden, Germany, Sweden’s Hanna Falk was showing shades of greatness. In the first race of the new year, the 28-year-old Swede claimed the Dresden freestyle sprint title for her first World Cup victory since 2010.
With the final sprint of the season taking place on the Falun ski trails, where Falk — a member of Sweden’s national team — spends most of her time training, the statistics were levied. All signs pointed to Sweden, in particular, Falk.
With one group of fans holding a banner that read “Falk för President” and still more waving the national flag, Falk won Friday’s Falun sprint final in 3:08.25 minutes, finishing the last sprint of the season the same way she started the new year: in first.
“This is just great to win here in Sweden. It’s my second victory this season and I am so happy that my parents are here to see it,” Falk said, according to an International Ski Federation (FIS) press release.
Falk started Friday with the fastest qualifying time of 2:59.88 (she remained the only woman to dip below the three-minute mark throughout the entirety of the day on the 1.4 k course).
Later, when Falk learned that the season’s overall sprint leader, Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla, would not advance to the final (American Sophie Caldwell and Norway’s Silje Øyre Slind snagged the two lucky loser spots in the final instead), Falk took a calculated approach for the final heat. She would be in control.
“With Maiken not in the final I knew that the pace might not be so high so I went for it on the second climb to make sure I had a good gap on the long downhill,” Falk told FIS.
From the start, Falk set the pace, leading through the first hill while Sweden’s Jonna Sundling and Anna Dyvik, Norway’s Marit Bjørgen, Slind, and Caldwell followed.
In the first descent, Falk maintained her position at the front, while Dyvik swung to her outside left and Bjørgen, Sundling and Caldwell clung just behind. Slind tucked in just behind in sixth.
Heading into the second uphill, Falk remained at the front with Dyvik matching her pace. Just before the crest of the hill, the eventual race winner visibly slowed, the rest of the field following suit. A half second later, Falk burst back to life, snapping over the top of the climb and putting close to two meters between herself and the group as they cornered back to the stadium.
Sweden’s Hanna Falk (r) smiles as she wins the fourth World Cup race of her career and first race in Falun, Sweden, with a victory in the women’s freestyle sprint at 2018 World Cup Finals on Friday. Her teammate Jonna Sundling (l) placed second while Norway’s Marit Bjørgen finished third. (Photo: Svenska Skidspelen/Instagram)
Chasing Falk on the descent was Bjørgen, then Dyvik and Sundling. Slind raced just behind them in fifth and Caldwell behind her in sixth. Coming into the final stretch, it was Falk in first, now at least three meters ahead. Sundling had moved around Dyvik and Bjørgen into second, leaving those two to battle for third.
Falk ultimately crossed first for her fourth-career individual World Cup victory, 0.53 seconds ahead of Sundling in second. Holding off a charge from Dyvik, Bjørgen crossed third, 1.4 seconds behind Falk.
In fourth was Dyvik (+1.72), followed by Slind in fifth (+4.30) and Caldwell in sixth (+6.99). The sprint finish marked Caldwell’s ninth World Cup top 10 this season. Additionally, the American finished eighth in the classic sprint at the Olympics last month in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Caldwell reached Friday’s final by qualifying in 16th, then winning the fourth quarterfinal and taking third in a photo finish with Slind (who followed in fourth) in the second semifinal. The top-four women from that semi all advanced to the final was fast-enough times.
Caldwell Achieves Goal of Top 3 in Sprint World Cup
While Falk’s win boosted the Swede from fifth to fourth in the final Sprint World Cup standings, Caldwell retained her podium position ahead of her in third. For the first time in her career, the 28-year-old Caldwell finished in the top-three of the overall Sprint World Cup.
Thinking back two years, Caldwell could remember a conversation she had with U.S. Ski Team Women’s Coach Matt Whitcomb about race goals. Whitcomb wanted Caldwell to write down goal in particular: to be in the Sprint World Cup overall top three.
“At the time I was like, ‘Eh, no, that seems pretty far off,’” Caldwell reflected in a post-race interview with FasterSkier.
“I remember she was a bit sheepish when we suggested it,” Whitcomb told FasterSkier on Friday.
The 2017/2018 women’s Sprint World Cup podium with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (c) in first, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (l) in second and American Sophie Caldwell (r) in third. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Yet on Friday, Caldwell looked on from the podium as an American flag rose in honor of her third-place finish in the overall sprint standings. With a total of 396 points, Caldwell claimed third behind Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, who had 495 points for second, and Norway’s Falla in first with 573 points.
“We were really psyched that she took after it because, all of us coaches, really believed it could be done,” Whitcomb said.
“I was of course thrilled to be up there today,” Caldwell said. “It’s been a good season with some really good results, but I think maybe what I am most proud of is just the consistency of my season — making it into the semifinals almost every sprint and skiing with confidence throughout the year.”
Though Caldwell expressed that results can be gratifying, they are not the be-all and end-all of her ski career nor what she attributes to her and the U.S. team’s momentum.
“My hope is that people back home see this team not only for our results, but also for the friendships we have and the atmosphere we have going on in this team,” Caldwell said. “I think this team has come so far … It started with Kikkan [Randall] sneaking into the top 30, then Kikkan finding herself on the podium, then Kikkan winning. She sort of showed us all that we could do it, too, and pulled us up with her, believed in us so that we could believe in ourselves. Now on any given weekend it could be any one of us on that podium, which is really cool.”
Falla, who finished Friday’s sprint in eighth after being eliminated in the semifinals, won the overall sprint title for the third-straight season, this time by 78 points over Nilsson in second after Nilsson missed Friday’s sprint due to illness.
“For sure I wanted to be able to fight for the podium today but I made a mistake in the semifinal and I wasn’t able to get back into position to advance,” Falla told FIS after finishing fourth in the first semifinal behind Falk, Sundling and American Jessie Diggins, respectively. “But I can’t be too upset as I have won my third Crystal Globe and I am very proud of that.”
Three Americans in Top 10
Rounding out the rest of Friday’s freestyle-sprint top 10 was Diggins in seventh, her U.S. teammate Sadie Bjornsen in ninth and Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter in 10th.
Sadie Bjornsen (4) racing in Friday’s freestyle sprint semifinal with her U.S. teammate Jessie Diggins (2) and Slovenia’s Anamarija Lampic (25) while chasing Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (left, pink headband), among others. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
After racing to second place in the first quarterfinal behind Falk, Bjornsen automatically advanced to the first semifinal. Diggins won the third quarterfinal to advance to the first semifinal as well.
In the semis, Diggins finished third, 0.42 seconds behind Falk in first and just 0.08 seconds behind Sundling, who automatically advanced in second.
Bjornsen followed in fifth, 0.87 seconds out of first, behind Falla in fourth (+0.68). Aside from the top two in that first semifinal, no one from that heat advanced to the final.
American Sadie Bjornsen racing to fourth in the women’s 1.4 k freestyle sprint qualifier at World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden. She went on to finish the day in ninth overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus) (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)
To start the day, Diggins had qualified for the rounds with the second-fastest time, 1.65 seconds behind Falk, while Bjornsen qualified in fourth (+2.96).
“I definitely felt really good about how my body feels. I guess I was wishing for a bit more today,” Bjornsen told FasterSkier after. “For the last sprint of the year it was a fun way to end, leaving something to hope for.”
The last World Cup sprint of her career, American Kikkan Randall qualified for the heats in 18th before advancing to the same quarterfinal as Diggins. While Diggins gapped the field by the final downhill back toward the stadium and won the heat, Randall remained in contention to automatically advance in second until the last lunge to the line. There, Randall finished third, 3.14 seconds behind Diggins and just 0.1 seconds shy of second place, which went to Ingemarsdotter.
“I did not feel good in the first half of that heat; my body just wasn’t quite warm yet,” Randall told FasterSkier after. “I just tried to keep myself in there.”
Randall was disappointed not to advance past the quarterfinals in her last sprint, but when asked to reflect on the season as a whole, the 35 year old remained thoughtful.
American Kikkan Randall racing to 18th in the women’s 1.4-kilometer sprint qualifier at World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden. She went on to finish the day in 15th overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus
“I was really happy to be able to start a family and come back. I think that went as well as I could have hoped,” Randall said. “And even though it took some patience at times … and the season didn’t go exactly as I planned, with the foot injury mid-season, I came around big at the Olympics this year and happy that I was able to get back in form when I needed to.
“I’m glad I stuck with it this long,” she continued. “I’m just trying to enjoy the last bit of time with my teammates, my staff and all the World Cup friends.”
After the disqualification of Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva for her second yellow card (due to a false start in her quarterfinal), American Ida Sargent finished the day in 36th, followed by Rosie Brennan in 49th, Caitlin Patterson in 63rd, Liz Stephen in 66th, Kaitlynn Miller in 69th, and Rosie Frankowski in 75th. Emily Nishikawa was the top Canadian woman in 40th, Dahria Beatty finished 48th, Cendrine Browne 60th, and Zina Kocher 71st.
Sweden’s Hanna Falk (r) smiles as she wins the fourth World Cup race of her career and first race in Falun, Sweden, with a victory in the women’s freestyle sprint at 2018 World Cup Finals on Friday. Her teammate Jonna Sundling (l) placed second while Norway’s Marit Bjørgen finished third. (Photo: Svenska Skidspelen/Instagram)
FIS Cross Country World Cup Finals (Falun, Sweden): Freestyle sprints
In the last sprint of the season and the first race of the three-day World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden’s Hanna Falk and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won their respective 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint finals, while Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Klæbo claimed the season-long Sprint Crystal Globes and Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. placed third in the Sprint World Cup.
Falk started Friday by topping the women’s qualifier on home turf in 2:59.88 minutes, 1.65 seconds ahead of American Jessie Diggins, who qualifiedin second. Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva qualified third (+2.73), while American Sadie Bjornsen raced to the fourth-fastest qualifying time (+2.96), ahead of Norway’s Marit Bjørgen in fifth (+3.72).
Falk then won the first quarterfinal and first semifinal before taking control and dusting the field in the women’s final. She essentially led the final from start to finish, but slowed her pace and the five women behind her as she ascended the last climb. As she reached the 180-degree turn at the top, Falk launched into high gear, leaving the rest of the field chasing. Bjørgen was closest to her in second, but still several meters back, as they descended down into the stadium, and Falk skated away from her pursuers for her fourth-career World Cup win (and first victory in Falun) in 3:08.25. Sweden’s 23-year-old Jonna Sundling came on strong in the finishing straight for her first World Cup podium in second (+0.53), Bjørgen took third, and Sweden had three in the top four with Anna Dyvik in fourth (+1.72).
Norway’s Silje Øyre Slind finished fifth (+4.3), andCaldwell, who had qualified for the heats in 16th then won her quarterfinal and advanced in third in the second semifinal, placed sixth overall (+6.99).
Four American women posted top-20 qualifying times, with Kikkan Randall advancing as well in 18th. Diggins placed seventh overall after finishing third in the first semifinal, 0.42 seconds behind Falk in first and just 0.08 seconds behind Sundling, who advanced to the final in second.
Bjornsen was ninth on the day after placing fifth in that semifinal, 0.85 seconds out of first. Randall finished 15th overall after placing third in her quarterfinal, 3.14 seconds behind Diggins, who won that heat.
Also for the U.S, Ida Sargent missed the top 30 needed to qualify in 36th, as did Rosie Brennan in 49th, Caitlin Patterson in 63rd, Liz Stephen in 66th, Kaitlynn Miller in 69th, and Rosie Frankowski in 75th.
Canada’s Emily Nishikawa placed 40th, Dahria Beatty was 48th, Cendrine Browne 60th, and Zina Kocher 71st.
Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (yellow bib) celebrates his 11th World Cup victory of the season in the men’s freestyle sprint at 2018 World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden, ahead of Italy’s Federico Pellegrino (l) in second and France’s Lucas Chanavat (11) in third. (Photo: Svenska Skidspelen/Instagram)
In the men’s race, Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov qualified first in 2:36.23, 0.46 seconds ahead of Klæbo in second. Klæbo then won the first quarterfinal, first semifinal, and you guessed it, the final as well, backing off before crossing the finish line for the last time in 2:37.03.
Italy’s Federico Pellegrino powered past France’s Lucas Chanavat in the finishing stretch of the final to claim second, 0.39 seconds behind Klæbo. Chanavat completed the podium in third (+1.76), Finland’s Ristomatti Hakola finished fourth (+3.26), and Sweden’s Oskar Svensson and Teodor Peterson placed fifth (+3.88) and sixth (+6.17), respectively.
Two American men qualified for the heats, with Simi Hamilton advancing in 13th and Kevin Bolger in 29th. Hamilton went on to place 14th on the day after finishing third in the first quarterfinal, 0.61 seconds behind Klæbo. In his second-career World Cup sprint, Bolger placed 30th overall after finishing sixth in his quarterfinal, 2.21 seconds behind Peterson in first.
In the overall Sprint World Cup, Klæbo took his second-straight title by a whopping 243 points over Pellegrino in second, while Falla won her third-straight Sprint Crystal Globe by 78 points over Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, who was out sick for Friday’s race. Nilsson joined her at the Sprint World Cup podium ceremony on Friday, as did Caldwell, who achieved her best overall sprint standing in third.
Falla placed eighth overall on the day after being eliminated in the semifinals (she finished fourth behind Falk, Sundling and Diggins, respectively).
For the U.S., Erik Bjornsen narrowly missed qualifying in 31st, Andy Newell placed 43rd, Paddy Caldwell was 60th, David Norris 84th, and Scott Patterson 87th.
For Canada, Julien Locke placed 32nd, Alex Harvey 34th, Devon Kershaw 74th, and Graeme Killick 81st.
The women’s classic sprint podium at the World Cup in Drammen, Norway, with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (c) in first, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (l) in second, and American Jessie Diggins (r) in third. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
DRAMMEN, Norway — Barring the spectators cheering from their apartment balconies, the most marked aspect of Wednesday’s 1.2-kilometer classic sprint course was the finish line. It crosscut the top of a 15-meter climb.
Throughout the day, no skier closed out Drammen’s uphill finish better than Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla. After winning the day’s qualifier in a time of 3:19.44 minutes, Falla won her quarterfinal in photo-finish fashion and outlunged Sweden’s Stina Nilsson to place first their semifinal.
In the final, Falla once again proved her form in the uphill. She strode past Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva and Nilsson to take the win in a time of 3:10.18. The closest any competitor came to the Norwegian was Nilsson, 1.39 seconds back.
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla en route to her second-straight World Cup victory in Wednesday’s classic sprint in downtown Drammen, Norway. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
The first-place success in Drammen is Falla’s standard. From 2014 to 2016, she won three World Cup sprint races held in the city, all of them classic. (Falla missed qualifying by one place in 31st in last year’s Drammen classic sprint.)
“It’s my fourth win here and I am so happy with the way I am feeling,” Falla said, according to an International Ski Federation (FIS) press release. “I think my battery is finally fully charged. I was a bit tired after the Olympics and I haven’t trained very much. But I can feel that my body is back and it’s great to get another win here and almost secure my third Crystal Globe.”
Falla now leads the Sprint World Cup with 543 points, while Nilsson trails in second by 48 points. Only one sprint race remains this season, a freestyle competition that is featured in next weekend’s World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden. With her second-place finish on Wednesday, Nilsson could still snag the Sprint Crystal Globe from Falla, as 50 points remain for a win in that race.
“I didn’t qualify so well so I was a bit worried about how today would go,” said Nilsson, who qualified in 17th, according to a FIS press release. “Maiken was just too strong for me today but I am happy that I felt better and better as the rounds happened today … and in the end I can say that I am satisfied.”
In a dramatic closeout, U.S. skier Jessie Diggins came from behind to claim third (+1.88), despite appearing out of podium contention with 150-meters to go. The American’s advancement to the final itself was up in the air until the jury ruled a technical violation for Switzerland’s Nadine Fähndrich.
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (l) winning the first semifinal of the Drammen World Cup classic sprint in Norway on Wednesday, ahead of Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (r) in second and American Jessie Diggins (c) in third. Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (behind Nilsson) finished fourth and Thea Krokan Murud (14) was fifth in that heat. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
After racing in semifinal 1, Diggins finished in third behind Falla and Nilsson. Semifinal 2 was the faster of the two semis, and produced the day’s two Lucky Losers before Fähndrich’s yelllow card. The Swiss skier lost her automatic qualification spot, giving Diggins a shot as the final lucky loser in the final.
