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Johannes Klæbo stands with his father, Haakon, during a water break on a rollerski workout in Utah in 2023. (Nathaniel Herz/FasterSkier)
PREDAZZO, ITALY — Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is four for four — and officially the most golden Winter Olympian in history.
By anchoring Norway’s relay team to first place Sunday, Klæbo claimed his ninth Winter Olympic gold — moving him out of a tie, with two other Norwegian cross-country skiers and a Norwegian biathlete, for the most ever.
At a news conference afterward, Klæbo said he’d been drained by the effort it took to win Friday’s 10-kilometer individual start skate race — the first time he’d ever won an event in that discipline.
The next day, he said, “the only thing I did was lay in the bed and play on my PlayStation.” But by the time he woke up Sunday morning and checked his heart rate, he said, “it looked pretty good.”
After Sunday’s relay win over France and Italy, Klæbo is now poised to win the last two cross-country events at the Games, both of which — a team sprint, and a 50-kilometer mass start race in the classical technique — favor him.
At the news conference, he said he’s still taking it one day at a time. “We’ll see where we end up at the end,” he said. “But it feels, so far, so good.”
In search of some more revealing answers, we went looking for Klæbo’s father.
Haakon Klæbo, for the past week, has been a ubiquitous presence at the Olympic cross-country ski venue, watching races with the masses alongside the race trails with friends and family. We found him walking alone behind the stadium — where he was happy to answer a few questions before others broke in.
Nathaniel Herz: Are the Olympics a platform where Johannes is starting to go from a Norwegian to a global star, with these viral videos of him running up the last hill in the sprint race?
Haakon Klæbo: Yeah, it looks like at least it is. It is a huge interest in him. Olympics is really big in the U.S. But I also think that more U.S. citizens are learning how much time he spent there. He’s linked with (Utah physiotherapist) Megan (Stowe). She is really the one that has made his strength program, which is — it’s not that it’s secret, but if you look into it, he’s doing a lot of core strength. This is a program that he also follows at home (in Norway).
NH: How nervous were you for the 10-kilometer skate race two days ago?
HK: I was really nervous for the 10 k, and I knew that it was his weak point, or Achilles, in a way. We have to remember that he has never won a 10 k skate before, never — and this is in his whole career. I think that he has been in good enough shape, but this has been something in his head — and something that if you do not accomplish, it starts to become even more problematic.
Devon Kershaw, a retired Canadian World Championships gold medalist in cross-country skiing, who’s working as an expert TV commentator at the Olympics, walks up: Congratulations.
Herz, to Klæbo: You know this guy?
HK: No.
NH: This is Devon Kershaw.
DK. Congratulations, it’s been quite the show.
HK: Oh! Yeah — it is a little unbelievable, because you don’t expect it. And we had these crazy days in (the World Championships in) Trondheim last year, in which were hoping for like two or three (medals). (Klæbo won gold in all six events.)
And now, with four.
NH: Do you think going through this whole Trondheim experience last year is making this a lot easier for him now?
HK: Yeah. He had been training for that since he heard Trondheim would host the World Championships, and he has been the front figure. They used him (in their marketing materials), saying, ‘Born and raised.’ He’s standing there, like 18 years old — he had one pair of Leki ski poles at that time. He was wearing a suit that he had borrowed from a friend that was on the team. He was like, ‘This is my dream.’ And then he managed to do it. So, I think he was really stressed for it.
This season, it has just been fun. We’ve been together with (teammate and friend) Emil (Iversen). Me and him and Emil have been traveling around — it’s like being there with two boys playing around. So, I think he’s really much more relaxed. And you can see, also — I think he is even stronger, here, if you look at his sprint.
DK: I agree with you, 100%. Everyone made such a big deal of it, but winning the individual start skate. That’s the biggest thing to me, as a fan and a person that raced his whole life. I’m getting goosebumps thinking about what I saw two days ago. When you win that, then you’re really the king.
HK: And I said to Nathaniel that I think that he has been strong enough to do it for years. But it has been something up here (points to his head). He’s never won it.
NH: Do you think that’s his best accomplishment ever?
HK: Yeah, I think it is. And he was really tired after — he has been working really, really hard. I was afraid for this relay today — that he wouldn’t be able to run, because I think he put so much into the 10k. So much energy spent.
