SOLDIER HOLLOW NORDIC CENTER — One last sprint here this week, one last chance for athletes to roll the dice on leading over the top of the last hill, roughly sixty percent of the way into the 1.6-kilometer sprint course, and see what happens over the concluding forty percent.
Sunday afternoon, in the women’s SuperTour classic sprint that capped off a week of racing here in Soldier Hollow, it was Alayna Sonnesyn’s turn to try that gambit. She boldly took the lead; it almost worked; she was ultimately caught back up by the finish, but only by one athlete, and only by half a second. That’s racing.
Karianne Olsvik Dengerud, of the University of Utah, was the skier who had the most left to give by the end of the race. She crossed the finish line in 4:37.14, presumably the slowest time you will see for a high-level sprint this season. (No shade there at all, the athletes skied well, it’s just a long course, and it skied even longer in the conditions today. Its placement as race no. 4 in a four-race week probably didn’t help matters any.)
Sonnesyn, of SMS, was ultimately second, precisely 0.50 seconds back. Merle Richter, of NMU, was third; Weronika Kaleta, of Colorado, was fourth; Sydney Palmer-Leger, the pride of Park City (and current Utah athlete), was fifth; and Margie Freed, of Craftsbury, was sixth. Making the final capped a strong week here for all of Sonnesyn, Palmer-Leger, and Freed, each of whom claimed at least one domestic podium in the first three races.
“It took about five minutes to do a sprint race, which was just like doing intervals,” Freed said when I asked her to walk me though the final. “And so we kind of took it out pretty slowly in the final, which was nice, because I was really tired from all the other races we’ve done today. And then it kind of started to heat up on the second hill, and then a lot of doublepoling into the finish. So I just tried to stay strong throughout it.”
I already spent most of today’s men’s race article discussing the implications of an abnormally long sprint course, and I don’t want to obsess about that here again. But the duration of each heat was also a salient feature of the day’s racing, so here’s Freed on what, if anything, she does differently under these four-and-a-half minute circumstances:
“Not really a lot,” she mused. “I would say that I kind of rely on my fitness a little more, as I tend to be, in the past, a little stronger of a distance skier. So that usually works in my favor for me. But I know that, especially as you get down to the semis and finals, kind of everyone’s in the same boat, where they’re all extremely fit. It’s kind of just a matter of who can pull it out for whatever heat you’re on. And so I just try and stay strong throughout that, and stay confident in my abilities.”
Freed had few regrets about how she had skied the final.
“Not really,” she said, when asked about this. “I think that a lot of it is about tactics, and also having good skis, especially coming down that final hill, and then just being able to finish strong in the doublepole. So maybe if I had saved a little more, I could have doublepoled faster. But, you know, you never know how it’s gonna shake out. So I try and just be happy with the race that I did. And I’m tired and ready for some rest. So looking forward to that.”
Freed was clearly content, and pronounced herself “happy” at this point in the week.
“I definitely was not sad about any of my races,” she added, “which I know a lot of my teammates and competitors have been with whatever race they’ve done this week. And so I’ve just had a good time. I’ve had a lot of good fans come to support me. My parents are here, and one of my good childhood friends is here. So I’m just happy to be around them.”
Freed, when pressed for a name of said friend, shouted out one Sydney Hedberg, who had driven from Fort Collins, a distance of roughly 450 miles one way, to watch her race.
“We grew up playing soccer, and running cross country, and did the nordic team in high school together,” Freed said. “And so it’s really awesome to have her here.”
Freed was, I am sure, unique in today’s women’s field in having started the season racing biathlon on the IBU World Cup. She started four races in Östersund, placing 75th and 93rd in two individual races and 14th in each of two relays.
On the one hand, Freed reports that she “really liked the mental challenge of biathlon, and learning a new skill while still working on my ski fitness.” On the other hand, she acknowledges liking “the simplicity of cross country racing. And also the domestic circuit for cross country racing is a lot better than the biathlon circuit,” she continued. “So it’s kind of a tradeoff there. So I like them both, and it’s definitely hard to hard to choose one.”
Slightly ahead of Freed in the final was Sydney Palmer-Leger, shown here in a file photo from earlier this week.
Palmer-Leger called today’s race “really good. It was really fun.” She added, “It’s kind of redemption over the sprint a couple days ago. So it’s nice to finally be in the finals.”
The Utah senior pronounced herself pleased with the way she had skied. “I just went out hard,” she recounted. “I kind of got a little stuck on the last hill. But I wouldn’t change anything else. Sprint racing — you just never know what’s gonna happen, so push the whole thing. I’m really happy with it.”
Between growing up here and now skiing for Utah, Palmer-Leger likely has as much experience with this sprint course as anyone in the entire field today. In the abstract, she does like the changes to the course (discussed at length in this article) that made the final descent less tactical. In practice, though, today was a long day for everyone, and she wouldn’t have minded a little more sitting and tucking, a little less tactical skiing, in the final.
“I like it,” she said. “But I kind of wished that it was the other old course. Just because it’s so long. And so when you go from a sprint day to a 20km to a sprint day and you’re out here all day, and you’re racing for four minutes, it gets tiring very quickly.”
Finally, what’s next for Palmer-Leger, after recovering from this week’s races? RMISA racing right here at Soho starting on Friday, then more RMISA racing in Steamboat Springs soon after that. She has qualified for the U.S. team for World U23 Championships in Planica, but has declined the spot. Palmer-Leger, and this reporter, will both return to the circuit next month for World Cup races in Canmore and Minneapolis. Stay tuned.
— Gavin Kentch
So far as I can tell I am the only media outlet interviewing athletes at this year’s national championships. This coverage is happening only because I paid my way to travel down here from Alaska for a week-plus reporting trip. If you would like to support these efforts, you can find my GoFundMe here. (This is still last year’s fundraiser, sorry, because I’ve been busy; the money all goes to the same place.) Thank you for your consideration, and thanks for reading.
