“The past is never dead. It’s not even past,” as well-known cross-country ski fan William Faulkner famously wrote in his how-to guide for klister waxing, Requiem for a Nun.
The American women were racing in the 4 x 7.5km relay against the six other countries and eight other teams out on course on Sunday morning. But they were also racing against themselves, or at least against the memory of The Breakthrough Historical Women’s Relay Podium™ that occurred here in November 2012, and that is all that anyone (including this reporter) could talk about once this stop loomed on the World Cup calendar.
Long story short, the American women were third again earlier today, which is potentially surprising if you had tapped them for second coming into the race. The Swedish women won, at home, which given the current strength of their team 1989is surprising only because they did it with some athletes out for Covid. Germany was second, which is surprising only if you focus on their athletes’ individual rankings, and not on the fact that the German women were also second in the relay in both Beijing in 2022 and Planica in 2023.
And Norway was fourth, which is maybe not actually surprising if you take a clear-eyed look at how their women’s team has been skiing this season (sorry, calling it like I see it), but is historically very surprising, inasmuch as the last time they were off the podium in this event was, it feels like, 1989 [really “only” March 2007, but also that is a long time ago by now, actually].
Back in the present, though, today’s story begins with Jessie Diggins.
Jessie Diggins often anchors news coverage of American cross-country skiing. She is a highly visible star who probably has more Instagram followers than the rest of the women’s team combined. She also often anchors team events, most famously in the 2012 Gällivare World Cup relay/2015 Lillehammer World Cup relay/2017 World Champs team sprint/2018 Olympics team sprint/2021 World Champs relay/etc.
But when the relay lists came out, there was Diggins leading things off for the Americans. This was not her first time skiing a classic leg in a relay, Diggins having now reached late-career-Kikkan-Randall territory where even her “worse” technique is so strong that she can be slotted in wherever is necessary to help out a team. I think it was her first time ever skiing a scramble leg as opposed to leg two, but I only looked back through the last 10 or 15 relays on her FIS profile, so don’t quote me on that.
“To be honest, I really wanted to skate this course, because I had so much confidence in my skating,” Diggins told Nordic Insights after the race, perhaps reflecting the fact that she destroyed this field in yesterday’s skate race. “And I’ve never felt that confident as a classic skier. Maybe it’s imposter syndrome. Or maybe it’s just because my technique has been a work in progress. And it still is.”
“But these were amazing conditions,” Diggins continued. “It was cold; they were firm tracks; we had amazing skis; the kicking was really straightforward. And so I was really thankful for that, because it was a huge confidence booster, to feel like, Okay, I can go out there and try to really just smash as hard as I can for the team.
“And so I was proud of how I skied. Especially doing a leg that, yeah, isn’t my strength. And so it’s time to grow and try to make it one of my strengths, and so that’s what I’m working on. And it was really fun. And it was also exciting, because nobody saw that coming.”
(“No one” includes the victorious Swedes. Swedish great Johan Olsson, now turned commentator, was a little more pointed in his analysis, stating, “I would have been more worried if Diggins had been on the last stretch. … Want to put Diggins on a classic stretch for the sake of training? It can be so. The classic track is a little easier, so it’s easier to hang on there” on a European race broadcast. Chad Salmela had a more glass-half-full take on this.)
This is what Diggins smashing as hard as she could looked like: First at 1.3km, first at 2.8km, first at 3.8km, first at 5.1km, first at 6.6km. You may sense a theme here. Leadoff skier Heidi Weng of Norway was right on Diggins’s tails throughout, and in fact dropped her going up the final climb to come into the first exchange with a half-second lead. But put another way, there was Diggins taking it to the entire field in a technique that has, by her own admission, not been a historic strength for her. Work on your weaknesses, kids.
If Diggins smashed, then Rosie Brennan destroyed worlds. She took the handoff essentially even with young Margrethe Bergane of Norway, 10 seconds up on Emma Ribom of Sweden, and already 33 seconds ahead of Katharina Hennig of Germany.
Four minutes into her first leg, Brennan was still skiing just ahead of Norway. Four minutes later, she was now 12.4 seconds up on Norway, and 11.4 seconds up on a resurgent Sweden. That is, she put 11 seconds into a world-class field in just over a kilometer.
Another kilometer, another two seconds on Sweden. Another kilometer, another six seconds. Another kilometer, another four seconds.
Over the first 6.5km of her 7.5km lap, Brennan put 41 seconds into Bergane and 14 seconds into Ribom. You remember when prime Marit Bjørgen would drop the field early and then run up the score just because she could, skiing away in an unrelenting display of power with a “f*ck all you guys” look on her face? It was like that. It ruled.