At the start of the women’s final, the American was positioned in sixth, trailing Slovenia’s Katja Visnar in fifth, Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski in fourth, Nilsson in third, Nepryaeva in second, and Falla in first. While she had burned off the front in the start of her quarterfinal, Diggins played a safer start in the final.
“Last year [in Drammen] I got swallowed up in the draft and then broke my pole,” Diggins told FasterSkier during an in-person interview after. “So this year I was trying to be really smart, be aware of where other bodies were and keep myself out of any tangles; just ski a smart, clean race.”
“In the final I started out in the back thinking ‘OK, just ski relaxed, stay in contact,’ ” she continued. “Then I was really able to go for it and put the hammer on in the last 50 meters.”
Taking the opposite tactic of Diggins, Falla forced a fast pace in the front. By the top of the first climb the Norwegian had a one-meter gap over Nilsson and Nepryaeva, who were positioned in second and third, respectively. Another half meter behind the Russian and Swede were Diggins and Pärmäkoski.
Heading into the descent, Falla held her capacious lead. About a meter behind the Norwegian, Nepryaeva slid ahead of Nilsson. Diggins, who had surged around Pärmäkoski on the hill’s crest, took a few double poles midway through the descent’s two twists in an attempt to close the gap separating her from the top three.
By the bottom of the hill, Nepryaeva had closed in on Falla. The Russian and Norwegian went head-to-head as they approached the course’s final hairpin turn. Chasing the backs of their ski tails was Nilsson. Fighting to hold onto Nilsson was Diggins.
Coming out of the hairpin, Russia had the lead, followed closely by Norway and Sweden. The American clung tenaciously, though now two ski lengths behind the finals top three leaders with less than 150-meters to go.
“Admittedly I have to say that while I will never count Jessie out, it certainly looked like she was on her way to fourth,” U.S. Ski Team Women’s Coach Matt Whitcomb told FasterSkier during an in-person interview. “I think she surprised just about everyone out there today.”
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla leads Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (r) ahead of Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva (third from left) and American Jessie Diggins (third from right) during the women’s 1.2 k classic sprint final on Wednesday at the World Cup in Drammen, Norway. (Screenshot: NRK broadcast)
In the final climb, Falla was the first to pass Nepryaeva on the left. Nilsson followed suit, and then Diggins. By a mere 0.44 seconds, Diggins edged Nepryaeva, earning her first World Cup classic sprint podium.
“It was so cool because classic sprinting — especially on a course like this, in deep sugary snow that is falling apart — is arguably my all-time weakest event; to be able to finally get a podium, that’s something I’ve been after for many years,” Diggins said.
Wednesday’s classic sprint was Diggins’s first race back since last month’s Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Following the Games, she and her teammate Kikkan Randall returned to the U.S. for what Whitcomb referred to as essentially a “media tour” thanks to the duo’s Olympic gold medal in the team sprint. Both returned to Europe last weekend, though neither raced the World Cup races that took place in Lahti, Finland on Saturday and Sunday.
“Not for a minute, when we saw them after we arrived from Lahti, did we think that was a mistake,” Whitcomb said of the decision for Diggins and Randall to return to the U.S. “At the end of the day, had it been a mistake, we didn’t care. We wanted that story told.”
“I think it was really important that I had that rest. I clearly needed it and I was able to come back feeling snappy,” Diggins added.
Diggins is now ranked third in the Overall World Cup standings, 375 points behind Norway’s Heidi Weng in first and 179 points behind Norway’s Ingvild Flugstad Østberg in second. She is 35 points ahead of Pärmäkoski in fourth.
Following Diggins on Wednesday, Nepryaeva crossed in fourth (+2.32), Pärmäkoski fifth (+8.85) and Visnar sixth (+20.70).
Rounding out the top 10 was Sweden’s Hanna Falk in seventh, Østberg in eighth, Norway’s Tiril Udnes Weng in ninth, and Norway’s Thea Krokan Murud in 10th.
Sadie Bjornsen (9) racing to fifth in her quarterfinal for 21st overall in the women’s classic sprint at the World Cup in Drammen, Norway. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)
Two more Americans qualified for Wednesday’s classic sprints, with Sadie Bjornsen placing 21st after finishing fifth in her quarterfinal, 9.24 seconds behind Fähndrich in first. Sophie Caldwell raced in the first quarterfinal with Falla, where she finished sixth, 10.6 seconds back, for 27th overall.
U.S. skier Ida Sargent finished 47th in the qualifier, followed by Rosie Brennan in 48th, Randall in 50th, and Kaitlynn Miller in 53rd.
Canada’s Emily Nishikawa placed 52nd and Dahria Beatty 55th.
— Chelsea Little, Harald Zimmer and Alex Kochon contributed
Sophie Caldwell racing to 20th in the qualifier of the women’s classic sprint at the World Cup in Drammen, Norway. She went on to place 27th overall after finishing sixth in her quarterfinal. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
The women’s 1.4 k freestyle sprint podium at Saturday’s World Cup in Lahti, Finland, with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (c) in first, and Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (l) and Hanna Falk (r) in second and third, respectively. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Eight points. That’s the number that separated Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla and Sweden’s Stina Nilsson in the Sprint World Cup standings before Saturday’s freestyle sprint in Lahti, Finland.
Three sprints. That’s the number of World Cup sprint races that remained in the 2017/2018 calendar, one of which took place on Saturday.
With one down and a classic sprint and skate sprint to go, Falla’s lead has grown to 28 points. It’s not much, with 150 sprint points remaining in the two remaining races (100 for winning the Drammen classic sprint and 50 for winning the skate sprint at World Cup Finals in Falun), but she’s getting there. Let’s just say neither of these two women can afford to skip a sprint.
Coming off her last race of the Olympics, the team sprint (where Norway took bronze behind the U.S. and Sweden), Falla had 10 days to recover before Lahti. Nilsson had six days after notably racing to third in the 30-kilometer classic mass start on the last day of the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea.
Six time zones away from Korea in Finland, Falla and Nilsson faced off once again, but instead of racing for gold (which Nilsson had claimed in the Olympic classic sprint), they’re in a race for the Sprint Crystal Globe (of which Falla is the two-time defending champion).
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla celebrates her gold medal in the 2017 World Championships freestyle sprint in Lahti, Finland, ahead of Americans Jessie Diggins (19) and Kikkan Randall (r), who placed second and third, respectively. The third U.S. woman in the final, Sophie Caldwell (second from r) finished sixth. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
As alluded to, Falla had the edge on Saturday, winning the women’s 1.4 k skate sprint by 0.36 seconds over Nilsson in 2:54.83 minutes. She did it by leading from start to finish — a tactic she hadn’t necessarily planned nor desired —on the same course that she won on at World Championships last year. In that skate sprint, Falla bested Americans Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall for gold. Diggins and Randall placed second and third in that race, respectively, but the two did not contest Saturday’s sprint in Lahti. Instead, they were coming off a New York City media tour that involved several appearances with major TV networks.
But back to Falla. The 27-year-old left her competition chasing on Saturday, advancing to the final after placing second in her quarterfinal (0.71 seconds behind Nilsson) and first in the first semifinal (just 0.04 seconds ahead of Nilsson in second place).
She had qualified for the heats in 12th, 7.96 seconds off of the top time of 2:54.72 set by Sweden’s Hanna Falk.
“I was really stressed in the prologue,” Falla said afterward, according to an International Ski Federation (FIS) press release. “In the heats I had a better feeling.”
She had to fend off three Swedish heavy hitters in the final: Nilsson, Falk and Ida Ingemarsdotter.
But Falla never let any of them get ahead of her — an impressive feat on Lahti’s sprint course with two major climbs. The lone Norwegian in the final, Falla jetted out of the gate and into the lead, with Falk quick to challenge her before the first uphill. But Falla stayed ahead.
“I didn’t want the first position, but I just got it in the start,” Falla told FIS in a televised post-race interview. “So I just had to lie in front and do the best I could.”
While Falla continued to drive the pace, Sweden’s Falk took a breather near the back while Ingemarsdotter and Nilsson slotted into second and third. Germany’s Sandra Ringwald, in her first World Cup sprint final since the Tour de Ski in late December, skied in fourth, ahead of Falk and Switzerland’s Laurien van der Graaff.
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla celebrates her win in the women’s 1.4 k freestyle sprint on Saturday at the World Cup in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Falla led the downhill then into last long, multi-tiered climb, while the three Swedes assembled hungrily behind her. Nilsson began her attack when they hit the steepest section near the top, but Falla was at least a step or two ahead as they rounded the 180-degree turn and began to descend down the other side.
Tucking into the stadium, Falla got low and used her fast skis to gain a few more meters on Nilsson. She then took a couple of strides to keep her momentum and finally launched her final V2 push toward the finish.
No one could match her; not Nilsson skiing closest to her, nor Falk or Ringwald just behind. She didn’t even have to lunge to secure the victory over Nilsson, but Falk and Ringwald did as they placed third (+0.78) and fourth (+0.88), respectively. For Ringwald, fourth place marked her best individual World Cup result in a little over a year (after she placed fourth in a 2017 skate sprint in Toblach, Italy).
For Falla, it was her second individual World Cup win of the season and first victory since Dec. 2 in Lillehammer, Norway, where she won the classic sprint. Falla was the 2014 Olympic champion in the individual skate sprint. And let’s not forget, she won the World Championships sprint in Lahti last year as well as the 2016 Lahti World Cup skate sprint.
“Last year here and also two years ago I was in front down the last downhill, and I succeeded there for the last three years so I knew it is very possible to lie in front as well,” Falla told FIS. “In the final I had Stina and Hanna behind me and I knew both of them are really fast. I have a big respect for them and I am very happy I could win today.”
Nilsson, who bested Falla for the classic-sprint gold medal in PyeongChang, had qualified for Saturday’s heats in 14th, 8.26 seconds out of first.
“I felt pretty good in the prologue, but in the end I was missing some seconds, which I probably lost after the start,” she told FIS. “In the heats I found my pace and I could keep all the way through to the final. In the final, I was not so fast after the start but I am happy to be on the podium again. It is very good for the sport that the battle for the Sprint Crystal Globe is still going.”
Falk also said she was satisfied with her end result, after winning her quarterfinal and advancing as a lucky loser in third in the semifinal with Falla and Nilsson.
“I had a very good qualification,” Falk told FIS. “I tried to fight in every heat. The final was hard but I am happy to be third today. I had a good speed before the last corner but it was always tight there. It was a tough fight between me and Sandra [Ringwald]. I’m happy to be third.”
Sadie Bjornsen (U.S. Ski Team) qualified fifth in the women’s 1.4 k skate sprint at the World Cup in Lahti, Finland, and went on to finish 17th overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Four Americans in Top 30
Leading the Americans in the qualifying round was Sadie Bjornsen in fifth, 3.88 seconds off Falk’s fastest time. Sophie Caldwell qualified in 17th, Ida Sargent advanced in 21st and Rosie Brennan followed in 29th.
For Brennan, it was her first time back in the heats in about two months after she qualified in 21st in the Tour de Ski classic sprint on Oberstdorf, Germany. While the heats were canceled that day due to a storm, Brennan went on to finish the Tour in 24th overall. Since then, however, the U.S. Ski Team (USST) member has finished outside the top 40 in four World Cup races and one Olympic event (the 15 k skiathlon).
Despite finishing sixth in her quarterfinal on Saturday, 4.91 seconds behind Ingemarsdotter in first, Brennan’s overall result of 29th indicated she was back on track.
“I have been struggling with health and recovery since the tour,” Brennan wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “I’ve just been taking things day by day and trying to work through whatever issue I am facing. The Olympics was a huge disappointment for me. I did what I thought was best to prepare for the games, but have struggled with my health and my body and as a result was far from where I wanted to be at that time.”
In PyeongChang, she raced one event — the skiathlon — and placed 58th. She stayed with the team for the duration of the Games, hoping to have the opportunity to race the 30 k. But that wasn’t in the cards.
“It’s very challenging to be at the games and not be participating in the events that you have trained for over so many years,” Brennan reflected. “I have had some good races this year and have made some improvements so I am doing my best to remember that and try to see each day as a new opportunity. My goals moving forward are more about my feelings, my body, and my health than any results. I am very happy to have made a step forward today and am hoping my distance skiing will see the same results. I wasn’t able to ski my quarterfinal as well as I would have liked, but it’s been awhile since I’ve raced now so to just get another stab at it was a great step forward.”
Sophie Caldwell (U.S. Ski Team) racing to 17th in the Lahti skate sprint qualifier. She went on to reach the semifinals and place eighth overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Out of the four Americans in the quarterfinals, Caldwell was the lone U.S. woman in the semifinals. She had raced to second in her quarterfinal, finishing 0.25 seconds behind Ringwald, who won that heat. But her road there wasn’t an easy one, as Caldwell skied up from near the back of the pack into second coming out of the final downhill. There, she scooted ahead of Norway’s Heidi Weng, who had been second at the time, while Weng dropped to last in the heat.
“… I had the ambition to do well, and it’s incredibly annoying when something like that happens,” Weng said, according to a loose translation.
She added that she didn’t discuss it with Caldwell after.
“I can’t do anything about it now,” Weng said. “Things like that happen in a sprint…”
Caldwell reflected that it might’ve been worth conserving less energy and using more to get in a better position before that last downhill.
“I found myself in the back there with no room to pass or respond to a move,” Caldwell wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “… There is a big draft on the final downhill and if you’re leading, you need to send it and have a good bullet tuck, and if you’re within contact of the leader, you can try to work the draft and in my quarter I was able to do that. I don’t remember there being contact with Heidi, but we both definitely bobbled a bit on the final corner.”
Caldwell’s first World Cup podium came in Lahti four years ago. Last year at World Championships, she reached the skate-sprint final and placed sixth overall.
On Saturday, she made it to the semifinals and finished fourth in the second semi, 1.46 seconds behind Ringwald in first.
“I have had some success in Lahti before and I’ve also had some disappointing results, and I think today was somewhere in between,” Caldwell wrote. “I enjoy how tactical this course can be with all the corners and transitions. I was feeling quite good today, but I struggled to find that extra punch and didn’t ski with the confidence or control I know I’m capable of, so even though the result is by no means a bad one, I was just disappointed in how I skied mentally in the semi final.”
She was pleased with her recovery after the Olympics, where she placed eighth in the classic sprint and fifth with the women’s 4 x 5 k relay.
“The Olympics can be physically and emotionally exhausting, so I made sure I took some time to take it easy and get my feet under me again,” Caldwell wrote. “I was really looking forward to getting back in the World Cup routine in Europe. We had a very long travel day, so we were feeling a little rugged the first day here, but some good sleep, food, and training had me feeling quite good a couple days later. I did some light intervals on Thursday that felt quite good and was psyched for today.”
Bjornsen described having some trouble transitioning from the Olympics back to the World Cup. She raced four events in PyeongChang, with a top individual result of 14th in the classic sprint.
“It was an interesting step back to the World Cup today,” Bjornsen wrote in an email to several media outlets. “It has been a real ‘homesick’ week here coming back from the Olympics, and sometimes hard to feel how your actual muscles are feeling instead of your head. Fortunately, my muscles felt surprisingly good in the qualifier and I felt really excited to see what I could do today!”
In her quarterfinal, she recalled getting “tangled” and losing her positioning on the first turn, leaving her chasing the rest of the group.
“I finally caught them on the very top of the course, but just narrowly missed getting into their draft down the hill, and missed moving with those top three,” Bjornsen wrote. “Sprinting has been everywhere from amazing to frustrating this year, and what I have learned is that you can never think too hard about it. Often for me, the difference between a fantastic day, and a frustrating day is some super move that I either find, or I miss.”
She ended up fourth in her quarterfinal, 2.84 seconds behind Falk in first, which put Bjornsen 17th overall.
“I am just looking forward to heading into tomorrow with a head that is back excited again, and some muscles feeling good!” Bjornsen wrote of Sunday’s 10 k classic. “I put a lot of focus into my form at the Olympics without much thought about afterwards. Fortunately, the majority of the World Cup field is in the same state, so now we are all just racing with what sort of energy and excitement we have left. I always kind of like that. It is raw and fun.”
