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.
We’re done and dusted at the Olympics after a rockin’ women’s 50 k — the first-ever at the Games. Devon and Nat smash out a recap of the epic breakaway and the knock-down-drag-out battle for bronze.
We’ll be back next week. Reach us in the mean time at devon[at]fasterskier.com and nat[at]fasterskier.com. We’re really grateful for all the support during the Olympics — thanks for notes and encouragement.
A reminder: This is a homegrown podcast done by two guys working long hours and late nights. We’re also paying real money to be here in Italy. If you can, support the show and FasterSkier’s ongoing coverage with a voluntary membership.
Help Support Our Olympic Coverage!
FasterSkier will have our own Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics, which, to be honest, is a very big financial lift for us. If you value the thoughtful work and access FasterSkier provides at championships like this one, please consider becoming a Voluntary Subscriber. Your support directly fuels the work we do to cover the people, places, and moments that make our sport special.
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription.
Joy at the end of a trying Olympiad: Ebba Andersson (SWE) celebrates her victory in the Olympic 50 k Classic. (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
TESERO, ITALY — Two weeks of Olympic cross-country ski racing all comes down to this . . . fifty grueling kilometers of this, to be precise; a distance that women have raced only a few times on the World Cup and/or World Championship schedule, but a distance at which they are able to truly show their skills, their tenacity, and their ability as cross-country skiers.
These Olympics began with lofty expectations—in some cases, outrageously lofty—placed upon many skiers: Karlsson was seen as likely to win four golds: she started strong (winning gold in both the Skiathon and the 10 k Freestyle), but found herself benched by illness in the 50 k. Ebba Andersson was seen as a threat to topple her Swedish teammate, Karlsson, only to find herself toppled in a famously awkward and memorably catastrophic fall that cost Sweden the gold medal in the Team Relay. Jonna Sundling was billed as the best sprinter in the world (and was seen as likely to steal a medal in the Skiathlon, as well). Her moment in the Sprint spotlight was stolen by her own teammate, the rejuvenated Linn Svahn. And numerous mainstream reporters myopically favored Jessie Diggins to medal in all six events. After all, she’s the defending World Cup Overall Champion, right? And she’s currently leading the World Cup standings in both Overall and Distance, isn’t she? Reading those stats would seem to suggest that she’s the best skier in the world . . . and she may actually be that best skier, but the only skier who consistently lives up to such superlative headline predictions is the unmatchable Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (who won all six of the men’s events here in the Olympic Winter Games of Milano-Cortina).
Jessie Diggins (USA) showed the sort of resilience and courage fans have come to expect, overcoming a disastrous ski exchange to race her way back into medal contention. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
Diggins would fight through an unfortunate ski change, and endure a long struggle in returning to the group of bronze medal contenders, only to find herself gapped on the final uphill. Diggins would finish fifth behind fourth place, Kristin Austgulen Fosnaes. Ahead of them, Andersson would ski brilliantly and tirelessly to claim gold, well ahead of of Weng, and minutes clear of the third place performance from an elated Nadja Kaelin (SUI).
“If you had told me even a year ago, I’d be in the fight for a bronze medal in a 50k classic, I would not have believed you,” said Diggins. “It’s taken so much work from so many people for so many years to get here, and I’m just really proud of it.”
Among other Americans, Rosie Brennan would finish 16th. Hailey Swirbul would cross the line in her comeback Olympics to finish 20th while Kendall Kramer would finish 27th. Canadians would place all their finishers in the top 30: Jasmine Drolet 18th, Sonjaa Schmidt 26th, Katherine Stewart-Jones 28th, and Amelia Wells 29th.
Olympic 50 k: Heidi Weng (NOR), and Ebba Andersson (SWE), set the pace from the beginning. (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
Women’s 50 k Classic
Pre-race intel reported that Sweden’s Frida Karlsson had taken ill, and was choosing not to race in today’s 50 k. Without Karlsson’s singular presence to push the pace (as she did during her dominant victory in last season’s World Championship 50 k in Trondheim), the race was left without a known direction or strategy. Like Karlsson, Sundling was a DNS, reducing the chances that the medals would be decided in flat-out sprints. Weng hoped to duel it out with Diggins and Andersson down the final kilometers.
The Olympic 50 k is conducted in a mass start format, seven laps of 7+ kilometers/lap raced in the Classic technique. On an unseasonably warm day—40 degrees (Fahrenheit) and sunny skies—waxing and base prep were likely to play outsize roles in the results. Within the first three kilometers, a lead group of a dozen skiers—containing all the prime contenders—began to ease off the front. The early pace was made by Andersson, followed by Weng, Diggins, Teresa Stadlober (AUT), and Astrid Oeyre Slind (NOR). Val di Fiemme’s challenging hills quickly began whittling away at the lead group as Andersson continued driving the pace, stringing out Weng and Diggins in her wake. Slind inexplicably pulled up on a challenging climb, stalling other contenders behind her including Kerttu Niskanen (FIN), Johanna Matintalo (FIN), and Dariya Nepryaeva (AIN). Slind would drop out of the race only a few kilometers later, a frustrating result for a skier who had entered these Games with such high hopes..
Jessie Diggins (USA) was an early animator in the Olympic 50 k. After a troublesome ski exchange, she’d come back to be part of the battle for the bronze medal (ultimately won by Switzerland’s Nadia Kaelin). (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
By 8.5 kilometers, a solid chase group would form involving Fosnaes, Niskanen, Matintalo, and Karoline Simpson-Larsen (NOR). At the front, the lead group had been reduced to three—Andersson, Weng, and Stadlober—as Diggins began to show the strain of he early pace. Even Stadlober had begun to wobble as the chasers continued to concentrate their pursuit.
Diggins was the first of the contenders to switch skis (at the 14.4 kilometer mark at the end of the Lap 2). She immediately regretted her decision as her klister-waxed skis tripped her dramatically on her way out of the exchange zone. Stumbling along the track—gasping and yelping audibly—Diggins lost considerable time, finding herself dropping to ninth place, 1:11 behind the leaders. Diggins would need to rely on her new skis working their way into the conditions, in the hope that they would ultimately provide an advantage. But even more time had been lost to the leaders who, themselves, had not shown any dissatisfaction with their own skis.
“I knew I had to switch early,” said Diggins. “I’m so glad I did. It was just a really gritty race. Literally every muscle in my body started cramping with three laps to go. So I can confidently say I could not possibly have tried harder or gotten more out of my body.”
“After that first pair of skis, she switched pretty early,” said US coach, Kristen Bourne. “But we also had a lot of confidence in that second pair . . . so we also had a lot of confidence giving her the the go-ahead to switch.”
The race settled into a few slow-developing stories:
Weng and Andersson were off the front, deciding gold between them.
Stadlober raced on alone in bronze medal position, but she found the gap behind her being eaten into by Niskanen and Fosnaes.