(Note that Brennan described this in her post-race remarks, more demurely, as just “go[ing] full send.” Brennan is a very, very nice person who was, I am sure, not using foul language on the race course. But I do not apologize for reading that into the broadcast, because, my god, she crushed so hard out there. It was so awesome.)
With one kilometer to go in her lap, Brennan was 24 seconds up on both Ribom of Sweden and Hennig of Germany, who were working together to staunch the flow of hemorrhaging time left in Brennan’s wake. They brought things back slightly over the final few minutes, coming into the second exchange 19 seconds back. It was at this point USA first, Germany and Sweden tied for second, and Norway fourth, 48 seconds back of the win and already nearly 30 seconds back of the podium.
“The shorthand description for leg two is that it’s where each team traditionally puts its strongest classic skier, and they all try to blow the race open right there,” I had written to Brennan as part of a pre-race question.
Brennan did not disagree with this premise: “I have done a lot of leg two,” Brennan mused to Nordic Insights after the race. “And yes it is always stressful because it tends to be some really, kind of, engine-oriented skiers. And so I’m very honored that the team believes in me for that leg.”
“My classic skiing has just been feeling really good this year,” Brennan continued, “so I was excited to try to just go full send and see what happened. And I just felt good right at the start. Initially, I wasn’t planning to go right from the gun, but with the work that Jessie had done, I felt like maybe I could try to break some people early and see what I had in me. So I just went for it.”
It’s easy for me to sit here and valorize this performance (because, again: scoreboard), but Brennan is human too, and even she had time for second thoughts on what began to feel like a veeeeery long second lap around the 3.75km course. Women are of course eminently capable of skiing a 4 x 7.5km relay, but there is also more time for things to go south out there than in a 4 x 5km, just as a matter of simple math.
“I felt pretty good until lapping through,” Brennan recounted. “And then I momentarily regretted my decision.”
“But,” she continued, “I really just focused on some good skiing and holding it together, and remembering that every second would be important for the last two legs, and just trying to do my part to have the best possible outcome for the team. So I’m really excited with how things went. … It was a great day, and I’m really excited that we put together a good team and made it happen.”
Over the lap in which Brennan was “just … holding it together” she put an additional six seconds into Emma Ribom, an athlete with three world championships medals and five World Cup relay podiums who had bested her in yesterday’s 10km skate.
Onto skating. Sophia Laukli took the handoff 19 seconds ahead of Pia Fink of Germany and Ebba Andersson of Sweden, who had every incentive in the world to work together to track down the 23-year-old American working hard by herself off the front.
This happened, eventually, but not until 5km into the 7.5-kilometer leg, following a bravura display by Laukli. The trademark high-tempo V2 was there, of course; Laukli is good at going fast, fast. But it was more than that, as Laukli gamely pushed throughout the entire course. She jumpskated every uphill. She free skated the downhills.
Andersson is one of the best distance skiers in the world right now, with three individual medals from World Champs in Planica, plus a relay medal, plus six World Cup distance podiums last season alone. She was 48 seconds faster than Laukli in yesterday’s 10km. She was working together with another athlete on Sunday, pinning it from the start, while Laukli toiled alone in the loneliest spot in the race. And the American still held them off for 5 kilometers of solo toil. Special things happen on relay day.
After catching up to Laukli Andersson dropped Fink like the German was standing still, then began trying to destroy Laukli off the front. Laukli kept her well within sight. She finally surrendered a few seconds only on the descent to the exchange.
“It was a really fun day to be a part of the relay,” Laukli wrote in comments to multiple media outlets, “especially because it was my first relay podium. I think it was also my first time selected to be on the first women’s team, so it was a combo of excitement but also a bit of stress. But it gave me a lot of confidence to be put on the team, so that added some extra motivation for sure. I was much more nervous than anticipated right as I was about to start, I think just because it was going really well for the team so far, so it added some pressure but for the better.”
Because I am a dork, I asked Laukli a far more specific question about what it’s like to be on leg three, as well as how she tried to ski her leg today. Here’s Laukli, in writing to Nordic Insights:
“I don’t think there’s really another option besides leg 3 for me so I must say I definitely like it and would prefer it that way. It’s hard to say when I’ve never tried another leg, but I know I probably shouldn’t classic ski and probably shouldn’t anchor for sprinting purposes either, so leg 3 is really quite perfect.”
And as for her approach to her leg today?