Johannes Høsflot Klæbo celebrates one of his four Olympic gold medals in Italy. (Davide Barbieri/NordicFocus)
NH: Was he at a disadvantage being first, in this individual time-trial style race, of all these Norwegian guys? That meant that he wouldn’t get as much information on the course from his coaches about how his times compared to the others.
HK: Actually, his best races from skate individual start are when he is just doing his own thing — just making his own pace, and doing what he’s good at. You could see that for the others, it was a disadvantage. I think, for (rival-teammate) Einar (Hedegart), it was trying to push on Johannes’ time (that was the problem). If you look at the two of them, racing, they’re pretty similar in taking it a little slow in the first two kilometers. Then starting to get faster and faster and faster, and having a crazy second half.
I think that that was what made Einar lose the silver. He pushed too hard — and he got burned and he lost 20 seconds in the last 1,000 meters.
NH : Will you be very stressed about the 50 kilometer race, the last event? Or do you feel like, once you get to the 50 k, so much has already been done that you can relax a little.
HK: The 10 k was what I was really afraid of. And now, I don’t know — we’re just here here enjoying and having fun. And then, everything can happen. And even if he is getting sick tomorrow, we’ve had four gold medals, and you’re the best Winter Olympian — and still, you can race for another Olympics. I think if you ask him, his dream Olympics would be to do a 50 k in Soldier Hollow (in Utah) — which is his home.
A middle aged fan carrying a Finland flag breaks in, screaming: “Klæbo! Klæbo! Number one!” The fan demands a photo, then ushers Klæbo away.
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American Gus Schumacher competes in his first race at the 2026 Olympic Games at the cross-country ski venue in Tesero, Italy. (Federica Vanzetta/Nordic Focus)
Gus Schumacher is one of the stars in U.S. cross-country skiing, and he was one of the team’s top medal hopefuls coming into the Winter Olympics in Italy.
Against the same field that competes at the Games, the Alaskan won a World Cup race in Minnesota in 2024. Then, Schumacher, 25, was on the World Cup podium twice more just last month, in Switzerland.
So far, though, his Olympics haven’t gone as planned, with tough results in several races. In his first one, he crashed. In the subsequent sprint — one of the disciplines where Schumacher was on the podium last month — he had another tough day, while his roommate and close friend, Ben Ogden, won a silver medal.
Speaking with media Friday, after his third race, Schumacher bristled, a bit, at a question from a reporter who asked him if, maybe, he was not having the best time at the Olympics. He said he was actually having a good time, and in a good place in spite of his results.
A day later, reporter Nat Herz asked Schumacher if he’d be willing to expand on his comments — but also offered him an out if he didn’t have more to share. He responded quickly by text: “Let’s do it. I’d rather get a story out there than have people make their own conclusions.”
Here’s Schumacher in his own words.
Nat reached out to me yesterday to ask if I was up for an interview. His timing was good, because I almost for sure would’ve said no most of the last six days. The opening of my Olympics has been hard, and processing it has taken time and effort, but I’m so proud to have been able to get through some rough days and be ready to fight again and again.
For context, my hard races have involved a crash, an anomalous sprint qualifier, and a day where I think my skis had me out of the race in the second half. On top of it, my teammate and one of my best friends did something we’ve all wanted to do for years. I’m stoked for Ben, but it’s also still hard, and that’s fine! The real miss would be an inability to talk it out and move forward to race another day.
I’m proud of my team, and I’m proud of myself for how I’ve handled a rough start, because this thing isn’t over and I’ve still got skiing to do!!
Below is a transcript of Schumacher’s conversation with Herz. It’s been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.
Nat: I don’t want to put words in your mouth — so maybe you could start by describing how it’s been for you here?
Gus: I can set the stage for people who are listening. So I finished this (10-kilometer freestyle race Friday) and I wasn’t even on the results board — I knew I was far back. It was not what I wanted. And (a reporter) said, ‘So, I assume you’re having a really bad week here.’ And I was like, ‘Okay.’ First off, I wasn’t in a great mood then. But I’ve had a lot of things I’m really proud of. And I think, just, blanket statement, horrible week — it just goes to show you can’t really assume how people are feeling, because you don’t know.
I understand, obviously, yeah: It’s not how I want to be skiing. In that sense, it hasn’t been great. But I wouldn’t just say I’ve had a horrible week, because these things make you better overall.
