It was something old, something new as the 2023/2024 World Cup season kicked off under the lights in Ruka earlier Friday. Emma Ribom of Sweden won the opening classic sprint here for the second year in a row, and for the second year in a row was joined on the podium by another Swede and a Norwegian.
But shortly behind her, Jessie Diggins qualified in 12th and raced well after that to finish her day in seventh overall. It was her first time ever making the semifinals in Ruka and her highest finish ever in this race in Ruka, at a venue where Diggins first raced a classic sprint in 2014. Looks like Diggins’s self-proclaimed focus on classic striding has been paying off.
Diggins was joined in the semis by Julia Kern and Rosie Brennan. The trio finished seventh through ninth overall, highlighting a strong day for the American women.
The front of the field, however, for not the first time in the last few seasons and assuredly not the last time this season, was dominated by the blue, white, and yellow suits of the Swedish women. Four of the six athletes in the final were Swedish, a repeat of the women’s sprint final at 2023 World Championships in Planica.
This time it was Ribom first in the final, then teammate Jonna Sundling second. Kristine Stavås Skistad of Norway was third to round out the podium. They were followed by Frida Karlsson (also of Sweden), Linn Svahn (also of Sweden), and Jasmi Joensuu of Finland.
In the final, as is typically the case on this course, the final hill was dispositive. Ribom barely inched ahead of Sundling up this climb, then had more left to give in the doublepole to the finish — compare the two women’s body position when doublepoling in the clip above, and note how much higher Ribom is able to come up than Sundling by the end of the Finnish finish stretch (ask me how I know about ending up looking down at your shins when doublepoling).
American fans’ focus was squarely on the semifinals, where the redoubtable trio of Jessie Diggins, Rosie Brennan, and Julia Kern lined up in what remained of the Finnish daylight.
Semifinal one saw Kern and Brennan, along with Ribom, Sundling, Skistad, and Katri Lylynperä of Finland. It was close, and the front of the field was fast, but Kern was ultimately 0.95 seconds out of third in her heat. She also had precisely the same time as Svahn (when measured to the hundredth of a second), who would claim the final lucky loser spot out of semifinal no. 2, but Svahn advanced to the final on the basis of her faster qualifying time. Brennan was fifth in the heat.
It was a similar story in the second semifinal, where Diggins toed the line against Karlsson, Svahn, Joensuu, Katharina Hennig of Germany, and Moa Lundgren of, well, Sweden. Diggins was in it until she wasn’t, ultimately fading slightly to finish in fourth, 2.48 seconds back of Karlsson.
Diggins was 0.16 seconds out of besting Svahn for the final lucky loser spot. For perspective, if you have an image in your mind’s eye of Diggins lunging against Stina Nilsson for gold in the 2018 Olympic team skate sprint, or again against Nilsson for bronze in the 2017 world champs team classic sprint, the margin there was 0.19 seconds in each case. The smallest margins count at the highest levels of ski racing.
“This took me 12 years to make the semifinal” here in Ruka, Diggins said in the mixed zone after the race, “so I guess that’s why we don’t give up. We just keep trying.”
Most of the post-race questions Diggins received, at least in the audio I have available (thanks Leann!), centered on how she is doing rather than how she is racing.
“Why did you choose to go to the World Cup,” Diggins was asked, in reference to her recent frank thoughts on her mental health and her plan to take this World Cup season one race at a time.
“At the end of the day, I love to be here,” Diggins answered. “And also, my whole support team decided, Okay, you’re in a good place, like, you’re cool to race, which is good. And that was very important to me [inaudible slightly sorry] just because everyone agrees this is good, this is okay.
“And at the end of the day, I love doing this, I love this job. I love being here. I love seeing all my friends, like you would not believe the amount of hugs and support that I’ve gotten from so many different countries; that’s really special. And it’s been really cool.”
In response to a different question, Diggins added, “I think that’s really cool and important that I don’t feel any pressure from my coaches or from my team. … They’re like, We just want you to be happy and healthy. And that’s the only thing we want. And so if at any point you want to go home, we’ll buy you your plane ticket home, you know, and that makes me feel so cared for and so supported.”
Do you have a return ticket yet at the moment, was the final question put to Diggins.