Sargent finished the day in 27th overall after placing sixth in her quarterfinal, 1.07 seconds behind Sweden’s Anna Dyvik in first. After skiing in fourth in the middle of the race, Sargent moved up to second on the final downhill toward the finish. But on the tight lefthand corner before the finishing straight, she lost her position and momentum and slipped to sixth.
“Today wasn’t great but it was a huge step forward for me,” Sargent wrote to FasterSkier. “I haven’t raced much recently and was struggling with injury so I’m just super happy to be racing again and very excited to have a bunch more racing in the next few weeks.”
“I’m excited to feel like my fitness is still there after so much travel and not much racing,” Sargent wrote.
Canada’s Dahria Beatty just missed making the rounds in 34th place on Saturday in the Lahti World Cup skate sprint. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Beatty 34th for Canada; Phinney 36th in First World Cup
Canada’s Dahria Beatty missed qualifying for the heats in 34th, 0.9 seconds out of 30th place. While she was the lone Canadian woman competing on Saturday, three other American women started, with Kelsey Phinney of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) racing to 36th, 1.25 seconds out of qualifying, in her World Cup debut.
“I was pretty happy with my effort, definitely a little bummed to miss out on the heats, but cool to know that I’m pretty close to that level!” Phinney wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “I’m psyched to be here and getting a World Cup start was one of my main goals of the season. Being a second out of qualifying will for sure help stoke the fire for next year and I learnt a lot today from things that went right and things that didn’t.
“This was my first World Cup start and everyone has been so welcoming,” she continued. “I’ve been having a lot of fun and just trying to take it all in. … It’s hard to put the feeling of being at the start line of a World Cup into words, it’s something I’m hoping to get to experience a lot more of!”
(Her Sun Valley teammate Kevin Bolger, also in his first World Cup, placed 11th overall after reaching the semifinals in the men’s 1.6 k sprint. “I am so proud of Kevin, it was so special to get to watch him holding his own with the best in the world in the heats today! Really cool to see your teammate crush it in his first World Cup.”)
Phinney explained that Saturday was a one-time opportunity since she’ll be joining the OPA Cup trip on Monday before flying back to the U.S. for SuperTour Finals in Craftsbury, Vermont, later this month. She’s spent the better part of the last month racing in Norway, placing sixth in a FIS skate sprint in Åsen and 13th in a Scando Cup skate sprint last weekend in Trondheim.
“She had a really impressive Scando Cup Sprint last weekend, and has shown she can skate sprint with the best of them,” SVSEF Head Coach Chris Mallory wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “I thought she might squeak into the top 30 with a good day. She skied the first half of the sprint today very fast, so the pacing was just a touch off. But still, very solid effort for her first WC. She’s shown the speed is there, so she’ll be back.”
Kaitlynn Miller (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) on her way to 61st in the World Cup skate sprint qualifier in Lahti, Finland. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Also for the U.S., two Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP) skiers, Caitlin Patterson and Kaitlynn Miller, placed 56th (+20.12) and 61st (+21.70), respectively.
***
Notes: In the first women’s quarterfinal, Germany’s Victoria Carl skied up on the ski tails of Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski, which caused both women to crash out of contention on the final downhill. Pärmäkoski had been skiing in second at the time, behind Nilsson in first. She finished fifth in that heat (+12.11) and Carl, who appeared to hit her head, took a long time to stand back up and crossed the line in sixth (+49.5). Carl was relegated to last (30th place) for obstruction.
German coach Janko Neuber told reporters after that, “She crashed, fell on the head and bruised the back of her neck. As a precaution she is being taken to the hospital for evaluations, but we are optimistic that it isn’t anything serious.”
Pärmäkoski, who finished the day in 21st overall, wrote in Instagram: “This was a bit tough but today, with the fall, shorts [sprints] were short. Fortunately tomorrow is another chance.”
The men’s 1.6 k freestyle sprint podium at Saturday’s World Cup in Lahti, Finland, with Italy’s Federico Pellegrino (c) in first, Russia’s Gleb Retivykh (l) in second and Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Lahti, Finland): Men’s & women’s freestyle sprints
The defending world championships from the 2017 freestyle sprint prevailed again in Lahti on Saturday, with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla winning the women’s 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint final and Italy’s Federico Pellegrino coming out on top in the men’s 1.6 k final at last year’s World Championships venue.
Falla’s rise to the final started with her qualifying in 12th, 7.96 seconds off the fastest qualifying time set by Sweden’s Hanna Falk in 2:54.72. Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva qualified second (+0.63) and Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski third (+3.62), just ahead of Germany’s Victoria Carl in fourth (+3.88) and American Sadie Bjornsen in fourth (+3.88). Four American women qualified for the heats, with Sophie Caldwell in 17th, Ida Sargent in 21st and Rosie Brennan in 29th.
The women’s 1.4 k freestyle sprint podium at Saturday’s World Cup in Lahti, Finland, with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (c) in first, and Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (l) and Hanna Falk (r) in second and third, respectively. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
Falla went on to place second in the first quarterfinal, 0.71 seconds behind Sweden’s Stina Nilsson in first. According to the race jury’s ruling, Carl obstructed Pärmäkoski coming out of the last downhill before they entered the finishing straight and both crashed out of contention, with Pärmäkoski finishing fifth in the heat (+12.11) and Carl sixth (+49.5). Carl was relegated to last (30th place) for the obstruction.
Falla then won the first semifinal by just 0.04 seconds over Nilsson in second. The two other Swedes in that heat, Falk and Ida Ingemarsdotter, advanced to the final as well as lucky losers with fast-enough times.
In the final, Falla found herself at the front of the pack early then held her position to the finish, crossing the line in 2:54.83 and beating Nilsson by 0.36 seconds. Sweden had two on the podium with Falk in third (+0.78), Germany’s Sandra Ringwald placed fourth (+0.88), Ingemarsdotter was fifth (+1.83), and Switzerland’s Laurien van der Graaff placed sixth (+3.02).
Caldwell was the lone American woman to make it past the quarterfinals, as she placed second in her quarterfinal, 0.25 seconds behind Ringwald in first, then fourth in the second semifinal, 1.46 seconds behind Ringwald, who also won that heat. Overall, Caldwell finished the day in eighth.
Bjornsen placed 17th overall after finishing fourth in her quarterfinal, 2.84 seconds behind Falk in first. Sargent had been second in her quarterfinal until the final tight lefthand corner into the finishing straight, where she slipped to sixth and ultimately finished sixth, 1.07 seconds behind Sweden’s Anna Dyvik in first. Overall, Sargent finished the day in 27th, and Brennan placed 29th overall after finishing sixth in her quarterfinal, 4.91 seconds behind Ingemarsdotter in first.
Two American men advanced to the heats as well, with Kevin Bolger of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF) qualifying in 16th in his World Cup debut, 6.38 seconds behind Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who topped the qualifier in 2:59.06. Erik Bjornsen of the U.S. Ski Team qualified 29th, 8.29 seconds back.
Meanwhile, Pellegrino qualified for the heats in third (+1.9) behind France’s Baptiste Gros in second (+1.23).
There, Pellegrino won the first quarterfinal by 0.19 seconds over Klæbo, with the Norwegian visibly backing off before the finish — comfortable enough to automatically advance to the semifinals in second place. But Klæbo showed Pellegrino what he’s made of in the first semifinal and beat the Italian by nine-hundredths of a second.
Bolger also raced in that first semifinal after placing fourth in his quarterfinal, 0.73 seconds behind Russia’s Gleb Retivykh in first. Bolger’s time was good enough for one of two lucky loser spots in the semifinals, where he went on to finish sixth, 1.86 seconds after Klæbo. Overall Bolger finished the day in 11th.
Erik Bjornsen placed 20th on the day after finishing fourth in the first quarterfinal (with Pellegrino and Klæbo), 1.56 seconds out of first.
In the final, Klæbo set the tone, slowing the pace to almost a stop at one point, while he and Pellegrino stood side by side at the top of the course. On the way down, they accelerated, but Norway’s Sindre Bjørnestad Skar was the one who truly attacked. It might’ve been a bit too early, as Pellegrino caught him by the top of the final climb and took the lead on the following downhill into the stadium. Pellegrino held off his challengers, including Retivykh who came on strong out of the downhill, to take the win in 3:16.73, 0.77 seconds ahead of Retivykh in second and 0.9 seconds ahead of Klæbo in third. Skar settled for fourth (+1.3), Finland’s Ristomatti Hakola placed fifth (+1.44) and France’s Lucas Chanavat finished sixth (+7.55).
In the qualifier, Canada’s Dahria Beatty finished 34th, +13.39 and just 0.9 seconds from making the quarterfinals. She was the only Canadian woman competing.
American Kelsey Phinney (SVSEF) was also close to making the cut. In her first European World Cup, she placed 36th in the qualifier, +13.74. Caitlin Patterson and Kaitlynn Miller, both of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, placed 56th (+20.12) and 61st (+21.70).
Mathilde Petitjean of Togo, a primarily Quebec-based skier, finished in 59th (+20.80).
In the men’s qualifier, Logan Hanneman (APU) placed 49th (+11.45). Paddy Caldwell (U.S. Ski Team/SMS T2) finished 59th (+13.55), and APU’s Reese Hanneman and David Norris placed 61st (+14.33) and 67th (+19.27).
Julien Locke led Canada in 42nd place (+9.78), and Andy Shields finished 60th (+14.29).
American Chloe Levins racing to seventh in the junior women’s 7.5 k sprint on Saturday at IBU Junior World Championships in Otepää, Estonia. (Photo: Terri Dickson)
Poland’s Kamila Zuk won her second race in a row, taking gold in the junior women’s 7.5 k sprint after also winning the individual at World Junior Championships. Zuk had one penalty to two by second-place Marketa Davidova of the Czech Republic, who finished 26.0 seconds back. Bronze went to Myrtille Begue of France, who shot clean to finish 52 seconds back.
The sole U.S. starter, Chloe Levins followed up her sixth-place finish in the individual with seventh place in the sprint. Levins had a single penalty and finished +1:31.7.
For Canada, Megan Bankes was close behind Levins in ninth, with two penalties and +1:49.5. Teammate Nadia Moser was 21st, also with two penalties, +2:46.2. Emily Dickson finished 36th, +3:50.5 with two penalties, and Zoe Pekos just missed the pursuit cutoff in 66th (+6:22.4) with four missed shots.
In the junior men’s 10 k sprint, Vasilii Tomshin of Russia took the gold with perfect shooting. France’s Martin Perillat Bottonet was second, less than a penalty-loop’s worth of time back at 20.5 seconds – and he did have one penalty. Norway’s Sverre Dahlen Aspenes took bronze (+29.4) with two missed shots.
Trevor Kiers led Canada in 16th, a breakthrough result; his previous World Juniors best was 39th in the pursuit last season. Kiers missed two shots, both in prone, and finished 1:34.9 behind the time set by Tomshin.
Adam Runnalls placed 26th for Canada (+2:08.3) with three missed shots. Teo Sanchez also qualified for the pursuit by placing 53rd (+3:19.2) with one penalty, and Angus Tweedie was left on the outside looking in with 69th place (+4:41.3) with three missed shots.
Cody Johnson led the Americans in 37th, with clean shooting, 2:31.1 back from Tomshin’s time. Tim Cunningham was the next finisher in 71st (+5:13.5) with seven missed shots, followed by Jacob Pearson in 79th (+6:24.2) with two penalties and Cam Christiansen in 86th (+7:52.5) with three penalties.
A generation ago, North American cross-country skiing was a results-sheet afterthought with the exception of the one-off banner day.
Now, with Canada’s Alex Harvey and the U.S. Ski Team earning World Cup wins, podiums, and coveted points, expectations are high. Is it medal or go home?
Not quite. Breathe. Exhale.
On Tuesday night at the Alpensia cross-country venue, North American skiers put on a show. With Jessie Diggins making the finals and Canada’s Len Valjas skiing like he could reel in the ephemeral white whale, spectators and writers alike could also breathe and exhale, knowing good things come around eventually.
Asked in the mixed zone after the race if medals were still in the mix, Diggins turned to the media scrum before walking away and said, “I wouldn’t be racing here if they weren’t.”
In Tuesday’s qualifier, Diggins spearheaded a four-skier women’s U.S. Olympic team that skied one-by-one out of the start in tricky winds and pending precipitation.
Posting the fastest qualifying time was Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, covering the 1.2 k sprint course in 3:08.74 minutes (She would eventually move on to win the event’s gold-medal. Diggins was the leading U.S. skier in qualification, slotting into seventh place, 7.02 seconds off Nilsson’s time. Sadie Bjornsen placed ninth (+7.38) and Sophie Caldwell 12th (+8.32) in a qualifier featuring a 15.28-second spread from Nilsson to 30th-place Aino-Kaisa Saarinen of Finland.
The fourth U.S. starter, Ida Sargent, just missed the quarterfinals in 33rd. She finished 17.06 seconds behind Nilsson’s time.
Three American Women in the Quarterfinals
American Jessie Diggins (7) lunges for second in a photo finish in the women’s classic sprint semifinal on Tuesday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Diggins selected Heat 3 along with Sweden’s Hanna Falk, an eventual finalist. With her up-tempo double pole, Diggins set the standard immediately.
Into the first climb, which really served as an appetizer for the more significant and steeper climbing meal of the course’s second climb, Diggins took control. There was no doubt watching the speed-frenzy of Falk and Diggins that the sprinting duet would take it to the line, the rest of their heat left behind. It was Diggins-Falk down the final stretch then Falk-Diggins at the line. Falk placed first in 3:11.08, Diggins a camera-click behind in second (+0.16).
Post-qualifier, Caldwell chose the second heat, featuring Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla, the day’s second fastest qualifier, and Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter, who placed eighth in qualification.
“During heat selection I have tended to choose some of the first couple heats because it gives me more recovery and they tend to be faster, so I have a better chance of being a lucky loser,” Caldwell explained after the race. “Today I was toying back and forth whether to choose the fifth heat or the second because the fifth didn’t have as many people. But I really like following Maiken. She always sets down a fast heat so I just decided to go with what was working.”
Caldwell, who won the final World Cup sprint — a skate sprint — prior to the Olympics, didn’t need to fix what wasn’t broken. The U.S. Ski Team skier shadowed Falla.
“My strategy was to hop in behind [Falla] and stick with her,” Caldwell added. “And she definitely opened up a bit of gap over the top of the final hill, but I think I skied the downhill well.”
It’s a scorching downhill with a banked sweeping righthand corner that slingshots skiers into the tracks ahead. Down came Falla with a 10-meter gap on Caldwell. But Caldwell’s quick-stepping and gravity defying apex propelled her closer to Falla.
“I started to close in on her and then hopped in her draft on the finishing stretch and was able to finish right behind her,” Caldwell said of closing out her quarterfinal. “That sort of played out perfectly.”
Falla won the heat in 3:11.98, Caldwell was a close second, finishing 0.16 seconds behind.
Bjornsen chose the fourth heat along with Russian Yulia Belorukova and Norway’s Heidi Weng.
One aspect of U.S. women’s skiing that the U.S. Ski Team’s (USST) women’s coach Matt Whitcomb has preached over the years is to go out and take risks; to feel comfortable in the fact that coaches support skiers taking those chances. For the USST women, positive outcome chances have manifested in more confidence and a higher probability of podiums.
Bjornsen went out strong and carried the pacing of the chasing skiers. Her long smooth strides looked settled. In her post-race interview, Bjornsen said she believed the up and down nature of the women’s sprint course required a capacity for endurance.
American Sadie Bjornsen (9) leads into a climb in the women’s classic sprint quarterfinal on Tuesday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
“I think it’s more distance-type of sprinting,” Bjornsen said.
Bjornsen looked semifinal-bound as she hustled up the decisive climb and Belorokuva made her move over the last portion of the headwall.
But Norway’s Heidi Weng, who had looked uninspired on moving into the climb’s initial ramp, appeared to have learned a lesson from her male teammate, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. She ran up the outside of the main five-skier group. Belorokuva and Weng punched over the top of the hill in first and second, respectively.
“I probably should have paced it a little bit,” Bjornsen said after the race. “But I was really excited and I just wanted to see what I could do. Man, I was hurting the last 3/4’s of the hill for sure. I was trying to find that next skier and push it hard over the top but yeah probably the best skiing today is to save some energy for the top of that, because that is going to make the difference and your going to see the medals won right there.”