“Today the goal was just to do everything I could to stay with the lead group and minimize any gap before tagging to Julia. I got very lucky that Rosie ended up opening up the race and giving me a strong lead going into the 3rd leg. I think I definitely needed that because I knew Ebba would catch back up, and this gave me a much needed head start to be able to come into the tag zone as close as possible to the lead. So I would say I did execute and achieve my main goal for the day as well as I probably could have, so that’s always a good feeling!”
At the final exchange, it was Sweden in first, with the U.S. 4.6 seconds back in second, and Germany 20 seconds back in third. Norway was fourth, nearly a minute back of Sweden and 37 seconds back of Germany; barring an all-time meltdown on the anchor leg, Norway’s lengthy streak of relay podium finishes would come to an end. Moa Ilar took the handoff for Sweden, Victoria Carl for Germany, and Julia Kern for the U.S., the three podium finishers likely established but their final order still very much up for grabs.
Kern did not ski poorly, but she has had stronger days on the race course. Ilar surged hard immediately off the front, creating a gap for Sweden that she would not relinquish. Kern lost 10+ seconds to Ilar over the first 1.3km of her leg and was now left in an awkward no man’s land, 15 seconds back of Sweden and 15 seconds up on Germany.
This state of affairs held through much of Kern’s first time around the 3.75km course. When she came through the stadium for the penultimate time Sweden was now 22 seconds ahead, and Germany just 5 seconds back. Soon Kern was caught by Carl (or perhaps: slowed down to let herself be caught by Carl, conserving energy for the fight for second), and the two of them could work together to try to track down Ilar.
This worked for Kern, until it didn’t. With roughly 1.5km to go, Carl turned up her tempo, and that was that. Kern went from even with the German at 27.8km to 10 seconds back of her at 29.1km. Skiing at your absolute limit is hard, and Kern did what she could today.
Carl was closing fast on Ilar over the end of her leg, but ran out of real estate before she could do much more. Sweden took the comfortable victory at home in 1:20:19, its first women’s World Cup relay win since 2009 (though they did claim relay gold at 2019 World Champs in Seefeld). Germany was 13.5 seconds back in second, and the U.S. 27.5 seconds back in third. It was the first World Cup relay podium for Laukli, and, sort of, the first for Kern.
(It is absolutely true that Kern was on a third-place relay team on Toblach last season, but also the U.S. was the fourth team across the line in that race and moved up to third only on Germany’s disqualification for substituting an athlete after the pre-race deadline for submitting official start lists. Several U.S. athletes gave the German team their podium cheese that day, for what that’s worth. Certainly no snark to Kern here, just, this is perhaps her first relay podium with no asterisk by it.)
“Any relay day is a significant day,” Kern wrote after the race in comments to multiple media outlets, “to even be on the relay team ready to give it your all. Landing on the podium in a relay takes everyone on the team, athlete, staff and techs, to be on their A-game and show up to give it our all and I’m proud that we did that today.”
Kern added, “It does feel extra special to podium in the relay here in tribute to our trailblazer women’s team who podiumed here for the first time in 2012 here I believe, showing them we are trying to carry on their legacy and so grateful for the path they blazed for us. Jessie was on that relay team and is still with us and that is super special, to see the team change over time in some ways, but the traditions remaining the same with face paint, socks and glitter.”
I managed to wait until this point in the article before showing the historical photos, but you can see the team for The Breakthrough Historical Women’s Relay Podium™ in Kikkan’s post below. For perspective, Diggins, now 32, is 21 years old in this photo, which was taken during Obama’s first term.
* * *
I want to give the final word here to Matt Whitcomb, head coach of the U.S. Ski Team, formerly, among many other job titles, women’s coach for the national team. Diggins is the most obvious through line from that 2012 Gällivare relay podium to today, but Whitcomb has been with this team for even longer, dating back to the days when the U.S. didn’t have four women present on the World Cup to let them even start a relay team, let alone contend for the podium.
I asked Whitcomb about this historical resonance in advance of today’s races. Here’s what he had to say:
“We took our staff to our wax tech’s house for dessert the other night. He lives in Gällivare. We were laughing about how, eleven years ago, our staff came over to his home and ate all of their winter salmon. That was six people. This year we brought 12. Imagine the pastries. But also, imagine the growth in staff numbers. Then, wax cabins, and now, truck. Today, two men’s relay teams.
“It’s very special to be here. I have a bib from the 2012 relay team, signed by the team. It hangs in my cabin. I can remember every moment of those two days, and this weekend, podiums or not, we are adding to those. The local fans are reaching out to us and saying how they remember, too.”
The past is never dead, indeed. Go team.
— 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 that you are currently reading — 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 is still up 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.