Diggins had fallen from contention, though her fortitude and pride were likely to prevent her from dropping out of her final Olympic event.
And then Diggins began coming back . . . maybe she began overhearing all of us commentators wondering if she might drop out of this race. That may be just the sort of motivation that Jessie Diggins needs. Diggins drove to the tails of Fosnaes and Niskanen. Together, they closed the gap to Stadlober who was pursuing better traction in the the snow outside the Classic tracks. While Diggins’ skis may have been a disaster in the first few meters after the exchange, it’s possible they were proving to have been a shrewd decision.
Andersson and Weng changed skis at the end of the fourth lap, where Andersson was pitched over her ski tips by her own sticky kick wax. At the end of lap four, Diggins had moved into bronze medal position as the chase group entered the stadium. Fosnaes was the only skier who opted to exchange skis. Stadlober, Kaelin, and Niskanen continued in pursuit of Diggins.
Soon after 30 kilometers, Andersson found her skis to be an advantage over Weng’s. By 34.2 kilometers, Andersson had opened a 20 second gap. She was still 45 minutes from the finish line, but Andersson was beginning to stretch her advantage.
Now in a group with Niskanen, Fosnaes, Kaelin, and Stadlober, Diggins may have sensed that her best chance to claim the bronze medal was not to be found in breaking away (thereby risking blowing up, herself) but to sit with this group in anticipation of a bunch sprint that would favor her own abilities. With two laps remaining, the chase group had decisions to make. Among those racers, only Diggins had already changed skis. Among this group, it was likely that someone would stop to make the change. If they did, they could find a late-race advantage, or they might find themselves giving up an advantage (in the time spent changing skis) that would be impossible to overcome. Kaelin, Stadober, and Niskanen all chose to change skis. Ultimately, all the chasing skiers would regroup, and immediately start considering their strategies. Diggins was the sprinter in the group; her advantage would be realized if the group came to the finish line together. Stadlober, Niskanen, Fosnaes—those are not sprinters—their only chance would be to drop Diggins and Kaelin before the finish line approached. Two laps to go . . .
And who the heck is Eliza Rucka-Michalek? The young Polish skier had been chasing all by herself for the last 40 kilometers. She finally connected with the chase group midway through he final lap, but would find that the efforts expendeded in reahing this group would be too costly to allow her to attack again. Rucka-Machalek would cross the line eighth.
The final kilometers were led out by Kaelin who was followed by an exhausted, but game, Fosnaes. Diggins shadowed them both, but the final climb would be excruciating for all. Kaelin had the best traction on the Zorzi climb; Fosnaes slipped a bit, as did Diggins who lost momentum when she stepped out of the tracks behind Fosnaes. Kaelin would maintain her advantage over the top of the climb, holding on for bronze, followed by Fosnaes and Diggins.
“I’m so grateful for our entire staff behind the scenes,” said Diggins. “They have been like, putting my body back together so that I could be out there today fighting. And I just, I wanted to do that for them. I wanted them to know like, ‘Hey, I am so grateful. Like, I’m gonna finish this. I’m gonna leave it all out there.’ And honestly, the most special thing was that I got to hug my mom on the side of the course before the race, and it’s just so cool to know that they were here for my last Olympics, and I got to end it on a beautiful day in a venue that I love so much. I’m just really proud of this last Olympics and really grateful and really happy, and I’m leaving here just full of joy and probably needing a new body.”
“I mean, we’re super proud of this team,” said Bourne. “And to walk away from this Olympics being like our most successful ever by having a variety of people—three different people—getting Olympic medals is, excuse my language, but #%&!@ insane! And I mean, man, we’re just super proud and stoked to keep the season going after a little bit of rest.”
Friends and rivals: Heidi Weng (NOR) and Ebba Andersson (SWE). (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
Weng raced bravely and strategically in what may have been her final Olympics. She would claim silver, falling just short in her own quest for individual Olympic gold.
Andersson would continue extending her lead—20 seconds, 40, 60, 90—to claim a gold medal to go along with her three silvers earned at these Games. Here at the end of an Olympic campaign that found her hitting the deck again and again—including that spectacular somersault and subsequent one-ski scooter-pushing during the disastrous (though ultimately silver-medal-winning) Swedish relay—Andersson raced across 50 grueling kilometers to find glory at the finish line. Individual Olympic gold was finally hers, as well as respect and redemption after days of trials and tribulations.
FasterSkier will have our own Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics, which, to be honest, is a very big financial lift for us. If you value the thoughtful work and access FasterSkier provides at championships like this one, please consider becoming a Voluntary Subscriber. Your support directly fuels the work we do to cover the people, places, and moments that make our sport special.
Heidi Weng (NOR), Ebba Andersson (SWE), Nadja Kaelin (SUI), on the podium of the Women’s 50 k Classic Mass start, the final cross-country event of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Milano-Cortina. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
The highs were high and the lows were low in the Olympic team sprint in Italy, with the Ogden-Schumacher men’s team claiming silver and the Diggins-Kern women’s pair finishing out of the medals. Devon and Nat break the whole thing down.
We’ll be back after Saturday’s men’s 50 k. Reach us at devon[at]fasterskier.com and nat[at]fasterskier.com. We’re really grateful for all the support during the Olympics — thanks for notes and encouragement.
A reminder: This is a homegrown podcast done by two guys working long hours and late nights. We’re also paying real money to be here in Italy. If you can, support the show and FasterSkier’s ongoing coverage with a voluntary membership. We’re also offering a bonus during the Olympics: a WhatsApp group with notes on Nat’s experiences in Italy, the food he’s eating, interview transcripts and more.
Send nat[at]northernjournal[dot]com a confirmation of your voluntary membership and the number he should use for WhatsApp and we’ll get you signed up. You can also Venmo him directly at @nat-herz if a membership isn’t for you. We’re suggesting a minimum of $10, but we also won’t turn anyone away who wants to join because of an inability to pay.
Help Support Our Olympic Coverage!
FasterSkier will have our own Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics, which, to be honest, is a very big financial lift for us. If you value the thoughtful work and access FasterSkier provides at championships like this one, please consider becoming a Voluntary Subscriber. Your support directly fuels the work we do to cover the people, places, and moments that make our sport special.
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription.
Gus Schumacher (USA), Ben Ogden (USA) announce the arrival of a new American cross-country tradition. (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus.)
PREDAZZO, ITALY — Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo still had something special to do. American skiers still had something special to prove. But the Team Sprint is never as simple as just lining up and racing. Contending nations need to consider the field, rate the strengths and vulnerabilities of their competition, and make a plan to best take advantage of the circumstances. Then they have to ski it . . .