As a third-place finisher in her heat — behind the winner Belorukova and second-place Weng — Bjornsen could have moved on to the semifinals as a ‘lucky loser’ based on time. But her time was not fast enough.
Sadie Bjornsen (second from l) out of the tracks and ready to roll after the start of her quarterfinal heat, alongside Norway’s Heidi Weng (r) in the women’s 1.25 k classic sprint at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
“You know, it didn’t go as I dreamed, but the best races I have are when I just go out there and have no fear and send it from the front,” Bjornsen explained. “That was kind of my goal today. I’m not tactically the best skier in the world, but when I have a lot of guts things go well.
“Unfortunately it didn’t work as planned today,” Bjornsen continued. “I hit a bit of a slow patch on that final downhill and lost a position which I really needed but, I am really happy that I tried skiing like that and I definitely have a good feeling and I think there is a lot more to come.”
Bjornsen finished 14th overall.
Caldwell Sends It in the Semis
Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (r) and Sweden’s Stina Nilsson dual (l) battle for first in the women’s semifinal. Behind them, Sweden’s Hanna Falk (4) duels with U.S. skier Sophie Caldwell for third in the 1.25 k classic sprint on Tuesday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Despite the semifinal spotlight shining brightest on Nilsson and Falla, in her quarterfinal, Caldwell had proven she could match Falla’s speed burst as the Norwegian closed out the heat. In her semifinal, with Nilsson now playing alpha-sprinter, Caldwell would need to keep in contact up and over the final climb if she hoped of making a finals appearance.
“I think the pace felt a little harder,” Caldwell said of her semifinal. “I haven’t seen times — it could have just been it was one heat later so you are a little more tired. Maiken and Stina really put in a push over the top of that hill, and I feel like that’s where they opened a solid gap. I was hoping I would be able to reel them in on the downhill a little again, but it was just a big enough gap.”
Caldwell nearly caught the Nilsson-Falla train. With the Swede and Norwegian slightly ahead down the final straight, Falk and Caldwell hammered for fast times, hoping for a lucky loser finals berth.
Nilsson won the semi with Falla (+0.03), Falk (+0.62), and Caldwell (+0.80) crossing the line in blur. Falk was the second of two lucky losers to advance. Caldwell was eliminated, missing the lucky loser spot by 0.18 seconds once the times from the other semifinal had been tallied.
Sophie Caldwell (U.S. Ski Team) after one of the rounds in the women’s classic sprint on Tuesday at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
“Hanna out-doubled-poled me in the final stretch,” Caldwell said. “It definitely was frustrating being so close to lucky loser, but I was happy with the effort I put in and to be that close was good. I felt good out there, I was a little nervous about how I would feel because I don’t think I slept for a minute last night, I got so nervous.
“I wasn’t even nervous yesterday,” she continued. “As soon I laid down, my mind started racing and I was awake a lot of the night. But I think that’s good, that meant I was excited. I was happy with my feelings out there. I think any day you make it into the semifinal is a good day, and of course you always want more especially at the Olympics. But I think it’s important to take a step back and recognize that that was a really good day and especially for classic sprinting this year it might be my best result of the season, so I am happy.”
Diggins has made the Olympics her own stage. She nearly pulled out a medal in the 15 k skiathlon last Saturday. Her World Cup season has been peppered with sprint and distance highlights. So a Diggins-charge through the heats, even in a classic sprint, isn’t the story.
The story is that Diggins has set the bar so high that she expects herself to be in these moments; moments of tension where the high-stakes world of sport are cut and dry. Clearly Diggins belongs and it’s an environment in which she has thrived.
In her semifinal, it was a tight 1-2-3 with Russia’s Yulia Belorukova winning in 3:10.12 and Diggins stretched across the line for a photo finish with another Russian, Natalia Nepryaeva. Both skiers finished 0.60 seconds behind Belorukova, however, Diggins placed second, Nepryaeva third. While Diggins automatically qualified for the final, Nepryaeva advanced as well as the first lucky loser.
In the final, Nilsson stole the show with a statement win. She won her first career Olympic gold with an exclamation point. Falla placed second (+3.03), Belorukova third (+3.37), Nepryaeva fourth (+9.14), Falk fifth (+11.16), and Diggins sixth (+11.23).
“For me, just making the final has been a huge step forward,” a self-deprecating Diggins said after the race. “If you told me at the start of the year that I would make the Olympic classic sprint final, I would have been like, ‘Ha, that’s funny, good joke.’ So for me, just having my technique really click this year and having the confidence and the form to make it, has been a really big step forward, and I am really happy and proud of that.”
Having adjusted to the bright light and bump up in media attention on this Olympic stage, Diggins explained it was in fact an extremely taxing series of race efforts as she advanced through the evening.
“For my race today, yeah, I definitely didn’t recover quite enough coming from the second semifinal to the final,” she said. “I don’t know if I would have recovered enough even from the first semi. I had to dig pretty deep just to make it, but I am really happy with where my shape is overall and where my form is.
For sure, I was crumbling a little bit on that last monster climb and working hard to keep it upright and keep it together. But I went at it with everything I had,” she continued. “I really dug deep and I pushed myself hard and I am really really proud of this race today, I think it was a good one and I think it shows some good things to come.”
Women’s cross-country racing continues here in PyeongChang on Thursday with the 10 k freestyle — another Diggins canvas awaiting her brushmarks.
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (center) won gold in the classic sprint at the 2018 Olympics on Tuesday in PyeongChang, South Korea, with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (left) taking silver and Russia’s Yulia Belorukova bronze. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Tuesday at PyeongChang’s Alpensia cross-country venue, the site of the Olympic Games women’s 1.25-kilometer classic sprint, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson took gold. On an evening when athletes were already challenged by an aerobic capacity testing course, shifting winds and falling snow, another factor made the challenge debilitating.
Nilsson came into the Games well-rested and well-primed to take her first individual Olympic medal. The 24 year old had come close before; at her first Olympics, the Swede placed 10th in the freestyle sprint in Sochi, Russia. There, she went on to claim bronze in the classic team sprint with teammate Ida Ingemarsdotter.
A year later in Falun, Sweden, at World Championships, Nilsson placed second in the individual classic sprint. When you are close, you begin to think more about achieving a singular goal and less about overall season-long outcomes.
Nilsson last raced a World Cup the weekend of Jan. 20-21 in Planica, Slovenia, where she raced to 13th place in the 10 k classic. The day before, on Jan. 20, Nilsson took a small prize: a World Cup classic-sprint win.
In her run up to PyeongChang, Nilsson explained she was able to focus on her training and block out distractions.
“Not so much pressure the last weeks, because I have not been on the Internet so much,” Nilsson said at the post-race press conference. “And not on Instagram. So the most pressure comes from myself, and that’s the pressure that I have to deal with. But today I managed to control those feelings and just ski so fast as I can.”
With temperatures hovering around 25 degrees on Tuesday evening, Nilsson was unstymied by the gusting winds or falling snow in formulating the answer to her success equation. Starting with Tuesday’s qualifier in PyeongChang, Nilsson marked the fastest time, stopping the clock in 3:08.74 minutes. With Nilsson pushing the pace, she also scored a win in the quarters. Again in her semifinal, Nilsson placed first after dualing with the 2014 Sochi skate-sprint champion, Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (who also won the skate sprint at last year’s World Championships), in a photo finish.
“I had a really good day,” said Nilsson, a 2015 World Championships classic-sprint silver medalist. “I felt strong already in the prologue, and I felt also strong in the quarterfinal, and in the semifinal. I felt like I had some energy saved for the final.”
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson and teammate Hannah Falk (4) embrace after Nilsson won the classic sprint gold medal at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Lining up in the final trying to prevent Nilsson’s clean sweep on the day were Falla, Nilsson’s Swedish teammate Hannah Falk, American Jessie Diggins, and Russians Natalia Nepryaeva and Yulia Belorukova.
The energy Nilsson stated she had saved for the final was more than sufficient. Off the line she set the pace up the course’s first climb — a climb not steep enough to create big gaps and string out the field. The group stayed together with two skiers in the inside lane, three in the adjacent lane, and Diggins skiing outside the tracks and closing on the outside.
Topping out on the hill and taking a sharp 180-degree turn, Nilsson led but no skier pulled away. Down the hill, the six skiers tucked and glided and double poled into the course’s decisive climb with Belorukova then Falla the closet skiers to challenge.
The final hill is where Nilsson seized the day.
“I just wanted to cross the finish line totally tired, so I just went for it in the last uphill,” Nilsson said about her race tactics in the final. She carried considerable speed over the final climb and the gap grew to the two closest chasers, Falla and Belorukova.
“My plan was to save the most of the power until the last part of the [final] climb,” Falla, 27, said at the press conference. “But when the two others got a little gap in the first downhill, I used too much power in the first part of the climb. So in the top where I was planning to use all my power, there wasn’t that much left.”
Nilsson still had power to spare. She soloed off the front to win the final in 3:03.84 minutes. Falla took silver (+3.03), Belorukova, a 23-year-old Olympic rookie, bronze (+3.37).
In the post-race press conference, Belorukova was asked about the tense relationship between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Russian Ski Federation. The IOC banned numerous Russian skiers from PyeongChang for doping violations. Those Russian athletes competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics are not competing under the Russian flag, but as Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR).
“Good question,” Belorukova said through an interpreter. “There is nothing that will break us, there is nothing that will instill fear into us, we are strong and we will fight until the end.”
Nepryaeva ended up fourth (+9.14), Falk fifth (+11.16), and Diggins sixth (+11.23). FasterSkier will post an additional report on the U.S. women’s results.
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (center) won gold in the classic sprint at the 2018 Olympics, with Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla (left) taking silver and Russia’s Yulia Belorukova bronze. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
After winning the sprint qualifier by 0.39 seconds over defending gold medalist Maiken Caspersen Falla and then besting the Norwegian by 0.03 seconds in her semifinal, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson captured Olympic gold in a dominating performance in the classic sprint final, ultimately besting Falla by 3.03 seconds.
Falla had to fight to even keep silver, as Olympic Athlete of Russia Yulia Belorukova pushed the pace on the final uphill and came close to outsprinting Falla in the finishing straight. However, the 23-year-old Russian couldn’t quite sneak past and settled for bronze, 0.34 seconds behind Falla.
Jessie Diggins of the United States after finishing sixth in the classic sprint in PyeongChang. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Her teammate Natalia Nepryaeva finished fourth (+9.14 in the final), Sweden’s Hanna Falk fifth (+11.16), and the United States’ Jessie Diggins sixth (+11.23).
Diggins’s teammate Sophie Caldwell finished unlucky number eight, and based on time was the last woman not to make the final after finishing a close fourth behind Nilsson, Falla, and Falk in her semifinal. Both semifinal heats were fast, with one lucky loser coming from each, and Caldwell was 0.18 seconds off that time.
Also for the United States, Sadie Bjornsen finished third in her quarterfinal heat, 2.46 seconds behind Belorukova and also behind Norway’s Heidi Weng. That put her 14th on the day.
In the men’s final, it was a fight to the final uphill when 21-year-old Norwegian phenom Johannes Høsflot Klæbo ran away from the field over the top of the climb and sailed to the finish to become the youngest ever gold medalist in cross-country skiing at the Olympics. Alexander Bolshunov of Russia had matched Klæbo for most of the race but ran out of steam at the top, allowing Italy’s Federico Pellegrino to catch onto his tails before the downhill. While Klæbo widened his lead, Bolshunov and Pellegrino battled to the finish line and Pellegrino ultimately won in a photo finish, securing silver (+1.34) while Bolshunov took bronze (+1.36).
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won the men’s Olympic sprint in dominating fashion while Federico Pellegrino just edged Alexander Bolshunov for silver. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)
Norway’s Pål Golberg finished fourth (+3.81 in the final) and Sweden’s Oskar Svensson fifth (+7.73). Top qualifier Ristomatti Hakola of Finland didn’t have it in the final, finishing sixth (+20.72).
Canada’s Len Valjas finished third in his semifinal, but well off the pace (3.98 seconds behind Hakola) and did not advance as a lucky loser to the final. That put him seventh overall, Canada’s best result in two Olympic cycles.
Both American men, Erik Bjornsen and Simi Hamilton, were eliminated in the quarterfinals. Hamilton’s quarterfinal was marred by a crash involving nearly the entire group, and he ended up fourth with a slow time as a result, and landed 20th on the day. Bjornsen finished fifth in his heat, 1.63 seconds behind Klæbo in one of the tightest quarterfinals of the day, good for 25th overall.
Norway has now won both men’s gold medals in cross-country skiing, while Sweden has swept the women’s gold medals.
Sprint racing at the PyeongChang Olympics kicked off on Tuesday, with Sweden’s Stina Nilsson setting the pace in the women’s qualifier just 0.39 seconds ahead of defending Olympic champion Maiken Caspersen Falla of Norway.
The rest of the field couldn’t touch those two. Krista Parmakoski of Finland, the bronze medalist in the 30 k skiathlon, came closest, notching a time 3.56 seconds slower. Sweden’s Hanna Falk qualified fourth (+3.80), Slovenia’s KatjaVisnar fifth (+6.50), Olympic Athlete of Russia Natalia Nepryaeva sixth (+6.91), American Jessie Diggins seventh (+7.02), Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter eighth (+7.32), American Sadie Bjornsen ninth (+7.38), and Norway’s Heidi Weng tenth (+7.54).
For the United States, Sophie Caldwell also qualified for the quarterfinals in 12th position (+8.32). Ida Sargent, who recently had surgery on her thumb, did not, notching the 33rd-best time of the day – 17.06 seconds off the pace and 1.78 seconds out of the heats.
For Canada, Emily Nishikawa led the team in 34th, 2.73 seconds out of quarterfinals. Dahria Beatty finished 42nd (+21.03) and Cendrine Browne 51st (+25.56).
CU student Petra Hyncicova of the Czech Republic finished 45th (+23.29). APU’s Jessica Yeaton, racing for Australia, finished 48th (+24.27), and Aussie teammate Casey Wright (University of Alaska Anchorage) 63rd (+41.06). Canada-based Mathilde Petitjean of Togo finished 59th (+37.19).
In the men’s sprint qualifier, Ristomatti Hakola of Finland turned heads by posting a time that last year’s Sprint Cup champion Johannes Høsflot Klæbo of Norway could not beat. The Norwegian posted a time 0.19 seconds slower than the Finn.
The men’s field was much closer than the women’s, with just 9.51 seconds separating the top 30 finishers who would move on to the quarterfinals. The third qualifier was young Olympic Athlete of Russia AlexanderBolshunov (+1.66), with Italy’s MaicolRastelli a surprise fourth-place finisher (+2.78). Sweden’s Teodor Peterson qualified fifth (+3.01), Olympic Athlete of Russia Alexander Panzhinsky sixth (+3.09), Sweden’s OskarSvensson and Viktor Thorn seventh (+3.48) and eighth (+3.65), and Italy’s FedericoPellegrino ninth +4.64. Calle Halfvarsson notched the tenth-best time (+4.73) and gave Sweden four qualifiers in the top ten, while Klæbo was the lone Norwegian in the top ten.
For the United States, Simi Hamilton and Erik Bjornsen made the quarterfinals, qualifying in 19th (+7.59) and 29th (+9.15) respectively. Bjornsen actually tied for 29th with France’s Richard Jouve, making him the last man to make the cut, so to speak. Canada’s Len Valjas will be the lone representative of his country in either the men’s or women’s heats after qualifying 26th (+8.57).
Alex Harvey just missed the quarterfinals in a tie for 32nd (+9.41), with Canadian teammate Jesse Cockney close behind in 35th (+10.00). Russell Kennedy rounded out the Canadian team in 54th (+14.83).
For the U.S., Andy Newell was also on the outside looking in, placing 37th in the qualifier (+10.82). So was Logan Hanneman in 42nd (+12.20).
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson celebrates her third individual sprint victory of the season on Saturday in the World Cup classic sprint final in Planica, Slovenia. Behind her, Norway’s Kathrine Rolsted Harsem (third from l) placed second and Maiken Caspersen Falla (l) finished third and American Jessie Diggins (far r) placed fourth. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
PLANICA, Slovenia — With the Julian Alps and Mount Triglav, Slovenia’s highest peak, as a backdrop, it’s suitable to say the Planica Valley nordic course can be summed up in one word: burly.