Gus Schumacher, left, celebrates his podium finish at a World Cup race in Switzerland last month. (Augustin Authamayou/NordicFocus)
NH: Can you take us back to the beginning of your time here?
GS: I fell in the first lap of the skiathlon (the first Olympic race, which features legs in two different techniques, classical and skating). Someone fell right in front of me. There’s just a chain reaction, and maybe I could have put myself in a bit of a different place. I could have set myself up otherwise. But it was a crazy corner. I crashed there, 30 seconds back pretty quickly, and the pace was hot. In hindsight, I wasn’t going to have a chance of catching the leaders, which is where I wanted to be skiing.
And I skied well — I think the classic went really well. In the skate, I think my motivation flagged a little bit. And I realized I have a lot more racing, and it wasn’t worth it to push super hard to get into 20th or something. But, you know, there were still some good things about how I skied.
But it’s also still hard to really feel good in that situation, because you’re kind of swimming upstream.
I left that, and I was just already on the back foot, needing to refocus — basically, not having a super confidence inspiring race, even if I was skiing pretty well. Objectively, it still wasn’t the result that I wanted. And then two days later, in the classic sprint, I didn’t qualify (as one of the top 30, who move into heat rounds), in an event where I’ve been pretty solidly qualifying lately. And I was really far back. I wasn’t in the realm of where I feel like I’ve been skiing lately. So that was another bummer.
I want to say it was (problems with my) skis. I know there’s not super conclusive evidence of that. But I think that’s the best way for me in a championship to go forward — because I can’t change anything now, and I need to believe in my fitness, and I do. It’s just to say there’s something going on under the feet, and whatever: I’m racing again soon.
And then (teammate and close friend) Ben (Ogden) got a medal (in the sprint). And that was a crazy event for all of us, especially me. Definitely took some thinking and processing to go through — especially given my tough start. I think I did a great job of getting back to a place where I’m just excited to ski and do what I can do.
Ben Ogden celebrates his silver medal in the Olympic sprint Tuesday. (Federica Vanzetta/Nordic Focus)
And then in (Friday’s) 10 k, again, I just really struggled. And I opened well, I feel like I skied really well. And again, something just didn’t line up, didn’t work. And I’m just gonna go with the skis again, basically. I don’t know exactly what it was. I think it probably has something to do with how they were actually pushing, and pressure stuff, which is kind of weird. But for my own sake, for these next races, I do still think I’m skiing well, and my movements are good and my energy is good.
NH: Fair to say this is about as hard an environment as exists to have to deal with this stuff, though?
GS: Yeah. In a normal World Cup weekend — and I had this at the beginning of the season, and it was still hard — you’ve just got another race the next weekend. And it’s easy to just say, ‘Yep, first race of the season. Shit luck. We got time.’
But right now, I’m getting interviewed by NBC before every race. And everything’s going viral on social media. And it’s just a big moment, as people like to say. And it’s when everyone wants to be at their best. Part of what’s so hard about winning the Olympics, or medaling, is just that your timing has to be good. And my timing’s been great before. You know, Minneapolis, I still think, is the craziest timing ever. (In Minneapolis, Schumacher took his first-ever World Cup win when the circuit was on its first swing through the United States in more than two decades.)
But, yeah, it’s really hard place to deal with tough results. Even if they’re not entirely because of me, or they’re a little bit out of my control, it doesn’t really matter.
At the end of the day, to all the people that never watch skiing — it sucks, in my head, to feel like all those people won’t recognize me. And I know that’s somewhat vain — but, you know, a lot of this is vain. And there’s a part of me that’s, just — I want to be a ski star. I want to be really good, and I am, and it’s just through the first half of this championship, it hasn’t worked out amazingly. But there’s still time. At the end of the day, I just want to be skiing fast, in general. Skiing fast is what’s fun to me. And it’s cool if it’s at the Olympics — but it’s also cool if it’s at the Tuesday night race (in Anchorage, Schumacher’s home town), in April.
Gus Schumacher stands with his club coach, Erik Flora, during a training session at the Olympics in Italy. (Nathaniel Herz/FasterSkier)
NH: I talked yesterday with Ben Ogden about how you guys have been navigating since he won the first men’s Olympic medal in cross-country skiing in half a century — which is something that many of you guys on the men’s team are gunning for, but only one of you got.