Not that they needed to, but the Norwegians must have come up with a different plan. For nearly a year—since the straightforward, matter-of-fact Team Sprint victory of Klaebo and Valnes in last year’s World Championships—I’ve been thinking of the Norwegian Team Sprint strategy in only one way: whoever is paired with Klaebo just needs not to get dropped. Stay out of trouble, avoid tangles, respond to the attacks from other teams but don’t allow yourself to be made vulnerable by launching attacks of your (efforts that could, then, be counter-attacked). When considering strategy, picking Klaebo’s partner in this team event seemed like a straightforward selection to make . . . but more than one Norwegian could fit neatly into that role. It’s a role that’s been performed admirably by Valnes in the past, and by Iversen before him (both of them on this year’s Norwegian Olympic Team roster). It’s a role that could have logically been taken on by Harald Oestberg Amundsen, who is both a very fast sprinter and the reigning World Cup Distance champion. All three of them are fast, All three of them are great endurance skiers as well as fine sprinters. None of them would be likely to get dropped by anyone else in the field, and all have a wealth of experience skiing in the should-to-shoulder, rough-and-tumble style of pack racing that is typical of a Team Sprint event. Pick one of those guys, right?
Not so fast . . .
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo finds himself paired in this Olympic Team Sprint with Einar Hedegart. Hedegart is certainly fast, and it’s rumored that he possesses the highest VO2 Max of any Norwegian athlete (in any sport). That would certainly come in handy if Hedegart’s job was to drop everybody in order to give Klaebo a head start on the anchor leg. But is that even necessary? The Team Sprint finishes on the same hill as the Individual Sprint. Remember that hill? The one that’s made Klaebo famous for his unmatchable 11 mph scamper that’s all over the internet? If you put all the best skiers in the world at the bottom of that hill, and say “go,” Klaebo will win a race to the finish line by a mile. We thought the plan for the Team Sprint would take advantage of that advantage.
What does teaming with Hedegart get them? Those are questions that someone over in Norway must’ve considered. If Hedegart tries to break away, he makes his team vulnerable to counter-attack . . . and he already showed in the 10 k Freestyle (where he went out way to fast, and bonked like an inexperienced age-grouper) that he may not yet possess a full understanding of pacing. Furthermore, Hedegart possesses nowhere near as much World Cup Sprint experience as Iversen or Valnes or Amundsen. They’re less likely to get stepped on or pushed over or boxed in. With Hedegart—well, he’s fast, but the Norwegians really don’t know what they’re getting.
On the other hand, Hedegart’s raw speed is what Norway may be seeking. With his bronze medal in the 10 k Freestyle, he showed that he was a fairly even match for the speedy Frenchman, Mathis Desloges (already with three silver medals in these Olympic races). And France is starting Desloges in the first leg of the Team Relay (opposite Hedegart). One way or another, Klaebo’s performance is fairly predictable, so all the significant question marks are swirling around Hedegart.
Ben Ogden (USA) had one job to do—create the gap. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
The American Dream
It seems like the American men also have decided to try out an unexpected strategy. It would have been easy to assume that Team USA might hope to get Ben Ogden—the team’s most accomplished sprinter—into the anchor leg so that he could battle his way to the finish line among the other designated sprinters. A sprint finish for the medals, assign your best sprinter. Right? Maybe not. The US team decided that the anchor leg will be skied by Gus Schumacher, himself no slouch as a sprinter, and an occasional visitor to World Cup Sprint semifinals and finals. But if Schumacher skis the anchor leg, then he’s likely to find himself sprinting against Klaebo and Federico Pellegrino and Jules Chappaz. Schumacher may not match up too well against those three . . . but if Schumacher is given a lead going into the anchor leg, there aren’t many skiers in the world who can chase him down. Perhaps what USA is counting on is Ogden being able to launch an attack in the penultimate leg that disrupts the other contenders, allowing Schumacher to coast home alone. Klaebo may already be well off the front by then, but who knows? Maybe there’s a medal for the Americans in this strategy that might not otherwise have existed.
“I was incredibly nervous before today’s race,” said Ogden. “But the parts, the moments where I’m nervous are, like, the lead up, you know? I know that once the race starts, I can just get to this headspace where I can be confident and be strong and be smart with my movements in the group. And that’s a really good feeling.”
Time to line up and race . . .
Einar Hedegart (NOR) would need to be both fast, and patient in an event that he had never skied before. (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
Men’s Team Sprint
Unlike the Individual Sprint where the event is raced in heats of six skiers, the Team Sprint is a 15 team melee whose selection of teams is based on the compiled individual qualifying times of each team’s sprinters. Once the final field is decided, they just line ’em up, and say “Go.” With 15 teams charging around the Sprint course, it would seem to be anyone’s race. Ironically, pre-race ski-pundits would have us believe that the three medals should only be distributed among four teams: Norway, France, Italy, and the USA. But teh efforts, attacks, and foibles of many other teams are likey to have an impact. As other recent relay events have amply demonstrated, there is much that can interrupt all best-laid plans between the prediction and the finish. Soon, either those experts would look like geniuses, or fools.
Ogden would be compelled to deal with Desloges, Hedegart, and Anger in Leg 1. While the Ogden-strategy may have been to accelerate in his leg—creating a gap that will allow Schumacher to maintain an advantage—Ogden was not likely to pursue the all-out-from-the-gun that Diggins employed in the Women’s Team Sprint. It’s just too athletically expensive to race that way.
Ogden started front and center of the front row, where he was followed quickly by Austra. The first meters were confusing as Riebli (SUI) needed to scramble to find a replacement pole in just the first few seconds of racing. Ogden and Desloges made the early tempo. The field would begin to stretch out, more out of concern for safety than exhaustion.
“We did our one thing that we talked about: we were gonna meet on the right hand side of the exchange zone,” said Ogden. “Without fail, every single time we caught we came in on the other side, on the far and had to cross, and had to cross through like 15 people in order to get to our guy on the other side. And it was one of those things where we both honed in on the fact that being on the right hand side of the exchange room was not working. But it was also like, we can’t risk going to the left hand side and having him not see us. So we just had to sort of stick with it. And, you know, made for a couple fast first 20 seconds of the legs to try to catch back up.”
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) will do what he’s going to do. Teams from all other nations will scramble for silver and bronze. (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
Leg 2—Klaebo’s fast lane
Klaebo may not have been happy at being forced to weave through the field after the exchange (and Hedegart’s presence in the crowded scrum of the transition must have been nerve-wracking), but this is not Klaebo’s first rodeo. He made his way easily to the front followed by Pellegrino and Edvin Anger (SWE) who decided he wanted to take the lead. Klaebo and Pellegrino were only too happy to let the confident young Swede do the work.
“I was trying to save energy and not lead,” said Schumacher. “When you start off out of the stadium and third or fourth, and another line comes up behind you, you’re eighth pretty quickly. And then, yeah, coming into the stadium, there was a big slingshot, and I was sort of like—I don’t know—I felt like I was generally on the wrong side of that . . . I kept my head, stayed calm, which I’m really proud of.”