A high mid-afternoon sun had illuminated the mountain range throughout the rounds for the World Cup women’s 1.4-kilometer classic sprint on Saturday, but by the time the six finalists lined up for the final heat, a few shadows were being recast onto the course.
At the sound of the gun, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson took the lead into the first downhill. Norway’s Kathrine Rolsted Harsem followed close behind. Maiken Caspersen Falla, also of Norway, dangled to the far right, while American Jessie Diggins hugged tightly to the inside left, just ahead of Sweden’s Anna Dyvik.
The third Norwegian in the final, Heidi Weng picked up the rear of the group through the corner that had seen at least one skier in the men’s quarterfinals fly into the blue net that fenced off the course. Diggins had also fallen on that corner during her warmup.
“It rattled my confidence,” Diggins said, referring to her warmup mishap. The American then took the corner more cautiously during her qualifier, which she felt was uncharacteristic of herself and and left her wanting more going into the day’s heats. (Diggins had qualified in 19th, 6.19 seconds behind Harsem’s winning qualifying time of 3:28.03.)
American Jessie Diggins leads Sweden’s Hanna Falk during their quarterfinal of the women’s classic sprint on Saturday at the World Cup in Planica, Slovenia. Diggins went on to place fourth overall in the final. (Photo: Salomon/NordicFocus)
“I am not a hesitant downhill skier at all,” Diggins explained. “So I was like, ‘All right, in the rounds I am not going to ski like a wimp,’ and I was really proud of myself for … taking something that had rattled me and put it away and then just ski the rest of the day.”
In the women’s final, Diggins maintained her position through the bottom of the sharp downhill corner and the brief double-pole section before the first uphill hiccup. As the pitch increased, Nilsson transitioned to striding and the rest of the field followed suit.
Pressure began mounting from the Norwegians as Harsem strode to Nilsson’s left and Caspersen Falla caught up to her right. A meter behind them were Diggins, Dyvik and Weng.
The group disappeared from the teleprompter for a moment as they moved under the wooden bridge spanning the course. When they reappeared, Harsem had overtaken the lead. Nilsson clung to the back of her skis.
Diggins, who had been skiing alone in the second inside track, switched lanes, maneuvering herself into second alongside Harsem and Nilsson. But as they descended into the second downhill, the Norwegian and Swede pulled slightly away.
Another corner and the six finalists were heading uphill again, Diggins was the only skier who chose the far outside track. The climb was the course’s most grueling uphill, and Harsem had used it to break away from her competition all afternoon.
In the final, it appeared Harsem would do the same as she strode powerfully to the front, looking to gap Nilsson and Falla. But the 28 year old had not factored in her teammate Falla’s own dig in the ups. Halfway up the hill, Falla, 27, changed tracks and was gunning for the lead.
By the time the group reached the hairpin turn that would lead them back down to the stadium, Falla was first, Harsem second, and Nilsson third. Chasing them around two meters away was Diggins, followed shortly by Dyvik and Weng.
As they descended, the Swede’s skis seemed to lose ground. A Norwegian battle for first looked to be in the cards. In the second group, Diggins continued to hold off Dyvik’s attempts to push past her for fourth.
With one final hill to go, Falla strode with a speedy turnover to the outside. But while the Norwegian’s legs swished through the tracks, the Swede was powering forward in a powerful double pole.
Three years younger than her Norwegian challenger, Nilsson, 24, had already won one of two classic sprints previously this season. On Saturday, she was looking to rack up another win (and her third individual victory of the season after winning a skate sprint in Davos, Switzerland).
The women’s classic sprint podium on Saturday in Planica, Slovenia, with Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (c) in first, and Norway’s Kathrine Rolsted Harsem (l) in second and Maiken Caspersen Falla (r) in third.(Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
She and Falla strode over the top of the final climb together, but heading into the final double pole to the finish, the Swede had made up her mind. The red World Cup sprint leader’s bib she was wearing would stay with her.
She double poled away from Falla and Harsem in the final 100 meters, crossing first in a time of 3:26.28. The win marked her fourth-career victory in a World Cup classic sprint and her 12th World Cup sprint win.
“I saw an opening there and took the chance,” Nilsson told Längd.se, according to a translation. “I think it worked very well technically.”
Crossing second, 1.27 seconds behind Nilsson was Harsem. The second-place finish was the Norwegian’s first World Cup podium ever.
“It’s amazing to be finally on the World Cup podium,” Harsem said, according to an International Ski Federation (FIS) press release. “I have been fourth a couple of times and seventh 100 times. It is very emotional for me. There have been many ups and downs in my career. I feel just amazing.”
Falla placed third, 1.81 seconds behind Nilsson. The defending Sprint World Cup champion, with 14 individual World Cup titles to her name, Falla was more critical of her own result.
“I did not really have it today. It’s good to be third but I will be headed home now and try to find shape for the Olympic Games,” Falla told FIS.
Diggins ended the day just off the podium in fourth (+3.81), while Dyvik was fifth (+4.45) and Weng sixth (+14.89).
“I feel like I just did the hardest interval ever,” Diggins told FasterSkier after. “But I think that’s great because going into the Olympics, it’s fun knowing that I have qualified and I made it to the finals in three out of four classic sprints this year; it is a good confidence booster.”
Though tired by the end of the day after rounding the course four times at a hard effort, Diggins indicated she found ways to keep herself relaxed and have fun.
“They played my absolute favorite songs all day I was doing a little salsa dance getting ready,” Diggins said with a laugh. “You do have to have fun, this is your life you have to enjoy it.”
Two Americans in Top 10
Rounding out the the top 10 was Russia’s Yulia Belorukova in seventh, Sweden’s Hanna Falk in eighth, American Sophie Caldwell in ninth, and Norway’s Mari Eide in 10th.
Sophie Caldwell (U.S. Ski Team) racing to 13th in the women’s classic sprint qualifier at the World Cup in Planica, Slovenia. She went on to reach the semifinals and place ninth overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
After qualifying in 13th, 5.38 seconds out of first, Caldwell advanced to the first quarterfinal, going head-to-head with Nilsson, Belorukova and Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen.
Caldwell skied strong through the first portion of the major climb, pacing toward the front with Nilsson, Belorukova and Norway’s Anna Svendsen. Just before the final hairpin turn, however, Nilsson and Belorukova charged. Caldwell pushed to maintain contact, but was edged out just before the final straightaway.
Her quarterfinal time was fast enough for her to earn the day’s second lucky loser spot, after Diggins advanced as the first lucky loser in third in her heat, behind Falk and Harsem.
Caldwell then advanced to the first semifinal, up against Falla, Nilsson, Belorukova, Falk, and Finland’s Krista Pärmäkoski. Caldwell was in the mix until halfway through the mjor course climb, when Nilsson, Falla and Belorukova began to push the pace.
“I think a lot of the classic courses now kind of have big steep hills that you do more of a run shuffle up,” Caldwell said. “[Today’s] was more power striding, which for me personally is definitely one of my weaknesses and something I’m working on.”
Caldwell finished her semifinal in fifth, 4.34 seconds behind Falla in first.
“I felt good, but it was definitely one of the hardest sprints I’ve ever done,” Caldwell said. “I don’t know if it felt that way because we’ve been racing some shorter ones lately and this one was quite a bit longer … but I’m happy with today.”
Sadie Bjornsen (U.S. Ski Team) racing to seventh in the women’s classic sprint qualifier at the World Cup in Planica, Slovenia. She went on to finish fifth in her quarterfinal for 21st overall. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Also for the U.S., Sadie Bjornsen placed 21st and Ida Sargent 23rd overall, after finishing fifth in their quarterfinals.
Reflecting on her qualifier, in which she qualified seventh (+4.10), Bjornsen said she finished “feeling like I had lost some time in the corners.”
“In my [quarterfinal] I felt like there was a lot of bouncing and trying to find a track and just trying to find a place to ski, so I was kind of depending on that final corner and climb into the finish,” Bjornsen said on the phone.
Her quarterfinal saw Falla and Pärmäkoski take the lead early on, but Bjornsen was positioned well within striking range as the group rounded the hairpin turn for the final descent.
The final descent and corner went smoothly for Bjornsen, but a tangle with Germany’s Sandra Ringwald caused her to crash out of contention. By the time Bjornsen reached the finishing stretch, Pärmäkoski and Falla had already locked up the top-two spots to automatically advance to the semifinals, and Bjornsen followed 8.81 seconds back in fifth.
“I had an awesome corner and then came into that final climb and unfortunately, Sandra just ended up falling on top of me, which was a bummer because I felt like I was really opening up there and finally had an opening,” Bjornsen said. “At the end of the day you just have to, for me, focus on what felt really good and channel that extra energy into some Olympic racing coming up here soon.”
Bjornsen did not race last weekend in Dresden, nor will she start Sunday’s 10 k classic in Planica.
“I just want to make sure I am fully recovered,” Bjornsen said of her decision to opt out of Sunday’s distance race.
“I actually think this going to work out really naturally well for me just to have one more week to absorb that enormous load and feel really fresh and quick and ready for next weekend,” she added.
The fourth American woman to qualify on Saturday was Sargent in 17th (+6.13).
“Warming up for the heats, I tried to do a little harder warm up to try to see if I could get my body going, but I was definitely feeling some fatigue,” Sargent said after. “It was a hard course to feel that way, so I’m looking forward to hopefully getting a little more energy for tomorrow.”
Three other American women’s also competed on Saturday, with Julia Kern finishing 43rd, Rosie Brennan 49th and Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) 53rd.
The finish of the women’s 6 x 1.2 k freestyle team sprint final, with Sweden II’s Maja Dahlqvist (near) celebrating her win ahead of Sweden I’s Stina Nilsson (c) and American Sophie Caldwell (l), who placed second and third, respectively, in a photo finish. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
DRESDEN, Germany — Just over 15,000 people gathered at the Elbe River bank on Sunday, some donned in sunnies and carrying sauce-laden brätwurst from pop-up food carts, though all took pause around 11:14:59 a.m. It wasn’t to take in the Altstadt baroque-style buildings that make up the city skyline, nor was it to bask in the bright, mid-morning sun hovering on the horizon.
A new attraction had come to the capital city, and all eyes were on it: the start of the International Ski Federation (FIS) women’s 6 x 1.2-kilometer freestyle team sprint. The city race organizers had trucked nearly 5,000 cubic meters of manmade snow to the grassy green bank, creating a skiing venue where one had never previously existed before. (Dresden has never before hosted a World Cup; the closest place to find natural snow being around 95 kilometers away).
Though it was the first of its kind, the crowd was still on edge as racers anticipated the snap of the gun for the women’s final. Even amid artificial conditions, the scene was naturally mystifying for onlookers.
With the gunshot, life roiled back into those in the stands and competitors became absorbed in the race for the win. Leading out Lap 1 was Ida Ingemarsdotter, racing for Sweden’s second team with Maja Dahlqvist (who placed third in Saturday’s individual skate sprint).
Ingemarsdotter was closely followed by her compatriot, Hanna Falk, who had won Saturday’s sprint and was racing for Sweden’s first team on Sunday. Hanna Kolb, racing for Germany I, Ida Sargent racing for U.S.A. I, and Alenka Cebasek racing for Slovenia, were all in hot pursuit.
Also on course was Nadine Fähndrich of Switzerland, Giulia Stuerz on Italy , Jessica Yeaton of Australia, Caitlin Patterson (U.S.A. II), and Katharina Hennig (Germany II).
U.S. Ski Team members Sophie Caldwell (l) and Ida Sargent after placing third in the World Cup freestyle team sprint on Sunday for their World Cup second podium together in the event. (They finished third in the pre-Olympic World Cup freestyle sprint last year in PyeongChang, South Korea.) (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Through the exchange it was Ingemarsdotter in first, Falk second, Kolb third, and Sargent fourth. Coming through in seventh was Patterson, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project, handing off to Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team).
“I think I tend to let myself accordion to much, so I had to watch that and really focus to stay in it,” said Patterson, who arrived in Dresden on Thursday after being crowned a four-time 2018 national champion last week in Anchorage, Alaska.
“Being efficient … keeping it together and keep[ing] it tight,” Patterson added, referring to her race strategy on Sunday. “Because I know Kikkan has so much experience in heats and she can really maneuver well; she did such a good move on the last leg of that semifinal to keep us in it.”
In the final, as Patterson handed off to Randall, while Sargent passed off to Caldwell (who had placed third in Saturday’s sprint). Still in the lead was Ingemarsdotter tagging to Dahlqvist, Kolb to her teammate Sandra Ringwald, and Falk to Stina Nilsson.
The women stayed in a close pack, but thanks in part to the cheers of a large fanbase behind her, Germany’s Ringwald had worked her way to the front. As the skiers approached their third exchange, Germany had taken over the lead. Following Ringwald was Caldwell in second and Slovenia’s Vesna Fabjan in third. Randall was also gaining ground and gave the race back to Patterson in sixth as the field headed into Lap 3 of 6.
Americans Sophie Caldwell (front r) and Kikkan Randall (14) racing together in the women’s 6 x 1.2 k freestyle team sprint final on Sunday at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany. USA I, with Ida Sargent (not shown) and Caldwell went on to place third, while USA II, with Caitlin Patterson (not shown) and Randall, finished eighth. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
“This is my first real racing weekend back and yesterday was a little frustrating because my body felt good but I just didn’t quite have the speed fully ready yet,” said Randall, who had pulled out of the Tour de Ski due to an ongoing issue with one of her foot tendons and has been working on recovering since. “So I am really glad I got the opportunity to race today.
“It was great to have Caitlin ski really strong and get into the final,” Randall added. “I just wanted to get six rounds and I did. It was fun, fast paced, and I am happy with the way I felt. Of course, it’s fun to have another team in the race, too, and kind of be working together a bit.”
Caitlin Patterson racing for USA II in the women’s 6 x 1.2 k freestyle team sprint on Sunday at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
As racers struck out into Lap 3, Switzerland’s Fähndrich was at the helm, which she held until she tagged off to her teammate Laurien van der Graff. The Swiss skiers had a smooth exchange and van der Graff was out front. Breathing down her neck behind her, however, were two Swedes: Nilsson and Dahlqvist. As the group approached the course’s most notable climb, Nilsson powered her way around van der Graff and to the front, Ringwald in tow.
With the fourth exchange coming into sight, the top two spots were with Sweden, Switzerland third. U.S.A. I was in fifth, U.S.A. II in eighth.
“It’s hard to pass, so we definitely wanted to stay toward the front,” Caldwell said of her and Sargent’s plan heading into the final. “It’s such a short and fast course that anything can happen and I think it is always fun to be right there in the mix.”
With just two laps to go, Falk, who came out of the exchange first, began to push the pace, while Fähndrich, Sargent and Ingemarsdotter chased her down. Though Falk had put a bit of a gap on the field by the course’s turn heading back to the stadium, it had closed by the course’s single climb. Here, Fähndrich made her move and maneuvered around Falk to the front.
After the fifth exchange and heading into the final lap, the two Swedes, van der Graff, and Caldwell tried to separate themselves from the rest of the teams in the final. But within a few meters three more teams — Slovenia, and Germany I and II — had rejoined them.
As they approached the aforementioned uphill, Nilsson went for it, propelling herself to the front. Dahlqvist went with her, and Caldwell dodged to van der Graff’s left, pulling a hard V1 to get around the Swiss skier. Approaching the finish, it was Dahlqvist to the far right, Nilsson in the middle and Caldwell to the left.
The women’s 6 x 1.2 k freestyle team sprint podium at Sunday’s World Cup in Dresden, Germany, with Sweden II’s Ida Ingemarsdotter and Maja Dahlqvist in first (c), Sweden I’s Stina Nilsson and Hanna Falk in second (l), and USA I’s Sophie Caldwell and Ida Sargent in third (r). (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Both Swedes appeared to have an edge on Caldwell, but the American made a gritty final few pushes and all three lunged for the line. Dahlqvist was just ahead and took it by 0.16 seconds over Nilsson, and Caldwell placed third for the second day in a row, just 0.07 seconds out of second place and 0.23 seconds out of first. Sweden’s No. 2 team had won it with a cumulative time of 13:33.40, about four seconds faster than the fastest semifinal.