He spoke about how that’s obviously a challenging dynamic, but said you guys have been navigating it really openly. He’s also your roommate here in Italy.
Can you talk about all that?
GS: I mean, it’s been, honestly, great. It’s super hard. But having it be Ben is so nice. But he’s so good in that situation.
Obviously, it’s really cool and big for all of us. But everyone wants to be the guy to break the drought, right? And I, for sure, wanted to be that guy. But I also wanted to win the green bib (of best under-23 skier on the World Cup). And I didn’t do that, because I wasn’t skiing that fast, and he did. And that was really cool, that he did that. And then, I’m sure he wanted to compete (at the World Cup) in Minneapolis, but he got mono, and I won.
It’s not just Ben and I. (American) JC (Schoonmaker) got the first podium of any of us, and Ben was fourth that day. We all know how it feels to be on the other side.
Ben came back in the room at 5 p.m., after a one o’clock finish — he’d had a crazy afternoon. I know he had interviews lined up, and I’d just been at home, basically stewing about myself and about the whole situation. And I can’t remember exactly what he said, but the first thing he said, basically, when he came in the room, was: I’ve been thinking about you.
And that meant so much to me. That he would go through all of this, and enjoy himself — I know he was really enjoying himself, and I would not want him to not enjoy himself — but to have your teammate just immediately recognizing: Yeah, I know how it feels to be on the other side.
It made it so much easier for me. And I’ve been clear with him, too, that yeah, it’s kind of hard. But I’m also really proud of him, and it’s really cool that he (won silver). One of us needed to do it, and it’s so, so cool that one of us did. And I also really want to be racing faster, and those things can be true together.
It’s hard. But the hard things are what’s cool about sport, and the Olympics. And the hard times are a lot of what I enjoy about what I do, because I think it makes me a better person. It just makes everything else in life feel so much easier.
To have a team like this, that can have those conversations and be real about it is so nice. Because obviously, it’s not sunshine and rainbows, no matter what it is. You can love someone with all your heart, and if they get something that you wanted, that you can’t have, or you didn’t get, it’s hard. And I’m really glad we don’t just say, ‘I’m so happy for you. Nothing but tears.’ Because it’s not always true. At least for me, honesty is the best policy. And to be able to air stuff makes it so much easier to just go on with it, and talk about the real things.
Gus Schumacher and Ben Ogden celebrate a podium finish in a World Cup team sprint event in Switzerland last month. (Augustin Authamayou/NordicFocus)
NH: Maybe this is touchy, but just to put a fine point on it: It’s not just that you and Ben both wanted a medal, any medal. He won this medal in a specific event that you were also racing in, and could very well have won a medal in.
GS: Yeah. I mean, watching him, it felt a lot like what I did two weeks ago. (Schumacher finished second in a World Cup sprint race in Switzerland in late January.) He looked amazing, and I felt really good in (Switzerland), and I didn’t even really get tired — and the other guys were sort of tired in that final, and it was so similar.
So, yeah, it felt like, ‘Fuck, it’d be awesome if that was me.’ But that’s just how it works in sport. Sometimes you’re there, sometimes you’re not. And if it was always the same, it would get boring.
NH: I’ve been thinking back to the Beijing Olympics four years ago. You had a pretty hard time there, but I wonder if you think it’s right to say that you are experiencing things here in a different way — maybe with more resilience based on that past Olympics experience.
GS: For sure. Everything I do, I think, makes it easier. But four years ago is, for sure, different — a different type of disappointment. And I’d rather have this one — I’d so much rather be in a true contender seat, where I feel like I have a shot at medals. I’d so much rather have that than not be recognizing my body — not be, just, super tired going up the hills.
I learned a lot from Beijing, and I got a lot better after that. Mentally, it’s been a really cool experience to go through these emotions, feel them really well, write them down, pay attention to it, and talk to a bunch of people that can think with me. And I can just, sort of, rant, or do whatever, and get through it and be ready for the next one, because that’s what you need to do, when you’re feeling good, especially.
I’m still feeling good. And it would be such a shame to have a couple bad races and mentally throw in the towel, because it’s hard to draw confidence from a race where you fell in. That’s silly. I can draw confidence from so many things, and that’s what I’m doing. The most recent experience I have, which is the easiest one to go on, is not great. But I’ve got a lot more in the tank to draw from, and I’m really excited to go out there and do what I do.