“It’s nice to be able to trust Ben,” Schumacher continued. “To tag him far back, and he’ll tag me back in a great spot. And he set me up in that last lap perfectly. Then I had a pretty simple job to do, and I’m really glad I was able to do that.”
Leg 3—Hedegart’s patience
Hedegart inherited the lead from Klaebo, but he led at a pace that indicated he was not interested in laying down the law. Not yet, anyway. Hedeagart settled in behind Lauri Vuorinen (FIN) while the field spread out behind them. No real breakaway yet, but the group was beginning to feel the strain. There wouldl be less “trouble” for Hedegart to encounter on the course, but he wasn’t out of the woods yet. All of Norway held its breath.
Gus Schumacher (USA) has often shown the sort of speed and endurance needed in the anchor leg, but his performances in recent Olympic races left some questions. He answered loud and clear. (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
Leg 4—Schumacher’s arrival, Desloges’ disasters
Hedegart had again come through transition with the lead, follwed by Sweden and France. Anger again wanted the front, perhaps hoping to create some gaps of his own. Desloges spent Leg 4 suffering his second broken pole of he day. France was faltering irretrievably, and the field sensed an opening in the medals. Team USA had sat concealed in the field all race, but Schumacher was begining to move forward, and to make his presence felt. Canada shadowed USA. With the field still hanging together, Team USA may have been ready for Ogden’s Leg 5 surge.
Leg 5—Ogden’s encore
Just like they may have planned it, there went Ogden leading Hedegart up the significant hill. Hedegart may have possessed the lead, but the USA was putting its plan into effect, as well. While all the leaders remained in contention, it looked like the pre-race script was remaining consistent.
Celebration at the finish. Ben Ogden (USA) and Gus Schumacher (USA) team up to make history. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
Anchor Leg—USA!
Ogden had done his job, as had Hedegart. One lap to go, with Klaebo enjoying a small lead over Schumacher, Anger, and Pellegrino. With only the anchor leg remaining, what USA needed was a skier with flashing speed and bottomless endurance. That’s Gus Schumacher . . .
“The best way to do that is just go as fast as you can,” said Schumacher. “And I think today I did a good job of just looking forward. Klaebo was gonna ski this fast. If I can stay close to him, I’ll also ski it fast.”
Schumacher made his way to Klaebo’s tails as Pellegrino dropped Anger. Medals waited on the horizon as Klaebo shifted into top gear on his signature hill. Pellegrino made up ground on Schumacher, but did not close the gap enough to benefit from the draft on the downhill where the field spread out in a test of glide wax and base prep. Gaps held as skiers entered the finishing straightaway where Klaebo wrote Olympic history to become only the second Winter Olympic athlete to win five golds in a single games. Additional history followed in Klaebo’s wake, as Schumacher erupted across the finish line to grab silver for Team USA, his first Olympic medal, and Ogden’s second silver of these Games.
“Once the race starts, I just race the same way I have since I was five,” said Ogden. “So that’s a really nice feeling. And I think that the test of this championship has like, like, set me up really well to just be confident and leap, (to) control the pace and then go hard and be confident that I could, that I could make some time. So was a good feeling.”
Pellegrino offered the home-crowd yet another thrill when he crossed the line to deliver his second bronze medal.
Relief, exhaustion, satisfaction: Federico Pellegrino (ITA) has long carried the weight of Italian expectations. With his second bronze medal of these Olympic Winter Games, Pellegrino is writing the closing chapters of his career con brio e brillantezza. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
The legendary American speedskater, Eric Heiden, won every single event on the speedskating card in the Olympic Winter Games of Lake Placid, 1980. Those unprecedented triumphs—from the explosive 500 meter sprint to the brutal 10,000 meter marathon—made it clear that even among the very best in his sport, Heiden reigned supreme. As performers and performances have specialized across all sports, it appeared unlikely that anyone would ever so dominate a sport again. Well, with his own fifth gold medal, Klaebo has proven to be Heiden’s equal. And with one event still remaining in cross-country events at these Olympics, a modern athlete may yet prove the sort of dominance once known only to the great sportsmen of history.
American sports fans certainly remember Heiden. But today, in Val di Fiemme, the performance that would make hearts beat and souls rejoice—the medal that would see American sports fans leaping from the couch in the middle of the North American night—belonged to Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher, rivals throughout their long careers, teammates for a decade, and partners in the race that earned only the third cross-country skiing medal in America’s Winter Olympic history.
Bill Koch has long borne the mantle of American cross-country skiing. He is now joined in that task by more American skiing stars including Jesie Diggins, Ben Ogden, and Gus Schumacher. (Photo: Peter Ashley)
Way back in 1976, American viewers were glued to the TV sets watching races from Innsbruck, hoping to see Bill Koch win his second Olympic medal. Back then, that’s what we thought would happen . . . win one medal, win another. But while Koch performed admirably in the race that followed his historic silver medal, he did not earn a place on the podium again. Today, in Val di Fiemme, Ben Ogden made a little history of his own, becoming the first American man to earn a second Olympic medal. He did so in a display of grit, of determination, of long-standing cameraderie and cooperation with his longtime teammate, the indefatigable Gus Schumacher who, himself, became only the third American man to claim an Olympic medal.
Soon, we may stop talking about historic finishes for American skiers. As a team, most of the firsts and onlys now lie behind them. What arrives in their place is legitimacy and respect, and a future that may bring expectation and anticipation in place of mere hopes and dreams. American cross-country has arrived, just in time to establish a bright future when some of its bright stars are preparing to depart the stage. Mission accomplished, plan complete.
FasterSkier will have our own Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics, which, to be honest, is a very big financial lift for us. If you value the thoughtful work and access FasterSkier provides at championships like this one, please consider becoming a Voluntary Subscriber. Your support directly fuels the work we do to cover the people, places, and moments that make our sport special.
History in hand: Gus Schumacher (USA) and Ben Ogden (USA) hold American silver. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
Ogden remained refreshingly loose on the podium: “I was giving (Klaebo) some $#!* for the fact that they had the least cool podium outfits,” Ogden recalled. “And then he said, ‘How many golds do you have?’ I was like, well, that’s a good point, but they still have the least cool podium outfits. There can be no denying that . . .”
This article was made possible through the generous support of our voluntary subscribers who have helped put our Nat Herz on the ground at the Olympics. If you value coverage like this, please support FasterSkier with a voluntary subscription.
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) earned his fourth gold medal of these Olympic Games, but the lead he enjoyed in his anchor leg was delivered to hm on a silver platter by the hard work of his nNorwegian teammates. (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
When it comes to relays, Norway doesn’t need much of a plan. In place of a plan, what Norway has are the four fastest guys in the field. And it looked like the entirety of Norway’s plan was for those four fastest guys to ski like the four fastest guys . . . all so that the one fastest guy—Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo—could be somewhere in the vicinity of the lead with 500 meters left to race. If Norway could do that, then Norway would win the gold medal.