“I was actually left wishing the finish was a little longer, which I don’t know if I have ever said about a race before,” Caldwell, who leans toward sprint disciplines, said after the race. “Ida skied awesome and I was proud with how I skied, so it’s really fun when you feel like both legs kind of do their best and you get a good result to celebrate that with.”
Finishing in fourth (+2.11) was Germany I, Slovenia placed fifth (+4.46), Germany II placed sixth (+4.62), Switzerland (+5.09) USA II eighth (+7.95), Italy I ninth (+10.89) and Australia 10th (+27.53).
To start the day, Sweden I, with Falk and Nilsson had won the first semifinal in 13:37.97, by 0.17 seconds over Sweden II’s Ingemarsdotter and Dahlqvist. The top-six teams from that heat qualified for the final, with Switzerland in third, Italy in fourth, Slovenia in fifth, and Australia in sixth.
The American teams took the top two in the second semifinal, with Sargent and Caldwell winning 13:46.51, and Patterson and Randall following in second, 0.11 seconds back. Germany I and Germany II qualified from that heat as well with fast-enough times.
Sunday marked the first and last team sprint of the season so far before the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, where a freestyle team sprint will be contested on Feb. 21.
The World Cup has two more weekends of racing before the Olympics, with all-classic races next weekend in Planica, Slovenia (classic sprint and 10/15 k classic individual starts), followed by freestyle races in Seefeld, Austria, on Jan. 27-28 (skate sprints and 10/15 k freestyle mass starts).
— Ian Tovell and Alex Kochon contributed reporting
The women’s 6 x 1.2 k freestyle team sprint podium at Sunday’s World Cup in Dresden, Germany, with (from left to right) Sweden I’s Hanna Falk and Stina Nilsson in second, Sweden II’s Ida Ingemarsdotter and Maja Dahlqvist in first (c), and USA I’s Ida Sargent and Sophie Caldwell in third (r). (Screenshot: ZDF broadcast)
Kaisa Makarainen of Finland celebrates winning the women’s 12.5 k mass start in Ruhpolding, Germany, as Laura Dahlmeier (Germany) is second, Veronica Vitkova (Czech Republic) third, and Rosanna Crawford (Canada) fourth. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)
IBU Biathlon World Cup (Ruhpolding, Germany): 12.5/15 k mass starts
Kaisa Makarainen of Finland took her first win of the season and will start next weekend with the overall World Cup leader’s bib after she outsprinted Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier by 0.8 seconds to claim the win in the 12.5 k mass start. In a tight race for third, Veronica Vitkova of the Czech Republic edged out Rosanna Crawford of Canada for the final spot on the podium; the pair crossed the line 4.6 and 5.2 seconds behind Makarainen. The podium finishers all had two penalties apiece while Crawford shot clean, repeating the 20-for-20 effort that netted her third place and her first-ever podium in the 15 k individual earlier this week. Germany’s Denise Herrmann was sixth, +16.7 seconds, despite four missed targets.
In the men’s 15 k mass start, Norway’s Johannes Thingnes Bø took a win over France’s Martin Fourcade as the pair continue their running battle this season. Bø had one penalty to Fourcade’s two, although that penalty came in the last shooting stage to make things interesting – Fourcade, whose penalties had come in the prior shooting stage, closed to within 4.5 seconds by the finish, but was unable to beat the Norwegian. Antonin Guigonnat, one of the newest members of the French World Cup team, shot 20-for-20 to claim third place and his second podium of the season. In an exciting race, the top nine men all finished within 15 seconds of one another. The sole U.S. entry, Tim Burke, was in the top 15 for much of the race before missing two shots in the final standing shooting stage and finishing 21st, +1:30.2
The women’s 6 x 1.2 k freestyle team sprint podium at Sunday’s World Cup in Dresden, Germany, with Sweden II’s Maja Dahlqvist and Ida Ingemarsdotter in first (c), Sweden I’s Hanna Falk and Stina Nilsson in second (l), and USA I’s Ida Sargent and Sophie Caldwell in third (r). (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Dresden, Germany): 6 x 1.2 k freestyle team sprint
For the second-straight day in Dresden, Sophie Caldwell notched third place and was nearly second with U.S. teammate Ida Sargent on Sunday in the World Cup women’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle team sprint.
The race ended in a three-way fight for first, which Sweden II’s anchor Maja Dahlqvist took by 0.16 seconds over Sweden I’s Stina Nilsson. While the two lunged for the line, Caldwell came on strong to give them a run as well, finishing just 0.23 seconds back in third (after being in a photo finish for second).
Earlier in the day, Sargent and Caldwell had won the second semifinal to advance to the 10-team final. The U.S. Ski Team’s second team, Caitlin Patterson and Kikkan Randall, finished second in that heat, just 0.11 seconds back and advanced as well.
Sweden I won the first semifinal with Hanna Falk (Saturday’s individual skate-sprint winner) and Nilsson. Sweden II finished 0.17 back in second with Ida Ingemarsdotter and Dahlqvist.
In the final, Sweden II’s Ida Ingemarsdotter led through her first two legs before tagging Dahlqvist in third with one lap to go. Meanwhile, Sargent tagged Caldwell in fourth, 0.9 seconds back. On the final lap, with Switzerland, the two Swedish teams, and USA I’s Caldwell skiing together up front, they dropped Switzerland’s Laurien van der Graaff before the finish and went all out for first.
Dahlqvist took it for Sweden II in 13:33.4, Sweden I placed second and USA I third. The same duo of Caldwell and Sargent placed third in the pre-Olympic freestyle team sprint last year in PyeongChang, South Korea. There, Sargent also placed third in a classic sprint for her first World Cup podium. Sunday marked Caldwell’s fourth individual World Cup podium (sixth including team events).
USA II was up to sixth after Randall’s first leg, just 0.5 seconds out of first, and remained 1.8 seconds behind the leaders with two laps to go. On the second-to-last leg, Patterson tagged Randall in ninth, and Randall anchored them to eighth (+7.95).
Germany I finished fourth (+2.11) with Hanna Kolb and Sandra Ringwald, Slovenia was fifth (+4.46) with Alenka Cebasek and Vesna Fabjan, Germany II was sixth (+4.62) with Katharina Hennig and Elisabeth Schicho, and Switzerland seventh (+5.09) with Nadine Fähndrich and van der Graaff.
The men’s 6 x 1.2 k freestyle team sprint podium at Sunday’s World Cup in Dresden, Germany, with Italy’s Dietmar Nöckler and Federico Pellegrino in first (c), Sweden’s Emil Jönsson and Teodor Peterson in second (l) and Russia’s Andrey Krasnov and Gleb Retivykh in third (r). (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
In the men’s race, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo teamed up with Kasper Stadaas, and the two won their semifinal by 0.26 seconds over Italy’s Dietmar Nöckler and Saturday’s winnerFederico Pellegrino. The U.S. men’s first team of Erik Bjornsen and Simi Hamilton advanced to the final as the last lucky loser in the second semifinal, where they placed fourth, 0.85 seconds behind Russia I’s Andrey Krasnov and Gleb Retivykh in first. Sweden I (Emil Jönsson and Teodor Peterson) and Sweden II (Johan Häggström and Karl-Johan Westberg) also advanced in second and third in that heat.
In the final, which included Great Britain for the first time in team-sprint history (after James Clugnet and Andrew Young clinched the last lucky loser spot in the first semifinal in sixth place), Stadaas set a fast pace on the opening 1.2 k loop. He tagged Klæbo in first, 0.3 seconds ahead of Sweden I, while the U.S. hung in contention 0.9 seconds back in fifth.
Norway continued to lead until Stadaas’s second lap, where Russia’s Krasnov came through the third exchange first, 0.1 ahead of Switzerland’s Jovian Hediger in second. Stadaas tagged Klæbo in fourth, 0.5 seconds back, and Klæbo predictably recovered the lead on the next lap.
After he gave Stadaas a 1.3-second lead at the fourth exchange, Stadaas initially ran with it and extended it significantly. But he ran out of steam on the second half of his last loop and dropped to 10th (last place), 3.7 seconds out of first by the final exchange.
There, Jönsson tagged Peterson in first, 0.9 seconds ahead of Hediger in second. Bjornsen had brought the U.S. to third, 2 seconds back, after leading the chase group in second as they reeled in Stadaas.
On the final lap, Pellegrino came on strong in the last few hundred meters, just as he had done in Saturday’s individual sprint, to take the win for Italy in 12:18.3. Peterson anchored Sweden I to second place, 1 second back, and Russia’s Retivykh took third (+1.2), just ahead of Switzerland’s Roman Schaad in fourth (+1.4).
Hamilton suffered a nasty crash in the middle of the group just before the finish and crossed the line in eighth (+14.2).
Klæbo finished fifth for Norway (+1.9), with Sweden II in sixth (+1.9). Italy II (Stefan Zelger and Giacomo Gabrielli) followed in seventh (+7.3), Great Britain placed ninth (+14.6), and Switzerland II (Erwan Käser and Roman Furger) 10th (+20.9).
This is the last team sprint before a freestyle team sprint is contested at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.
The women’s freestyle sprint podium on Saturday at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany, with Sweden’s Hanna Falk (c) and Maja Dahlqvist (l) in first and second, and American Sophie Caldwell (r) in third. (Photo: Fischer/Nordic Focus)
In Sophie Caldwell’s quarterfinal heat of the World Cup skate sprint in Dresden, Germany, she led from start nearly to finish. In the final 200 meters she was passed by Sweden’s Hanna Falk, but won a photo finish for second place and advanced to the semifinals.
In that quarterfinal heat, the U.S. Ski Team member had finished just 0.24 seconds behind Sweden’s Falk.
As the racing got even tighter in the semifinals and final, it became more difficult to shoot off the starting line and into first place. Caldwell spent much of those heats boxed in the middle or even the back of her six-woman heats, partly on purpose, but advanced to the final as a “lucky loser” anyway.
American Sophie Caldwell (11) leads Sweden’s Hanna Falk (1), Germany’s Hanna Kolb (21), France’s Aurore Jean (27), and others during their 1.2 k freestyle sprint quarterfinal on Saturday at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
“Sophie really executed the way she wanted to all day,” U.S. Ski Team Head Coach Chris Grover said. “She was in control of her quarterfinal, and then when she got to the semifinal, she purposely wanted to relax a little bit… same thing in the final. She was not going to, like, burn a match early. She was going to relax, be in the draft, save a little bit of energy early, and look to make a move.”
By the end of the final, despite skiing from the back instead of the front, Caldwell’s margin to Falk was almost the same as it had been in the quarterfinal, this time 0.30 seconds.
Falk took the win while Caldwell finished third, earning her second podium of the year.
“It was pretty frantic, and in the final I didn’t have a great start,” Caldwell said. “I found myself in the back and it’s easy to waste a lot of energy being in the back and trying to move up, so I tried to be patient and pick people off when I could. But you also kind of have to capitalize on those opportunities when they come, so I just tried to be patient and pick people off. There was a fall that I dodged, which worked to my advantage, and so I am really happy with it.”
The crash belonged to Sweden’s Stina Nilsson, the favorite to win the final even though Falk had the fastest qualifying time. Near the end of the race loop Nilsson tripped and went down, with Caldwell and Switzerland’s Laurien van der Graaf splitting to go around her, one of each side.
“The crash happened right in front of me,” Caldwell said in a U.S. Ski & Snowboard press release. “But I managed to avoid it and then put in a big push to maintain contact with the leaders.”
That liberated Caldwell from the back of the field, although she still had work to do to get near the front. From the beginning of the heat, Falk, Nilsson, and Swedish teammates Anna Dyvik and Maja Dahlqvist had controlled the pace.
Sweden’s Hanna Falk (1) edges her teammate Maja Dahlqvist (l) and American Sophie Caldwell (r) in the women’s 1.2 k freestyle sprint final on Saturday at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany. (Screenshot: ZDF broadcast)
As the meters ticked down to the finish, Caldwell finally was able inch towards the lead.
“Where she ended up making that move, under the bridge, was a targeted strategy of hers,” Grover said.
Coming into the finish, everyone except Nilsson was still in it, and the five women all crossed the line within 0.68 seconds of one another. Falk, though, managed to stay clear of the pack and take her first win since 2010.
“I think I was a little unfocused in the start in the semifinal, so in the final I really tried to focus on the start,” she said in a finish-line interview with FIS’s Jeff Ellis. “Then I took the front, and it was just to push hard… I really like this kind of city sprint. It was a good day for me. I have all my family and fans from Ulricehamn here cheering for me here, so it was a good day.”
Dahlqvist claimed second (0.23), van der Graaf fourth (+0.58), and Dyvik fifth.
Sophie Caldwell’s last podium came just two weeks ago, where she finished second in the 1.5 k sprint in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
While pursuing a completely different strategy from Falk in the final, Caldwell proved that there are many ways to the right position, as long as you play your cards right.
“I am really psyched to be here,” Caldwell said. “ I’ve never had great results in Period 1 in the past, so I was really happy to have made the semifinals in all three of the sprints. I considered it a really strong start, but I was left wanting more.”
She is following up a second-place finish in the skate sprint in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, which kicked off the Tour de Ski. But Caldwell fell ill partway through the Tour, and didn’t start the (later-canceled) classic sprint in Oberstdorf, Germany.
“I woke up sick the morning of the sprint in Oberstdorf, so I was sick for a week,” she explained. “I am actually still clearing things out, but energy-wise I felt good the past few days. Today was going kind of be a test to see how I felt, and I guess I was well rested. It felt good.”
She is now third in the Sprint Cup behind Nilsson and Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla, who did not race in Dresden.
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson (2) winning the second semifinal just ahead of her teammates Hanna Falk (1) and Maja Dahlqvist (not shown) and American Sophie Caldwell (not shown). Dahlqvist placed second, Caldwell third and Falk fourth in that heat. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
City sprints aren’t so unusual; they have been held in Drammen, Norway, for many years straight, with other venues like Stockholm, Dusseldorf, Milan, and Quebec City coming and going from the schedule.
But even for a city sprint, this course was particularly flat, short, and fast, which played to some athletes’ strengths and left others just trying to do their best to get by.
“It was a really funny course a lot different than anything we have ever done — by far the shortest I have ever done and flattest,” Caldwell said.
Her American teammate Ida Sargent qualified in 14th position, a new experience on such a course.
“It’s a weird course,” she said. “It’s fast and flat. Not at all my favorite kind of sprint race. I just went into it looking at it as a challenge and an opportunity to improve on some of the things that are not really my strengths. So I’m pretty psyched with the qualifier to be right up there, on a course where I feel like a year or two ago I definitely wouldn’t have qualified on. That was exciting.”
Like Caldwell, Sargent led out her quarterfinal heat. And like Caldwell, she got swept up at the end of it, with her competitors using a small uphill and a subsequent downhill to shoot into the finishing straights. She couldn’t hang on to the top two and finished fourth in the heat, 0.43 seconds behind Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter.
That put her 17th on the day.
“Coming into the finish, it was pretty fast and I wasn’t quite ready for that,” she said. “I should have switched to V2 sooner, and I felt like it was all over the place. So I’m kind of kicking myself.”
“Ida had a great start, took control, skiing how she wanted to ski, just ran out of gas at the end,” Grover said. “And I think it was a course where there’s no rest, it’s continuous effort – if V2’ing hard, V2 alternate-ing hard, if that isn’t your deal, then you could run out of gas at the end.”
Both Sargent and Caldwell thought it was important to start well on this course, even though in the semifinal and final Caldwell managed to succeed without ever leading.
“It’s really narrow and hard to pass,” Caldwell said. “It was pretty easy to sense when people were coming up, so I think people were guarding their space. That made it even harder to pass. When I was leading my quarterfinal I got to do some of that, and then when I wasn’t leading it was frustrating sometimes — you would see people bouncing around out there trying to make moves.”
“There’s room to move up, but it’s definitely big decisive moves,” Sargent agreed. “I just got out fast [in the quarterfinal] and tried to stay in my rhythm at the beginning. I could feel the others coming up and I would just try to increase the pace whenever I could feel someone coming up so I could keep control.”
