It’s fundraising season in cross-country skiing. Later this month NNF will launch its annual Drive for 25, and I will write an editorial titled something edgy and opqaue like, “NNF Is Good, and You Should Give Them Money.” A week or so after that, once the World Cup season has started and my readership numbers here are higher, I will write my own self-serving editorial about all the great work I have done in covering nordic skiing over the past year, and why you should give me money to help support my crisscrossing the continent to sleep in cheap hotels and write 5,000 words a day while living like a Covid-avoiding monk. (I should probably link here to last season’s GoFundMe; I’ll have a new pitch up soon, but the money all goes to the same place if you’re so inspired now. Thanks.)
But before all that happens, it’s auction season! Like donating money, but you get to buy something in exchange! The Alberta World Cup Academy auction closed over the weekend, I have just realized, so this is a shorter roundup than I was envisioning. But here is the Team Birkie auction, plus a special good-cause jewelry drop. Bid early, bid often.
Team: Team Birkie
Auction link: is here
Auction ends: November 15, 8 p.m. Central Time (5 p.m. Alaska Time)
Auction items that feel to me particularly evocative of this team: Birkie race prep advice session from literally David Norris and Jessica Yeaton; technique coaching session with Chad Salmela; commemorative hat from the would-be 2020 Wirth World Cup that was canceled at the last minute as Covid swept the globe (oof)
Team: team save the planet/50 percent of proceeds from this collection go to Protect Our Winters
Jewelry collection link: is here
Sales end: All items still available, but you will have to wait up to six weeks to get your pieces, sorry.
Embed from Getty ImagesItem that feels to me particularly evocative of this athlete: I should probably choose the ring, which has “all out to the finish line” engraved on the inside of it in Diggins’ cursive miniscule. But if you zoom in on Diggins’ earrings in the above photo, then you’ll see why my answer is the hair pin that looks demure from a distance but actually is made up of repeated instances of a very dirty word. A sweet and sassy hair pin, indeed.
It appears that I am going to be receiving targeted Instagram ads from Minneapolis-based jeweler Larissa Loden for the rest of my life in exchange for researching this piece of hard-hitting journalism, so hopefully you enjoy this shopping overview.
— Gavin Kentch