It’s an important thing, this Olympic Cross-Country Relay, one that Norwegians look upon rather like their Super Bowl. The mood of this Nordic nation for the next four years will be affected by the result of today’s ski race. That’s a heavy burden to load onto the shoulders of four ski racers, but there’s just no way around it. The relay matters to Norway, and the Norwegian national identity relies almost entirely on the outcome. Win, and the world makes sense . . . Anything but gold, and the universe is completely out of whack.
Norway remembers that it hasn’t always gone to plan: Russia upset Norway in 2022, Italy undid them in 2006, Sweden has been a regular interrupter of Norwegian bliss, most recently in 2010 and 2014. Norway almost always enters as the favorite, but sometimes their team was tripped up by circumstance: an untimely fall, an equipment malfunction, the wrong wax. At other times the reason was far worse—like against Russia in 2022—where Norway just got beaten by a faster team. For the Kingdom of Norway, that’s the kind of unthinkable tragedy they simply cannot tolerate.
Well, Norway’s tolerance was not tested on this day of relay racing in Val di Fiemme, and the Olympic gold medal was all but won by the end of the first leg. Emil Iversen handed a lead to Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, who extended the advantage for Einar Hedegart, who gave Klaebo a lead sufficient to make the anchor leg into a relaxed, casual victory lap. Behind Norway, France fought through deficits in the early legs to pull clear for silver, ahead of a late charge by Federico Pellegrino that secured bronze for a jubilant host nation.
Team Canada would race to an impressive fifth place finish on the combined efforts of Antoine Cyr, Xavier McKeever, Remi Drolet, and Thomas Stephen. They battled their way into contention in the early legs, and held on to cross the finish line well ahead of Team USA who finished sixth.
“I had really high hopes going into this race, and we had a really strong team, and we all, like, gave it everything we had and left it all out there,” said Stephen. “It was like, I gave everything I had, because the whole time I could see the podium, and it was right in front of me, and I was fighting for it to catch them, but yeah, in the end, I just couldn’t quite get there.”
Ben Ogden (USA) marked Emil Iversen (NOR) throughout Leg 1, giving Team USA a strong position at the first transition. Barbieri/NordicFocus)
The American men would ski well and proudly, securing the second-best relay finish in their many Olympic starts. But that brings up a fairly obvious question: might it not have been better if the American relay strategy were “Let’s skip this thing altogether, and save our energy for events where we actually could be contenders?” After all, the Team Relay is another exhausting competition for these skiers, and that represents an accumulation of fatigue that could be avoided, especially when the next event on the Olympic dance card is the Team Sprint. Team USA has skiers—Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher—could team up to legitimately contend in that event, and both of them were on the roster for today’s athletically expensive Team Sprint. Why not let Norway and France and Italy spend their athletes’ energy today while we put up our feet and watch a race that our participation was truly unlikely to affect anyway? Even with a fifth place in yesterday’s Women’s 4 x 7.5 Relay, this reporter felt the same way about the American women’s efforts. Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern were both on the relay roster, and both skied their hearts out in a fifth-place effort that was actually a better result than anticipated . . . but still fifth. Presumably, Diggins and Kern will be the pair entered in the Team Sprint. Wouldn’t it have been more prudent to keep them fresh for that event? Well, it should not come as a surprise that no Olympic coaches sought out my advice prior to these relay events, so I’ll just sit here in my armchair, happily lobbing criticisms at seasoned professionals who know their athletes far better than I do.
Emil Iversen (NOR) faced the pressure of leading off for Team Norway. He skied conservatively, stayed out of trouble, did his job. (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
Leg 1
Ogden opened the American’s account in Leg 1, staying near the front, directly alongside Norway’s Emil Iversen who skied conservatively and kept Norway out of trouble. Ogden’s front row strategy seemed to be the essence of Team USA’s plan:
“If you lose contact here in Leg 1, the US doesn’t have the depth to make that up,” said on-air commentator, Kikkan Randall. It was as though she was whispering in Ogden’s ear, as he drove the pace, marked by Italy’s Davide Graz and Norway’s Iversen. Xavier McKeever continued to represent Canada in Leg 1, alongside Lauri Vuorinen of Finland. Team France found itself gapped; they’d have work to do in Leg 2.
“I love to be the scramble leg on the relay,” said Ogden. “It’s a really fun position to be in. And it’s not every day that I get to feel like I’m the one that chooses when the pace increases. And today I got to be that guy, which was pretty sick.”
Leg 2
Team USA was playing it’s strongest cards early—Gus Schumacher was tagged by Ogden as the Americans continued to push the pace. Finland’s Iivo Niskanen—arguably the best Classic skier in the field—settled back into the top five, where he was soon joined by the high-tempo scamper of France’s Hugo Lapalus. But the favorite was firmly ensconced at the front, where Martin Loewstroem Nyenget began to ski steadily away.
“Tony Cyr took it out super hot, but it kind of it comes back together,” said Schumacher. “I felt like I was able to stay relaxed and kind of come back. It’s nice to have just like a solid day where I feel like I was skiing high, I feel like I can ski and tag off in a good spot.”
“Yeah, I was really happy with my leg,” said Cyr. “Was pretty nervous going to today, just because I knew what this team’s potential was. And being leg one, you kind of get the first crack at setting the tone. And yeah, Ben Ogden went friggin hard up the big climb to the top on lap two. And I was kind of just like running for dear life, trying to hang on, and was able to catch up in the downhill.”
Norway’s Einar Hedegart (silver medalist in this week’s 10 k freestyle) was tagged by Nyenget with a 10 second lead over Finland. John Steel Hagenbuch took the tag from Schumacher just 15 seconds out of the lead, and in direct contact with the other medal contenders.
“Gus and Ben tagged us off in a really good position to be with the leaders,” said Hagenbuch. “And I guess I had the I had the tough position of being the one to lose the lead a little bit, but I was trying as hard as I could, and I was with the leaders at the top of the hill, and then just trying to do as much damage control as possible for the rest of the lap, in the second lap as well. But, you know, I had a great day the other day, and it just didn’t come together in the same way today. I think it’s a testament to how great our team is, and how great our team culture is, that these guys were there for me after that.”
“I got tagged by Tony in an amazing position,” said Drolet. “Right by the French team with Mattis Desloges. Obviously, he’s gotten two silver medals, obviously, and I think he was hungry to push the pace and try and catch Norway throughout the leg, and it was just so, so hard throughout that first lap.”