Kikkan Randall (U.S. Ski Team) racing to 34th in the 1.2 k freestyle sprint qualifier on Saturday at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Also starting for the U.S., Kikkan Randall narrowly missed qualifying for the quarterfinals in 34th, 6.57 seconds behind Falk’s time and 0.6 seconds behind 30th-place Giulia Stuerz of Italy.
Randall, Caldwell, and Sargent are now looking forward to the Olympic Games, which begin in less than a month. Sargent sealed her qualification with that 17th-place finish, as she is now ranked 13th in the Sprint Cup, well within the top-50 designation required by the U.S. Ski Team.
“I am looking forward to the Olympics,” Caldwell said in a post-race press conference. “It has been a strong year for me, and especially for my whole team. We are going to compete as a team to win the first medal for the U.S. women in Olympics, and I am proud to be on the team.”
Julia Kern (U.S. Ski Team/Stratton Mountain School) racing to 38th in the women’s 1.2 k freestyle sprint qualifier at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
Julia Kern finished 38th (+7.78) and Caitlin Patterson 40th (+8.56).
“We had an uncharacteristically poor qualification,” Grover said. “I have a feeling it was a combination of things… Just over two minutes for women and men a minute fifty, I think that might have been a little bit of a shock to the system. I couldn’t tell if our group was a little flat, or [this race is] just so uncharacteristic, something that we don’t really prepare for because it’s that much more on the anaerobic side instead of a mix of aerobic and anaerobic like we’re used to for a sprint.
“Anyway, to have Erik Bjornsen just miss the qualification, to have Kikkan just miss the qualification, to have the four athletes who did go in not have the best qualifications, something was a little bit missing,” he concluded.
In Sunday’s team sprint, Sargent and Caldwell will team up, with Randall and Patterson forming the second U.S. team in a field of 20 entries.
Caitlin Patterson (Craftsbury Green Racing Project) racing to 40th in the women’s freestyle sprint qualifier at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany. (Photo: Fischer/NordicFocus)
The women’s freestyle sprint podium on Saturday at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany, with Sweden’s Hanna Falk (c) and Maja Dahlqvist (l) in first and second, and American Sophie Caldwell (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Dresden, Germany): Freestyle sprints
For her second-straight World Cup sprint, Sophie Caldwell of the U.S. Ski Team reached the podium in the women’s 1.2-kilometer freestyle sprint on Saturday in Dresden, Germany.
Caldwell placed third in the final behind Sweden’s Hanna Falk, who won it in 2:11.02 minutes, and Maja Dahlqvist, also of Sweden, who placed second (+0.23). Caldwell and Dahlqvist both lunged in a photo finish for second, which Dahlqvist took by 0.07 seconds.
Also in the final, which included four Swedes, Switzerland’s Laurien van der Graaff finished fourth (+0.58), and Sweden’s Anna Dyvik followed in fifth (+0.68) and Stina Nilsson sixth (+7.56) after tripping.
Falk started the day by winning the women’s qualifier in 2:06.34, by just 0.02 seconds over Nilsson in second. Caldwell qualified 11th (+2.02). and another American Ida Sargent made it into the heats in 14th (+2.44). Kikkan Randall missed the top 30 by 0.6 seconds in 34th (+6.57), Julia Kern placed 38th (+7.78), and Caitlin Patterson, of the Craftsbury Green Racing Project (CGRP), was 40th (+8.56) out of 49 women in the qualifying round.
Sargent finished fourth in her quarterfinal, 043 seconds behind Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter in first, to finish the day in 17th overall.
For Caldwell, who went on to advance in second in her quarterfinal and third in her semifinal, the podium came after she finished second in the last World Cup skate sprint (the first stage of the Tour de Ski) on Dec. 31 in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
Her boyfriend and fellow U.S. Ski Team member Simi Hamilton came close to reaching the men’s 1.2 k sprint final on Saturday after qualifying in 15th then placing second in his quarterfinal and fifth in the second semifinal, 0.38 seconds behind Sweden’s Emil Jönsson in first.
France’s Lucas Chanavat won the qualifier in 1:50.42, 0.15 seconds ahead of Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo in second. Hamilton was 4.32 seconds back in the qualifier, and his U.S. teammate Andy Newell also qualified in 18th (+4.91). Erik Bjornsen missed qualifying by 0.23 seconds in 32nd (+6.15) and Ben Lustgarten (CGRP) finished 49th (+8.64) out of 67 men.
The women’s freestyle sprint podium on Saturday at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany, with Italy’s Federico Pellegrino (c) in first, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (l) in second, and France’s Lucas Chanavat (r) in third. (Photo: FIS Cross Country/Twitter)
While Hamilton’s day ended in the semifinals, putting him 10th overall (and Newell finished sixth in his quarterfinal to place 27th overall), Italy’s Federico Pellegrino timed his attack perfectly in the final, challenging Klæbo for the win down the finishing stretch. The Italian took it by 0.18 seconds in 1:52.77, Klæbo placed second and Chanavat third (+0.98).
France and Norway had two men in the final, with France’s Richard Jouve placing fourth (+1.23), Sweden’s Jönsson taking fifth (+2.36) for his best individual World Cup result since December 2016. Norway’s Even Northug finished sixth (+12.04) after breaking his pole out of the start.
Canada’s Julien Locke of the National U25 Team and Black Jack Ski Club had a career-best day, finishing 15th overall. He qualified 16th (+4.61) then placed third in his quarterfinal, crossing the line just 1 second behind Norway’s Fredrik Riseth, who won that heat. Hamilton was second in that quarterfinal, 0.67 seconds back.
Also for Canada, Bob Thompson (NTDC Thunder Bay) finished 50th in the qualifier (+8.67), Dominique Moncion-Groulx (Alberta World Cup Academy) was 59th (+9.99) and Antoine Briand (Pierre-Harvey National Training Centre) 60th (+10.12).
Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier, Franziska Preuss, Denise Herrmann and Franziska Hildebrand (left to right) celebrating their win in the women’s 4×6-kilometer relay at the 2018 IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. (Photo: IBU/Biathlonworld)
IBU World Cup (Ruhpolding, Germany): Women’s relay
The teams from Germany and Italy dueled for the top position all race in Saturday’s 4 x 6-kilometer women’s relay at the IBU World Cup in Ruhpolding, Germany. Cheered on by some 20,000 home-crowd fans, Germany’s anchor Laura Dahlmeier stayed on the ski tails of Italy’s Federica Sanfilippo after the last shooting stage, then passed her before the last major climb and held a narrow lead around the rest of the course to cross the finish line first in a time of 1:08:47.0 hours, with Italy 2.9 seconds behind. German had a team total of zero penalties and nine spares.
“It’s incredibly fun to win in front of this audience here today,” Dahlmeier told German broadcaster ZDF in an interview right after the race, according to a translation. “I think this will boost our whole team morale. We showed today that we are a team to be reckoned with in relays. It was just a nice race.”
Germany with Franziska Preuss, Denise Herrmann, Franziska Hildebrand, and Dahlmeier was never more than 30 seconds behind the pace, even though Hildebrand temporarily fell back from leading the field to tagging off to Dahlmeier in fourth position.
“My race held all kinds of surprises today,” Hildebrand told ZDF with a laugh. “It started with a fall on an icy patch 100 meters after it began… Then I dropped my pole, also had to exchange the replacement one, and then three spares [in prone] to avoid the penalty. Today everything conspired in my race.”
Italy with Lisa Vittozzi, Dorothea Wierer (coming off a victory in the individual race on Thursday), Nicole Gontier and Sanfilippo had the best shooting performance of the day, with no penalty and just three spares.
“That last loop with Laura was really tough,” Sanfilippo said in the press conference. “I gave my best, I tried all for my team. I knew that I can be strong on the last loop. I tried to attack, but Laura was a little bit stronger. But I am also really happy that we finished in second place, I think that was really important for our team.”
Sweden with Linn Persson, Mona Brorsson, Anna Magnusson and anchor Jenny Öberg was third, 17.2 seconds back, with no penalty and five spares. Brorsson and Öberg managed to move the team up to the podium positions, for the second one in a row following a third place from Oberhof, Germany, a week ago. Before that, the Swedish women’s team had been on a six-year hiatus from those lofty positions.
“It’s cool to be on the podium again,” Persson said in the press conference.
“This is like our second home and there were a lot of Swedes here, so we had big support during the race on the tracks,” Brorsson added.” That was an advantage for us.”
Just a few seconds off the podium, Norway with Synnøve Solemdal, Tiril Eckhoff, Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and Marte Olsbu was fourth (+23.1, with no penalty and nine spares), with Olsbu outsprinting Poland’s anchor Weronika Nowakowska on the finish stretch (+24.5, with no penalty and five spares). For both teams it was their best relay result of the season so far.
Switzerland with the three sisters Elisa, Selina and Aita Gasparin reinforced by Lena Häcki surprisingly led the race at the third exchange after Selina had moved them in front, but her youngest sister Aita could not hold that position, falling back with a penalty lap in the last standing stage to finish eighth (+1:37.1, with one penalty and 11 spares).
Biathlon Canada’s team of Emma Lunder, Julia Ransom, Sarah Beaudry, and Rosanna Crawford started the race with a setback after Lunder incurred a penalty in her prone stage, leaving the range in 23rd position at the end of the field and already almost a minute behind the leader. She managed to limit the gap with a clean standing stage to exchange still in 23rd position and 1:47 back.
Taking over Ransom then remained clean in both stages to move the team up to 17th, tagging off 2:14 behind. Beaudry only required one spare in her prone stage (0+1, 0+0) to improve to the 12th position even making up 3 seconds to the leaders.
Then Crawford, fresh off her first career podium in the individual race on Thursday, managed to also shoot clean in both stages and overtook the teams from Slovakia and Ukraine while further decreasing the gap to finish the race in 10th position, 1:56.7 back, with one penalty and just four spares.
“Things were a bit softer and slushy today compared to the individual, but nothing too bad,” Crawford commented on the conditions in an email to FasterSkier. “There was quite a bit of wind on the range, which I think was tricking people, the wind flags weren’t showing much but I had to make 6 left correction during zero [target practice].”
“Today was a solid showing from our team,” she added regarding their result. “Everyone cleaned standing, I think we can be really happy of this race, and take some real confidence going into the Olympic relay.”
Previously this season Canada had finished the relay in Oberhof, also Germany, in 14th position, and the first one in Hochfilzen, Austria, in ninth.
For US Biathlon with Susan Dunklee, Clare Egan, Emily Dreissigacker, and Joanne Reid, it was the first women’s relay of the year after missing out on the first two races of the season in this discipline.
Thus starting at the very end of the field, veteran Dunklee moved up through the pack and got through the prone stage with one spare. But then she had to fight against a penalty lap in her standing stage requiring all three spare rounds, leaving the range in 12th position. With the fastest course time on the opening leg, she managed to slightly decrease the gap to 21.6 seconds and made up three positions to exchange in ninth place.
Egan missed the first two shots in her prone stage, but hit the targets with her spares leaving the range over a minute back. She followed that up by cleaning her standing stage and left the range 1:29.5 back, then only lost five more seconds on the last loop to exchange in 14th.
Dreissigacker also needed just one spare in her prone shooting, but then incurred two penalties in her standing stage, doubling the gap and falling back to 19th position at the exchange and 3:51 back.
Anchor Reid needed three spares on her leg (0+2, 0+1) and managed to still overtake the teams from China and Finland to finish 17th, 4:57.7 behind Germany, with two penalties and 13 spares overall.
“Finally we had a full team and raced a relay!” Dunklee wrote on Instagram. “Competing on a foreign continent has its challenges.”
Ski Classics (Seefeld, Austria): 60 k Kaiser Maximilian Lauf
The men’s podium at the Kaiser Maximilian Lauf 60 k Ski Classics marathon in Seefeld, Austria, with Norway’s Tord Asle Gjerdalen (c) in first, Sweden’s Andreas Holmberg (l) second, and Russia’s Ilya Chernousov (r) third. (Photo: Visma Ski Classics)
At the third Ski Classics event of the 2017/2018 season, the 60-kilometer Kaiser Maximilian Lauf on Saturday in Seefeld, Sweden’s Britta Johansson Norgren (Lager 157 Ski Team) and Norway’s Tord Asle Gjerdalen (Team Santander) took the women’s and men’s victories, respectively.
Johansson Norgren and Japan’s Masako Ishida (Team Koteng) broke away shortly after the start. The two went back and forth for a while until Johannson Norgren gapped Ishida in the Leutasch valley. While Ishida was caught by a chase pack with Sara Lindborg (Team Serneke), Kari Vikhagen Gjeitnes (Santander) and Lina Korsgren (Åre Ski Team), she reined Johansson Norgren back in on the long climbs after the valley. Ultimately, Johansson Norgren took the win in 2:49:16.0 hours, while Lindborg claimed second, 37.5 seconds back. Ishida finished third (+58.9), Gjeitnes placed fourth (+1:40.7) after injuring her ankle about 2 k before the finish, and Korsgren fifth (+2:05.1).
The women’s podium at the Kaiser Maximilian Lauf 60 k Ski Classics marathon in Seefeld, Austria, with Sweden’s Britta Johansson Norgren (c) in first, Sweden’s Sara Lindborg (l) second, and Japan’s Masako Ishida (r) third. (Photo: Visma Ski Classics)
“It was my plan to go full speed from the beginning,” Johansson Norgren said, according to a Ski Classics press release. “I knew Ishida will go fast in the climbs, but I felt strong from the beginning. It was really hard skiing alone in the valley, and when Ishida caught me up, I wasn’t sure if I could win the race. But the last part of the course was perfect for me and I had no problems securing the victory today.”
The Leutasch valley was the turning point of the men’s race as well, where Vinjar Skogsholm (Team Parkettpartner) and Andreas Holmberg (Team Serneke) broke away from the pack and had built a 90-second gap on the chase group as they left the valley. There on the first climb out of the valley, Holmberg pushed the pace and dropped Skogsholm, while Gjerdalen and Ilya Chernousov (Bauer Ski Team) worked to catch Holmberg up front. They caught him 3 k before the finish and Gjerdalen was first across the finish line in 2:27:49 hours, 14.8 seconds ahead of Holmberg in second.
Chernousov finished third (+32.0), Ermil Vokuev (Russian Marathon Team) was fourth (+1:07.6), and Anton Karlsson (Lager 157) fifth (+1:08.2).
“I didn’t like the fact that we gave too much leeway for Holmberg and Skogsholm,” Gjerdalen said, according to the press release. “I’m happy that Ilya helped me in our attempt to catch up with Holmberg, but I wasn’t really sure if we were going to make it. You never know how the other person is feeling in the front, what kind of skis he has and what goes on in his mind. But I managed to win today and it feels great to be back on the top.”
In the overall “Champion” standings, Nordgren leads with 450 points, 110 ahead of Lindborg in second. Gjerdalen is first in the men’s champion standings with 330 points, 50 points ahead of Morten Eide Pedersen in second.
The Ski Classics tour moves to Zuoz, Switzerland, next weekend for the 65 k La Diagonela.
The women’s podium for the first race of the 2017/2018 World Cup season, the Ruka classic sprint in Kuusamo, Finland, with (from right to left) American Sadie Bjornsen in second, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson in first, and Russia’s Yulia Belorukova in third. (Photo: U.S. Ski Team/Twitter)
On Friday in Kuusamo, Finland, the 2017/2018 Cross Country World Cup began with the first day of racing in what’s called the Ruka Triple — a three-day event featuring a 1.4-kilometer classic sprint, 10 and 15 k classic races on Day 2, and 10/15 k freestyle pursuits on Sunday.
For many, considering how multifaceted the U.S. Ski Team (USST) women are, and how five to six of them are podium threats, the biggest step up today was USST member Sadie Bjornsen’s leap onto the podium’s No. 2 spot.
“What an amazing and exciting way to start this new season,” Bjornsen wrote in a post-race email. “I have been feeling good for the past few weeks, but as always at the beginning of the season, you wonder where you are. Starting with the qualifier, I had great feelings. I love this course, because it is so tough all the way to the finish line, and you don’t have many places to recover throughout the course. I also love how steep the climb is, it is a grade that I have always enjoyed!”