“No,” she said, laughing. “But also I don’t have a Schengen visa yet [a visa for travel in an area roughly though not precisely coterminous with the European Union], either. So you know, we’re working on it.”
Here are Julia Kern’s thoughts on the Ruka sprint course from the opening race of last season:
“The last hill on the Ruka course is famous for a reason,” Kern told Nordic Insights. “It’s a really tricky hill, and every year I think, ‘This year I’m gonna master it.’ I don’t think anyone maybe ever masters it. I think it’s all about figuring out how to make it up that hill in whatever gear is best for you.”
So, of course, I asked her how she skied the hill this year. The full audio from Kern is above, on this and several other topics, and you should listen to all of it, because it is really interesting. Here’s a highlight:
“I skied it a lot better than yesterday. The techs said I got the most-improved skier technique-wise [award] compared to yesterday. … I struggled a little bit in race prep yesterday, but I think that was good, because then I had some things to think about during the race and technique cues. And I feel like I executed the hill really well and was proud to, I think, ski the best I’ve ever done up the hill. I think, again, I don’t think anyone ever really masters it, but I was really happy with how I skied it today and how I managed the slippage and kept moving.”
Kern also spoke to her estival training. She described it as “probably the most consistent summer training I’ve ever had,” and probably the highest summer volume she had ever been able to sustain. She credited her coach, Kristen Bourne, for a solid plan. “It was just confidence-boosting coming into the season that I worked really hard and felt the most prepared I’ve ever [been] for the season,” Kern added.
Finally, Kern addressed season goals, including both a single-race results goal of returning to the sprint podium, but also a bigger-picture results goal of ranking in the top five in the Sprint Globe standings. “I think the sprint overall just really shows consistency throughout the season,” Kern said. “And I think I want to be a contender in every single sprint.”
“I couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season,” Brennan told USSS media after the race. “Honestly, this was quite a good day for the whole team and very cool to see.”
Two other American women raced Friday: Novie McCabe was 43rd in the qual, and Lauren Jortberg (SMS) was 45th. Jortberg wrote on Strava, embedded above, of finding progress on the day, regardless of the result.
I’ve always thought of McCabe as more of a pure distance skier, but Friday also marked her ninth career World Cup sprint start, so what do I know. Here are her thoughts on that dynamic, via email to Nordic Insights:
“Yeah, I tend to take the sprint starts when I have the opportunity, mainly because I would love to eventually get a bit better at sprinting, so it’s just fun to do some qualifiers and keep trying to be better!”
Racing continues in Ruka tomorrow with a 10km interval-start classic race. Tomorrow’s start list will look almost identical to today’s for the American women, with the sole change being Sophia Laukli in place of Lauren Jortberg. That is, American starters in the 10km will be McCabe, Kern, Laukli, Diggins, and Brennan, in that bib order.
McCabe will be on course at 11:07:30 a.m. local time (12:07:30 a.m. Alaska time, which is why I am not covering these races live), with Kern and Laukli following at one-minute intervals. Diggins and Brennan will be starting in the seeded group, nearer the end of the 64-women field — but also near the front of the seeded group, if you really want to get inside baseball about it. Ebba Andersson of Sweden, the athlete tagged as the favorite for the World Cup overall in many preseason predictions, will make her first start of the season, having been unable to crack the stout Swedish women’s sprint team for a start on Friday. Tough crowd out there.
— Gavin Kentch
Financial real talk: I worked my butt off for the first year of this website, and took home a net profit of all of $1,500. Inspiring stuff I know. And that was only thanks to the $3,000 that I took in from readers through my GoFundMe. On the one hand, I’m not going very hard on soliciting donations right now, because this is fundraising week for the NNF’s Drive for 25, deservedly so. On the other hand, the money from the GoFundMe is the only reason that I had a profit instead of a loss for the first year of Nordic Insights, and is in turn why there is a second year of Nordic Insights — I was on board with doing this for very little money out of a love for American nordic skiing, but didn’t want to lose money for the privilege of doing this.
So. If you would like to support the second year of Nordic Insights, last year’s GoFundMe may still be found here. I will update this with a new fundraiser soon/once Drive for 25 ends; for the time being, just mentally substitute in “World Cup” for “Houghton” (basically the same venue tbh). All the money still goes to the same place. Thank you for your support, and thank you, as always, for reading.