If there had been a perceived chink in the armor of Team Norway, it was the inexperience of Hedegart. He had over-cooked the pace in the earlier Olympic 10 k freestyle, even while showing that he possesses some of the sharpest fitness and greatest athletic talent of any skier in the field. The primary concern in his leg of the relay may have been that he is less experienced racing in a crowded mass-start field. Luckily for Norway, the other parts of their plan had worked, and Hedegart would ski the entirety of Leg 3 all alone, though France’s Mathis Desloges (silver medalist in the recent 10 k Freestyle) began to whittle away some of Hedegart’s advantage,
Federico Pellegrino (ITA) carried the hopes and aspirations of his countrymen, racing forward to catch Finland and securing the bronze medal for Italy. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
Leg 4
Hedegart delivered a healthy lead to Klaebo, who could either drive home the issue, or wait to sprint against the fast-closing Frenchman, Victor Loverra. Klaebo still has two more events to race at these Olympics, so he could be forgiven for his casual pace in the anchor leg.
Klaebo came through the first of his two laps with a 20 second lead over Loverra . . . one lap to go. Behind them, a national drama had begun to play out as Italy’s Federico Pellegrino had tracked down Finland’s Nikko Antola. There would be a battle for bronze.
In the end, Klaebo would make his long-anticipated finish, coasting unrivaled down the final straightaway. He would wave to the crowd, but not with the sort of flag-waving, fist-pumping celebration that would be the practice of mere mortals. With his fourth gold medal of these games, Klaebo stood alone as the winner of more gold medals than any other Winter Olympic athlete.
France was elated with its second place finish (improving upon the oft-repeated third-place finishes that have so often been France’s lot). Behind France, Pellegrino was welcomed by an ecstatic Italian crowd as Italy claimed the bronze.
“The first, like, kilometer and half Pelly started, and I gave it everything I had,” said Stephen. “I knew if I wanted a shot at the podium, I had to catch Pelly. So yeah, I tried to, but as I approached him close, he then took off and caught the Finland. So yeah, I couldn’t quite close that gap, but Fifth place is like a really amazing event, and I’m really proud of the whole team, for everyone putting together, like an amazing relay, and having a good day and just leaving it all out there.”
“It’s great for us, Olympic games at home,” said Markus Cramer, coach of the Italian Olympic Team. “And then bronze medal with the team, especially for Pellegrino. It’s great for us. Of course, we work long time for this, and now, of course, we were sure it was possible.”
And Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo changed the landscape of Olympic history: no winter Olympian has won more than Klaebo. And he still has two events remaining in these Games.
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Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) on his way to his third gold medal of the Olympic Winter Games in Milano-Cortina. His victory in the 10 k Freestyle gave him his eight Olympic gold medal, tying him for the most ever with his compatriots Marit Bjoergen, Bjorn Daehlie, and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
Two days ago, at the finish line of the Men’s Classic Sprint, Norway’s Oskar Opstad Vike celebrated like a lottery player who had just scratched the winning ticket. Fist-pumping, chest-thumping, wild gesticulating toward fan-filled grandstands and visceral howling at the proverbial moon. He hadn’t won gold—Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo did that. Vike hadn’t won silver—Ben Ogden secured that little piece of Olympic skiing history. What Vike celebrated was his own third place finish—his bronze medal. Norwegian skiers can dream of no higher honor than to win an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing, and Vike had just done that. His goal had been met, his future had been made, his celebration was sincere. There are plenty of male Norwegian skiers who are capable of winning an Olympic medal; what Vike understood was this: most of them never get to. It was a visual reminder of just how important this ski-thing is to the Kingdom of Norway.
Imagine, then, what it must be like to be Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, arguably the greatest skier of all time. He’s done so much in his career that only the near-impossible will suffice. Last year, at the World Championships in his hometown of Trondheim, Klaebo swept the entire card of races: Skiathlon, Sprint, Team Sprint, Team Relay, 10 k and 50 k. No one had ever done that before. No one had even come close. Klaebo did it, and made it look easy. Now, in the Olympic Winter Games of Milano-Cortina, Klaebo finds himself faced with perhaps the most daunting and elusive of athletic accomplishments—do it again.
And today, “doing it again” meant doing something that Klaebo had actually never done before—win a 10 k Freestyle Interval Start.
“This is the first time I’ve won a 10 k Skating Interval Start,” said Klaebo. “So being able to do that here at the Olympics, it’s just amazing. And with the weather and the atmosphere, to have my best day here at the Olympics, it’s special.”
The 10 k Freestyle Interval Start was the race in which Klaebo’s pursuit of ski-immortality was most clearly vulnerable. If he got careless, if he made mistakes, if he showed up a little flat, or if one of his Norwegian teammates showed up supernaturally hot, the 10 k could’ve marked the end of Klaebo’s quest for Olympic perfection. After all, the 10 k interval start is a race that Klaebo can’t control by simply sitting in and sprinting. This is a distance that each skier must race alone, competing against their own limitations, summoning their own competitive courage, and baring their own athletic souls. Each of them knows that in order to win they must commit fully . . . but any skier who over-commits—even by just a little bit—would find themselves hitting the wall. There is nothing to gain by taking it easy, and there is much too lose by going too hard. We can assume that must be kind of terrifying for a skier like Klaebo. On his march toward Olympic immortality, Klaebo would know that this race puts him at his most vulnerable. And the only way to combat that would be to commit every ounce of energy he has. No coasting across the finish line today, no waving to the crowd down the finishing straightaway. The media suggests that Klaebo is the greatest cross-country skier ever. If he wanted to prove it, then an all-out effort in the 10 k would be required.
Mathis Desloges (FRA) continued his magnificent run in the Olympic Winter Games of Milano-Cortina with his second silver medal, this time in the 10 k Freestyle Interval Start. (Photo: – Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
And that is exactly what Klaebo did, skiing the opening kilometers smoothly and conservatively, then creating a steady acceleration over the closing kilometers that no other skier could match. Klaebo would continue his pursuit of six gold medals, winning the 10 k Freestyle by a narrow, but sufficient, margin over Mathis Desloges (FRA) and Einar Hedegart (NOR).
Canadian skiers delivered fine performances as well, with Thomas Stephen in ninth, Remi Drolet 19th, and Max Hollman 23rd. British skiers also distinguished themselves at the 10 k distance, with Andrew Musgrave finishing a tremendous sixth, followed by Joe Davies in 12th. A shirtless John Steel Hagenbuch delivered the top American finish in 14th, even after a suffering a mid-race course deviation that may have cost him precious seconds and precious finish-placings.
“I made a mistake,” said Hagenbuch. “And I think I was more just proud I made the mistake and I just let it go.”
“I have so many friends and family out here cheering, and I could hear them. And it’s just a beautiful day. It’s hard to be upset. Such a nice day like this when you get to ski and be with your teammates and represent the United States on the highest stage. I’m really proud to be here.” said Hagenbuch. “But I went into today with my goal being try as hard as you can. And I would have been a little bit faster had I not made that mistake. But I did try as hard as I could. So in many ways, I achieved my goal.”
A year ago—after Klaebo’s miraculous clean-sweep of World Championship events in Trondheim, fans began wondering if he might retire. After all, after such delivering such a performance the only sufficient encore is to do so again. But there’s no way that could happen, right? No way the stars would so align, or the fitness be so sharp, and the equipment be so dialed, and the conditions be so conducive. No way . . . but less than a year later here we are, halfway to seeing the impossible happen yet again. Three events, three gold medals, three events remain. As fans of cross-country skiing, we’ve come to expect it . . . it’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, after all.