NH: Fair to say you feel like you are mentally prepared to show up on the start line of the men’s relay tomorrow with a clear head and some confidence in your fitness?
GS: Yeah. I think I’m ready to ski with the best, no matter what has happened so far. And that’s where I want to be. And I feel confident that that’s where I am. And I’m really excited to lay it out there for the team tomorrow, because I think we have a really strong team right now. I maybe alluded to, ‘Ben got something that I didn’t get.’ But this Games isn’t over — and we’ve got more Olympics (in four and eight years), too. I feel confident that I’ve still got time, which is nice.
NH: I think I want to print this just as an unadulterated Q&A. Do you feel good about that?
GS: Yeah — I think it’s important to talk about some of the hard things. It’s what makes our team strong. And I think it is something that is often so much more helpful than I even know for people to hear. Because a lot of this stuff is pretty applicable not just to sports, but even just day-to-day life.
Shit happens, and sometimes it happens when you really don’t want it to. You’ve got to move through it, and it’s so much easier said than done. But I think talking about it — and hopefully I shed enough light on it to maybe inspire people, to help them understand — I think it’s a good message. It makes me proud to know that I’m still in the fight because of how I’ve gone about it.
Ben Ogden celebrates his silver medal in the Olympic sprint in Tesero, Italy. (Federica Vanzetta/Nordic Focus)
PREDAZZO, ITALY — Ben Ogden, the U.S. cross-country skier, was ready to celebrate his historic Olympic silver Tuesday with his signature backflip off the podium.
But there was a problem: He had to pee.
After Ogden won the first men’s medal in cross-country skiing in a half-century, doping testers needed a urine sample. So, he did the obvious thing and “drank, like, three bottles of water, immediately,” he said.
The need to relieve himself, he said, was probably the biggest concern on his mind as he contemplated the backflip while the podium ceremony played out. “When I was standing up there, I definitely reconsidered a couple of times,” he said.
Ogden went for the backflip anyway. Afterward, he still had to walk through a maze of reporters called the mixed zone, where — unlike at non-Olympic races — everybody wanted to talk. Then straight to a news conference, and finally, a wait when he arrived at doping control: The other medal-winners had already arrived.
Ben Ogden speaks with media in the mixed zone after his Olympics silver. (Nathaniel Herz/FasterSkier)
“It was really, honestly, pretty miserable. I haven’t had to pee that bad since I was a little kid on a road trip,” Ogden said. “I didn’t really realize the whole situation after you get a medal at the Olympics.”
But Ogden wasn’t complaining.
At a reporter’s request, he was laying out the specifics of what happens in the hours and days immediately following something that many athletes dream of but few actually experience: winning an Olympic medal.
In a conversation Friday at his hotel in Italy — outdoors, to minimize infection risk from a reporter who has been outside the U.S. team’s bubble — Ogden described a phone deluged with messages and a dayslong-sprint of interviews and TV appearances over Zoom. But he also took time the day of the medal to enjoy a sauna with some teammates he’s known for years. He said the time in the sauna was important because it gave him time to process an accomplishment that all of them have aspired to but just one of them has achieved.
“If you win an Olympic medal, it’s like your life changes overnight,” said Jessie Diggins, one of the three other American cross-country skiers in history who can relate to Ogden’s medal-winning experience. “Which is really cool, but it’s a lot of pressure, and it’s a lot of obligations that come afterward.”
She added: “I’m just really proud of him for taking in all of the energy that comes in surrounding that.”
“The toll is real”
Ogden, 26, has had a few podium finishes on the World Cup against Olympic-level competition. But the Vermonter was far from a lock for a medal in Tuesday’s sprint race, where he was nearly eliminated after failing to place in the top two in his semifinal heat and only advanced to the final as a “lucky loser” based on his finish time.
In the finals, though, he made a powerful charge up the final hill and finished trailing only Johannes Høsflot Klæbo of Norway, who’s won all three cross-country events in Italy so far and is widely seen as the greatest athlete his sport has ever produced.
The result was huge not just for Ogden but for his teammates and the American staff – a large group of athletes stayed at the race trails to congratulate him and attend the medals ceremony.
American Olympic cross-country skier Julia Kern takes a selfie with Andrea Ogden, the mother of silver medalist Ben Ogden, just before Tuesday’s medals ceremony. (Nathaniel Herz/FasterSkier)
For some of those athletes, the thrill of Ogden’s medal and their proximity to it left them so exhausted that they scaled back their own workouts the next day, said Chris Grover, the U.S. cross-country’ team’s director.