For Bjornsen, who turned 28 on Tuesday, it was her first-career World Cup individual sprint podium. (On the World Cup, she’s placed third in a 5 k freestyle, second in a team sprint, and with the 4 x 5 k relay, second and third place twice. At last year’s World Championships, Bjornsen also teamed up with Jessie Diggins to finish third in the classic team sprint.)
On Friday, the Alaska Pacific University (APU) skier’s cylinders were firing from the moment she tipped the wand in the qualifier. Bjornsen qualified in fifth, sprinting around the course in 3:13.67 minutes. Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter was the day’s fastest qualifier in 3:11:69 minutes, 1.98 seconds faster.
After her qualifier, Bjornsen continued to rise to the top, winning both her quarterfinal and semifinal. On a course with a steep but strideable final climb near the finish, she controlled each heat. She won her quarterfinal in 3:18.14 minutes over Russian runner-up Yulia Belorukova (+0.39) and Sweden’s Hanna Falk in third(+1.97).
“The general tone of the day was a fast start so that Sadie was in control in the front half of her heat,” U.S. Ski Team Women’s Coach Matt Whitcomb said on the phone. “In particular in the semifinal, she was able to have a fast start and shut the race down a little bit and pick it up when she was ready.”
Her ability to acquire the lead, command the pace, essentially set the first semifinal’s tone, allowed her to also keep other skiers in the turbulence of her wake by the slimmest of margins.
She won the semi in 3:20 flat. Again, Belorukova was second, this time just one-hundredth of a second back. Another Russian, Evgenia Shapovalova* was third (+0.39), and U.S. teammate Sophie Caldwell finished fourth (+0.50) in that semifinal.
Nilsson’s Moment
The final was where Bjornsen finally met her match in Swedish speedster Stina Nilsson.
Nilsson qualified 19th, 8.15 seconds behind her teammate Ingemarsdotter — nothing stunning by her standards, but a safe margin with which she could enter the heats and then take control like she’s been known to. She won the fifth quarterfinal with the fastest time of all the quarterfinal heats in 3:14.38.
Nilsson then dominated the second semifinal with a time of 3:17.61. That semi was nearly 2.5 seconds faster than Bjornsen’s winning semifinal time, and both lucky losers advanced from Nilsson’s heat. Those beneficiaries were Ingemarsdotter in third and Finland’s Krista Parmakoski in fourth.
Sweden’s Stina Nilsson lunges for first place as Sadie Bjornsen (USST) places second on Friday’s classic sprint on Day 1 of the 2017 Ruka Triple World Cup in Kuusamo, Finland. (Screenshot: Eurosport)
As much as Nilsson may have played a poker hand while qualifying, this much was clear: once into the knockout rounds, she’d leave nothing up for chance. Nilsson won the final in 3:17.62. Bjornsen placed second by 0.24 seconds. Russia’s Belorukova was third (+0.91), Ingemarsdotter fourth (+2.72), Norway’s Kathrine Rolsted Harsem fifth (+3.54), and Parmakoski sixth (+18.62).
The win marks Nilsson’s 19th career World Cup sprint podium and her 10th sprint victory. She won the classic sprint in Kuusamo last year and placed second there in 2015. She also finished last season in second in the 2016/2017 Sprint World Cup standings and fourth in the overall World Cup.
Friday’s classic sprint was a bit unusual from the get-go. The qualifier revealed a big void compared to recent seasons’ results. Only two Norwegians, Harsem and Anna Svendsen, skied into the top 30 and moved onto the rounds. Last season’s Sprint World Cup Overall champ, Maiken Caspersen Falla, missed qualifying by 0.32 seconds in 31st.
Whitcomb commented on the waxing struggles some skiers had out on course. He paraphrased a quote he heard from fellow American Anne Hart, who now races for the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) Elite Team, in 2010 to describe a common waxing puzzle.
“It’s always challenging on this course to find the right balance — as Annie Hart would say — the kick-to-glide ratio,” Whitcomb said. “But the kick-to-glide ratio is the key here in Ruka, and I think perhaps what happened with Norway. We will have to see what is said in the press by them and what we find out from our peers, I think they just went for more glide today, and some ended up struggling on the climbs. … It was noticeable. They had women that were herringboning up the entire final climb and most of the field was striding right up it. It’s a little bit of a trap — easy kicking snow and you are strong as a skier and a nation. It can be easy to perhaps try to go for speed. We have done it here before as well. Sometimes it works.”
On the right side of that kick-to-glide ratio was USST member Sophie Caldwell. She smoked the qualifier, placing third, 0.59 seconds behind Ingemarsdotter.
“The first race of the season is always a little funny because you don’t know what to expect,” Caldwell said on the phone. “But I have been doing good, smart training this year where I wasn’t pushing things too much and just doing what I knew worked, and I was feeling good going into it, but I have also never been able to have a great race in Kuusamo before. I think I’ve qualified twice, and both times I just sort of snuck into the top 30 in qualifying. But going into today I just sort of looked at it as a new day, and it was kind of a fun situation because there was no pressure, I have never done great here before.”
After her top-three qualifying result, Caldwell’s day way up north in Finland progressed smoothly. She chose Heat 2 in the quarterfinals, which turned out to be a quick heat and produced both lucky losers that would advance to the semis.
“I led out of the start and into the first downhill and then generally after that first downhill, places switch up a lot because there is a big draft, and so I think I got passed by a couple of people,” she said of her quarterfinal. “And then [Sweden’s Charlotte] Kalla sort of sent it from there, and I actually got in a little jumble at the low point of the course after dropping down the big hill. Maybe I was back in fourth or something, and then just tried to stay relaxed and ski well up that first hill. But she led it pretty much from that low point to the finish, I think, and she looked really good. After that heat I was like, ‘That’s proof right there that you don’t really need to be leading out of the start, because so much can change.’ ”
Kalla won the heat in 3:15.93, while Caldwell also automatically advanced to the semifinals in second (+0.70).
Caldwell skied in the first semifinal along with Bjornsen. Caldwell, of the SMS Elite Team in Vermont, let others lead out, understanding that an early burst of speed might not have a big payout.
“And at some point … it was funny because I was expecting Kalla to sort of hammer out from the start again and having it be another really fast, hard heat, but once we got to the bottom of the big hill I didn’t really see her again,” Caldwell recalled. “So it was just the two Russian women, Sades [Sadie] and me heading up the big hill. And I think Sadie and one of the Russians were a little ahead, and then we started filing behind them.”
After all the tactics and jousting, it came down to a lunge-fest at the line, and Caldwell just missed advancing. Caldwell placed fourth in a semi where the top-four places were separated by half a second. She was two spots away from advancing to the final and ended up eighth overall.
A third U.S. Ski Team member, Ida Sargent also began the season with a standout performance. Ruka has been kind to Sargent. Historically, she’s able to begin the season in Ruka with head-turning results. In 2014, Sargent she placed fifth in the Ruka classic sprint. In 2015, she placed seventh in the season-opening classic sprint. Last year she was 23rd, also in the classic sprint.
On Friday, Sargent qualified 22nd (+8.70).
“I was really nervous and excited for this race,” Sargent wrote in an email. “I really love this course and have been feeling great in training lately with a very solid prep period but the first race of the year can be a little nerve racking. Most other teams have already raced a couple weekends and this was our first time putting a bib on! The qualifier was solid for me but nothing special but I was psyched to get it over with and I felt a lot more relaxed going into the heats.”
Sargent skied in the third quarterfinal which included Swedes Anna Haag and Ingemarsdotter. On a day when skiers contended with snowfall and wind, keeping one’s line and maintaining speed in the fast tracks were paramount.
“The quarterfinal was playing out exactly as I was hoping for but then I ran into some bad luck in the finishing lanes with a track that was full of snow so I’m actually pretty disappointed with the result,” Sargent wrote. “ I felt like I had the skis and the body to do better today so I was bummed to be out after the quarters.”
Sargent explained she felt great in her quarterfinal and had the physical ability to keep pace. She maintained a reserved start, but soon moved into second place. On the final climb, she felt as if she could make a move.
“Ida [Ingemarsdotter] and I led over the top of that hill but then I was getting pushed to the outside on the final corner and then only had the far right track open into the finish because Ida was in the next one over,” she wrote. “Unfortunately everyone was skiing up the two middle tracks and since it was windy and snowing, the outside tracks were full of snow and super slow. I was having to plow my own track so I tried jumping in behind Ida hoping she would have a fast finish and I could get second behind her. But she wasn’t making much time and Anna Haag was coming up on the other inside track so I was totally trapped. I switched back to that outside lane hoping I could make up some time but it was a lot slower. It’s a huge bummer that there were really only two finishing tracks and just some serious bad luck to be in a different one. But I had great energy today and we had really good skis so I think its a good takeaway to be in a good place at the start of the season and there is lots of racing ahead!”
Sargent placed third in the heat, 0.65 seconds out of first and 0.43 seconds out of second place. She finished the day in 15th overall.
Rosie Brennan, a USST member known for her distance racing, finished 29th overall after qualifying in 26th. She skied in the fifth heat in which Nilsson set a blistering pace. Brennan placed sixth in her quarterfinal, 4.3 seconds behind Nilsson.
“My heat ended up being very fast, but also tight,” Breanna wrote in an email to FasterSkier. “My tactics are severely lacking as I have skied maybe 3 heats in the last three years so I was happy with my skiing, but not so happy with my group tactics. It certainly left me hungry for more opportunities to ski heats.”
Brennan went onto explain that she had developed her sprinting as part of her larger goal of performing at a high standard in tours.
“The biggest reason I wanted to work so hard on my sprinting this summer was for tours,” Brennan wrote. “I love tours, but I feel it is hard to be competitive if you can’t qualify for the heats so I’m thrilled to have done that for the first tour of the season. I am looking forward to getting some distance racing started.”
Outside the top 30 necessary to qualify for the heats were USST standouts Jessie Diggins and Kikkan Randall. Diggins skied to 34th overall (12.51 seconds behind Ingemarsdotter and 2.45 seconds out of qualifying), while Randall placed 36th (+13.92; +3.86). Other U.S. starters were Julia Kern (USST), who finished 57th, Liz Stephen (USST) in 70th and last season’s overall SuperTour winner Chelsea Holmes (APU) in 86th.
Whitcomb did comment that the team made use of its new waxing bus for the first time at a race on Friday. And although some skiers had dynamite skis, others may have had less-than-desirable race skis.
“It is the first race we have operated out of the truck,” Whitcomb said. “It was great. But I don’t think all the athletes had great skis. And that is more of a product that it is early season, techs working with athletes, us functioning as a team. It is just straight-up getting the wax up is hard to start with. In terms of the function of the truck, we had power all day, the place never filled with smoke. We had space, light was good, and we had athletes that had skis that were good enough to win races.”
Canada started three women, none of which qualified. Dahria Beatty (National U25 Team) placed 64th, Emily Nishikawa (World Cup Team) 74th, and Cendrine Browne (National U25 Team) 87th.
Heading into Day 2 of the Ruka Triple, Bjornsen leads the mini-tour standings by 2 seconds over Ingemarsdotter. Saturday holds a 10 k classic individual start for the women.
The women’s podium for the first race of the 2017/2018 World Cup season, the Ruka classic sprint in Kuusamo, Finland, with (from right to left) American Sadie Bjornsen in second, Sweden’s Stina Nilsson in first, and Russia’s Yulia Belorukova in third. (Photo: U.S. Ski Team/Twitter)
FIS Cross Country World Cup (Kuusamo, Finland): Classic sprints
In the first race of the 2017/2018 cross-country World Cup season, U.S. Ski Team (USST) member Sadie Bjornsen, who turned 28 on Tuesday, raced to the best result of her career, placing second to Sweden’s Stina Nilsson in Friday’s classic sprint in Kuusamo, Finland.
Last season, Bjornsen notched her first World Cup podium in third place in the 5-kilometer freestyle in Toblach, Italy, and teamed up with USST teammate Jessie Diggins to take third in the 2017World Championships classic team sprint. Friday’s 1.4-kilometer classic sprint — the first race of the Ruka Triple mini tour to kick of the 2017/2018 World Cup season — was Bjornsen’s first race of the season. She did not participate in any preseason International Ski Federation (FIS) races.
Bjornsen started out the day by clocking the fifth-fastest time in the qualifier, 1.98 seconds behind Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter, who won the qualifier in 3:11.69 minutes. Bjornsen’s USST teammate Sophie Caldwell qualified third (+0.59) after another Swede, Hanna Falk in second (+0.19), and a total of four American women finished in the top 30 to qualify for the heats. Ida Sargent finished 22nd (+8.70) and Rosie Brennan was 26th (+9.51) to reach the quarterfinals.
There, Bjornsen won her quarterfinal by 0.39 seconds over Russia’s Yulia Belorukova. Caldwell also advanced to the semifinals by placing second in her quarterfinal, 0.7 seconds behind Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla in first.
Sargent finished third in her quarterfinal, 0.65 seconds behind the winner of that heat, Sweden’s Anna Haag. Brennan placed sixth in her quarterfinal, 4.3 seconds behind Sweden’s Nilsson in first. Neither Sargent nor Brennan advanced to the semifinals.
In the semifinals, Bjornsen again raced to first, and once again held off Belorukova — this time by just one-hundredth of a second. Caldwell followed in fourth in that semifinal, 0.5 seconds behind Bjornsen in first and 0.11 seconds behind Russia’s Evgenia Shapovalova in third (+0.39). Neither Caldwell nor Shapovalova advanced to the final.
In the final, Nilsson took the overall win in 3:17.62 and Bjornsen captured a career best in second place, 0.24 seconds out of first. Belorukova rounded out the podium in third (+0.91), while Ingemarsdotter placed fourth (+2.72), Norway’s Kathrine Rolsted Harsem was fifth (+3.54), and Finland’s Krista Parmakoski sixth (+18.62).
Overall, Caldwell placed eighth, Sargent 15th and Brennan 29th for the U.S. Diggins and Kikkan Randall missed out on qualifying in 34th and 36th, respectively. Julia Kern placed 57th, Liz Stephen 70th, and Chelsea Holmes 86th.
None of the Canadian women qualified, with Dahria Beatty in 64th, Emily Nishikawa in 74th and Cendrine Browne in 87th.
In the men’s 1.4 k classic sprint, Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won out the day after winning the qualifier, quarterfinal and semifinal en route to another dominant performance in the final.
Klæbo started off by winning the qualifying round by 2.26 seconds in 2:46.53. Finland’s Anssi Pentsinen qualified second and another Finn, Ristomatti Hakola, qualified third (+2.35), ahead of Italy’s Federico Pellegrino in fourth (+2.66).
Cross Country Canada’s Alex Harvey was the top North American man in the qualifier, finishing 13th (+6.13), while Erik Bjornsen of the USST qualified in 26th (+8.71).
Both Harvey and Bjornsen finished fifth in their quarterfinals and did not reach the semifinals. Harvey ended up 21st on the day, after finishing 2.16 behind the winner of his heat, Finland’s Lauri Vuorinen. Bjornsen was 24th overall after finishing 5.12 seconds behind Klæbo, who won the first men’s quarterfinal.
Klæbo used the extra recovery time he had from racing an early quarterfinal to prime himself for another win in the semifinals, where he beat Sweden’s Calle Halfvarsson by 0.29 seconds. Another Norwegian, Pål Golberg, followed in third (+0.49), and Hakola placed fourth in that semi (+1.72). Both Golberg and Hakola had fast enough times to advance to the final, where they met Pellegrino — the winner of the second semifinal — and Norway’s Sondre Turvoll Fossli, who was second in the second semifinal (+0.1).
In the final, Klæbo once again won convincingly, this time by 1.35 seconds with a finishing time of 2:48.19. Golberg took second place and Halfvarsson reached the podium in third (+4.03), while Hakola placed fourth (+5.65), Pellegrino fifth (+8.87), and Fossli sixth (+17.31).
For the U.S., Andy Newell missed qualifying by 0.38 seconds in 34th and Simi Hamilton finished 60th. Scott Patterson was 84th, Paddy Caldwell was 103rd, and Noah Hoffman was 105th.
For Canada, Julien Locke, of the national U25 Team, finished 59th, Len Valjas was 63rd, Knute Johnsgaard 73rd, Devon Kershaw 74th, Graeme Killick 85th, and Jesse Cockney 95th. Last year’s NorAm winner Russell Kennedy did not start.
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