No waving to the crowd down the finishing straightaway today: Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) needed to battle all the way to the line in order to hold off Mathis Desloges and Einar Hedegart. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
10 k Freestyle
Experience matters—just ask Einar Hedegart. Announcers love to remind us that Hedegart “wasn’t even a cross-country skier” until his arrival on the World Cup tour two months ago, but that’s a statistic that ignores the facts. Hedegart has spent his career as a biathlete, the Nordic discipline that combines Freestyle Nordic skiing and marksmanship. That means that Hedegart has spent years refining his technique as a skier—he’s hardly a skiing neophyte, and Freestyle (the technique designated in biathlon races) is his specialty. That said, racing tactics in biathlon prioritize the discipline to avoid exhaustion during races in order to steady a competitor’s aim on the shooting range. It’s a sport that rewards steady pacing, conservative racing, measured efforts. Ironically, Hedegart never managed to excel at the top level in biathlon. Fortunately, someone suggested he hang up his rifle and just plain race. Some months ago, Hedegart seems to have found that his bodily engine could produce tremendous speed across the snow. He proved it with two World Cup victories (albeit over fields that did not include Klaebo), but he still did not have much experience in racing at this level, or under these pressures. Klaebo possesses blazing finishing speed; it was likely that he’d pace his race in a way that would take advantage of that. The only tactic left to the less-experienced Hedegart was to go out hard, and hope to hang on. That’s the way the stage was set, and that’s the way the race played out.
Klaebo would wear bib number 44, making him the first of the realistic contenders to start. Klaebo knew he would be pursued by his own countrymen—Harald Oestberg Amundsen, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, and Hedegart—each of them determined to interrupt Klaebo’s date with destiny.
Einar Hedegart (NOR) started fast and showed the strain down the stretch. His inexperience may have cost him the gold medal, but the extraordinary effort he delivered in the early kilometers of the 10 k Freestyle may also have earned him the bronze. -(Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
Race day in Val di Fiemme dawned sunny and warm, with temperatures rising to the mid 40s by race time. The snow would play a part in the challenges on the day, with slushy conditions along course edges and the possibility of earlier racers experiencing superior conditions. Klaebo began conservatively, posting only the 12th fastest split time at 1.8 kilometers. But by the next time check at 3.7 kilometers he had jumped to the top of recorded splits. The pre-race favorite was warming to his task.
10 k is a funny distance. By Nordic skiing standards, it’s so short—just over 20 minutes—but so very much can go wrong in that relatively brief timespan. Many of the expected mistakes were evident in the first few meters skied by the earliest starters, skiers from Roumania and Japan and Latvia and Ukraine who took off like sprinters. Way too fast, way too soon . . . the uphills would be soon to appear, and legs and arms that had already begun to accumulate lactate would be in serious trouble. Ten kilometers is a short distance to race, but do it wrong and it can begin to feel endlessly long.
It’s not often that fans see Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) lying on the snow at the end of a race. In the Olympic 10 k Freestyle, he gave it his all. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
DesLoge, Hedegart, Amundsen, Nyenget all started quickly, coming through the early checkpoints at the top of the list where they were joined by the impassioned French revelation, Desloges. Klaebo trailed by seven seconds at this first checkpoint, but his time of moderate effort would soon end. Klaebo began tightening the screws; by the halfway point of the race, his early splits still led over DesLoge, Amundsen and Nyenget. Not so for the fast-starting Hedegart who came through the halfway mark with an advantage of five seconds over Klaebo. Five seconds with five kilometers to go—it seemed like a lot, but also somehow seemed manageable. Klaebo would find himself needing to produce a scorching finish to close the gap, but Klaebo is entirely capable of producing the scorching finish. He stormed up the final hill—the one that has recently made him meme-famous for his 11+ mph run during his Sprint victory—and dashed across the finish line with an urgency we rarely see in his races. Klaebo collapsed to the snow at the finish line . . . the kind of drama we’re accustomed to seeing from Jessie Diggins, but a demonstration that Klaebo, himself, rarely allows. It’s amazing to see this great skier arriving at the finish line totally spent. He knew he’d need to commit that level of effort if he wanted to beat the hard-charging Hedegart.
The leader’s chair doesn’t look comfortable. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) spent some tense moments waiting to see if his lead would be enough to deliver gold. (Photo: Barbieri/NordicFocus)
Klaebo sat in the leader’s chair, but it was a seat in which he found himself incapable of getting comfortable.
“When you start early, you just fight with yourself out there,” saud Klaebo. “And when you cross the finish line, it’s all about waiting. Luckily, I was able to see that people were losing a little bit at the end there.To be able to see that I’m first is just crazy.”
With 2.5 kilometers remaining, Hedegart continued to lead Klaebo by 5.5 seconds. Well, experience matters—Hedegart knows that now. Next time, Hedegart may not go out quite so hard. But that’s a lesson he needed to learn, and today’s classroom was the race course in Val di Fiemme. Hedegart’s’ all-or-nothing tactic fell short, but it would also be rewarded—with Olympic bronze. And, in between Klaebo and Hedegart, came the indefatigable Desloges, securing his second silver medal of these Olympic Games. Americans and Canadians have been coming on in the rankings, and the world has anticipated the return of Russian athletes, but it is the arrival of the Frenchmen—and Desloges in particular with his medals in the Skiathon and the 10 k—that has begun to show that the podium need not be the exclusive domain of skiers from Norway.
Youth can be a time of glorious impetuousness, like Icarus flying too near the sun. Hedegart may have learned that lesson, though we hope he will also be as thrilled with his bronze as was his teammate, Vike, just the other day. Announcers make much of Hedegart winning his “first Olympic medal “. . . but it’s so presumptuous to assume that any athlete who wins such a medal could ever win another. To repeat such a feat is even more rare than accomplishing it the first time. Hedegart may find himself on this podium many times more, but today we hope he pumps his fist and thumps his chest and celebrates with the crowd that is thrilled by his accomplishment.
And now Klaebo has claimed his eighth (!) Olympic gold medal, drawing him into a tie atop the all-time Winter Olympic medal standings with three other Norwegian legends: Marit Bjoergen, Bjorn Daehlie, and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. And Klaebo still has three events remaining in these Olympic Games. But there is still much that can go wrong in Klaebo’s quest for even more gold—teammates could stumble in relays, equipment malfunctions could slow him down, conditions could conspire against him—but if there ever were an athlete who can overcome all those obstacles, then we are watching him today in the Olympic Winter Games of Milano-Cortina.