“It really hit them not only emotionally, but it hit them physically,” he said in an interview Thursday.
The impact on teammates, Grover added, underscores that for Ogden himself, “the toll is real.”
One example: The night of the medal, Ogden said, “it was incredibly hard to wind down, just thinking about everything.” It took until 2 a.m. to fall asleep, and by 7 a.m., he was wide awake, with a “crazy” schedule of media appearances — including Good Morning America, on ABC.
All Ogden had to drink the night before was a little champagne. Still, on TV, he said, “I had some bags under my eyes, I was pretty tired, I hadn’t shaved. And I was looking at myself in the camera and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’ve got to tighten it up a little bit.’”
“I’m sure that they all wanted me to say I was out drinking and carrying on. And I didn’t say that,” he said. “But they probably thought I was, based on how I looked.”
Ben Ogden celebrates his Olympic medal Tuesday. (Federica Vanzetta/Nordic Focus)
The cross-country team’s press officer, Leann Bentley, coordinated the string of media appearances. She also helped Ogden draft an Instagram post that, he said, was hard to compose.
“It’s so overwhelming to think of all the people who you want to thank,” Ogden said. “You’re just like, ‘Oh, my God, there’s too many. It’s so hard.’”
As for the phone? Ogden had left it in his backpack in the hours immediately following the race. When he picked it up, initially, there were so many messages coming in that it made it difficult to find the threads he needed to use to communicate with his ski technician and his mother.
“Their text exchanges just get buried, immediately,” he said. “Then you start pinning them — but all of a sudden you have 10 pinned messages and that gets confusing. So, I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of important stuff.”
A meeting with Bernie?
On Friday, Ogden was expected to be one of the U.S. team’s four starters in the next Olympic cross-country event, the 10-kilometer freestyle, and he wanted to race.
But amid the intensity of the medal-winning experience, U.S. staff encouraged him to stand down, according to Grover, the team’s director. “He’s just had so much emotion,” Grover said. “And there’s been a lot of media.”
Chris Grover, one of the U.S. Ski Team’s coaches, skis at the Olympic venue in Italy. (Nathaniel Herz/FasterSkier)
Ogden has traditionally been stronger in shorter distances. And the upcoming relay race Sunday — with four 7.5-kilometer legs — and the team sprint scheduled for Wednesday represent “really big opportunities for us,” Grover said.
Ogden, nonetheless, was keen to race Friday, in spite of his coaches’ position.
“They don’t ever make decisions for us. But I think that was the closest I’ll ever get to them telling me they’re not going to start me. They were really adamant that they wanted me to sit it out,” he said. “You kind of train a lot, and you’re trying to put yourself in good shape — and then when you are, it’s nice to race.”
Since those conversations, though, Ogden acknowledged that he’s “crashed a little bit, energy-wise — as they sort of speculated would happen.”
“You can only ride a high for so long before it comes down,” he said. Skipping the event, he added, was ultimately a “good call,” given the upcoming team events.
In the days since the medal, Ogden said, he hasn’t had much time to consider what it means, and how it might affect him. But he did acknowledge that his view of himself and where he sits in his sport has “changed, a little bit.”
Earlier in his career, Ogden said, he felt some awkwardness in describing himself as a “professional skier.” “You’re not getting paid. You’re not really making money, you don’t have results to show for it, too much,” he said. “It’s kind of hard to believe it.”
He added: “Over the years, as you get more established, it starts to be easier. And I think now, it will be really easy.”
Nonetheless, Ogden still has no agent. And no companies have landed in his inbox pitching endorsement deals — unless, he added, they’re in his DMs and he hasn’t seen them yet.
More than anything else, he said, his “peak goal” is leveraging his medal into some time with Bernie Sanders, the populist U.S. senator and former presidential candidate from Ogden’s home state.
“And I really want to meet him and talk to him, too. Not just, like, a handshake,” Ogden said.
“I know it’s political and everything else. But Bernie is just an ambassador for Vermont, and has been for so long. And he’s been someone who I’ve looked up to and respected, and I just couldn’t ask him — he’s a busy man,” Ogden said. “But I think maybe now — maybe now — I can take this medal and figure out a way to meet him.”