Men’s Olympic 10 k Freestyle Interval Start RESULTS
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Allan Corona (MEX), Samer Tawk (LBN), Matthew Smith (RSA), Rakan Alireza (KSA) at the finish line of the Olympic 10 k Freestyle, embodying the value of a famous phrase from within the Olympic Creed: “The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win bu to take part.” (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)
The Olympic Winter Games of Milano/Cortina are just ten months away. Athletes will give their all for the chance to triumph on one fine day. (Photo: FasterSkier)
The old season just ended. Let the new season begin . . .
Ten months from now, the Olympic Winter Games are scheduled to begin in Milano-Cortina, Italy. Ten months is practically enough time to build a ski team from scratch: to cure lingering illnesses, to heal nagging injuries, to initiate new training strategies, to fix any technique foibles, even to learn new secrets for waxing and ski prep. If only Norway and Sweden would stand still long enough to give the rest of us a chance to catch up!
On one fine day, not too long from now, an Olympic medal will be draped around the neck of some blissfully-tearful ski-hero. Who will it be? And how will they get there? Athletes fortunate enough to collect an Olympic medal will be those who have prepared specifically for that particular event, on that one fine day. They won’t be the athletes who hope to be the very best on every other day. That’s the dilemma of World Cup competitions and Olympic competitions being contested within the same season. It’s nearly impossible to win it all. While Team USA has been learning how to keep skiers (like Jessie Diggins) going for an entire season, Norway and Sweden seem to be concentrating on how best to prepare their top athletes for peak performances on important days. For Norway, it’s a process that began back in the 1990’s as they prepared for the Olympic Winter games hosted by Lillehammer in 1994. It was a systematic, technological, and scientific effort, a program taking place cooperatively across all sports. Norway really wanted to capture gold medals in front of the home crowd. And, boy, did they ever . . . winning the most medals of any nation (26), including near-sweeps of the men’s endurance events (cross country, nordic combined, and speedskating, though Norwegian athletes found themselves outside the medals in biathlon). Though doubters remain, those Norwegian victories were considered “clean,” even in an era when victories by Russian athletes (who won most of the events that Norway did not) were looked upon with considerable suspicion. One way or another, Norway learned how to win, and how to prepare singularly gifted athletes for great performances at crucial moments. It’s a practice they still follow, a culture they still possess. Neighboring rival, Sweden, has followed close behind.
Norway’s Marit Bjørgen dominated World Cup skiing in an era when every skier raced virtually every race. She also managed to collect more Winter Olympic medals than any other athlete in history. (Photo: FasterSkier archive)
The race for any World Cup Crystal Globe is an endurance test, a balancing act, a complex mathematical equation. Back when World Cups were dominated by the likes of Martin Jonsrud Sundby and Marit Bjoergen, it seemed like almost every skier would race almost every event . . . making the season-long World Cup competition one that truly identified the “best skier” in any given year. But that was also an era when no one really dominated specific events. Then came Therese Johaug, and every Distance event was Johaug winning by a mile. Then came Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, and every other World Cup Sprint competitor was racing for second place, at best. Then came the Covid-affected seasons (we may still be in those seasons) when anyone who was sick was expected to stay home. Then came the all-important Trondheim World Championships where many Norwegian and Swedish skiers were so focused on winning World Championship titles that they all but abandoned the World Cup, using it as little more than a training tool, picking and choosing which events to enter, and more often choosing to stay home to train. The “one fine day” strategy requires a different sort of focus, one certain to be repeated next season when the world turns its attention to the Olympic Winter Games and the medals awarded there.
The podium of the Men’s 28 k freestyle in Beijing 2022: Alexander Bolshunov (ROC) took the win ahead of Ivan Yakimushkin (ROC) and Simen Hegstad Krüger (NOR). (Photo: NordicFocus)
The Russia Question
And then there’s the elephant in the room—what about Russia? If those athletes are allowed back in the mix, then the competitive deck gets completely reshuffled. FIS and IOC are both actively reconsidering their policies that exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from Olympic and World Cup competition while their nations remain engaged in the invasion of Ukraine. It remains possible that some of those athletes will be allowed to return to Olympic competition in Cortina as individuals (representing no nation) or as members of a “Unified Team” comprised of Russian/Belarusian athletes, but competing under no flag and standing on Olympic podiums to the playing of the Olympic hymn rather than their national anthems. But which athletes would be allowed to return? IOC has made it clear it won’t be an open door for everyone. Evidently, any who are in the military and/or who voice support for Putin’s war will not be allowed to compete. The top two Russian prospects—Alexander Bolshunov and Natalya Neprayeva—have been visible and vocal supporters of Putin’s belligerent policies. Maybe if they recant, we’ll see them at the starting line in Cortina. Someone should check to see if they have their fingers crossed.
Ironically, this same “Unified Team” or “Russian Olympic Committee Team” solution was offered to Russian athletes in the aftermath of the state-sponsored doping debacle staged by Russia at the Sochi Olympics. In Olympic Games that followed, Russian athletes were allowed to compete, but only if they were “clean.” Frankly, if we knew which athletes were truly clean, the list of entrants might look decidedly different regardless of which nation those athletes come from. But that’s a topic for a different article . . .
Illness, injury, fatigue all play large roles in the dynamic of any World Cup season. Athletes who race to stay sharp risk getting sick, injured, or burned out. Athletes who rest to stay fresh (safe at home where they’ll avoid getting sick) risk becoming athletically flat. Training can never provide the same stresses and athletic rewards as racing, so athletes can be expected to line up for World cup races—maybe just not all of them. 2026 will be an Olympic season; will anyone bother to contest the Tour de Ski? Will anyone care about the Crystal Globes? Will fans nervously follow the mounting accumulation of World Cup points? Or will those World Cup races merely serve as a training ground for the more important races to take place on Olympic race courses?
The FIS 2025-2026 World Cup schedule has not yet been published. All we really know is that the Olympic schedule has been confirmed. This summer, FasterSkier will cover probable situations and likely contenders in all twelve of the scheduled Olympic cross country events. The Olympic cross country skiing schedule will look like this:
Olympic Winter Games, Milano-Cortina 2026
Saturday February 7—Women’s 10km + 10km Skiathlon
Sunday February 8—Men’s 10km + 10km Skiathlon
Tuesday February 10—Men’s and Women’s Sprint Classic
Thursday February 12—Women’s 10km Freestyle
Friday February 13—Men’s 10km Freestyle
Saturday February 14—Women’s 4 x 7.5km Relay
Sunday February 15—Men’s 4 x 7.5km Relay
Wednesday February 18—Men’s and Women’s Team Sprint Freestyle
Saturday February 21—Men’s 50km Mass Start Classic
Sunday February 22—Women’s 50km Mass Start Classic
Olympic contenders will be training for one fine day—when sun will shine and tracks will glisten, when the race will unfold and their fitness will take them to the front, when finish lines will be crossed and arms will be raised in celebration, when medals will be awarded and anthems will be played, when flags will wave and tears will flow. Just ten months from now, on one fine day.
