By Gavin Kentch
On Monday of this week, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced the athletes nominated for Period 4 of the 2023/2024 World Cup season. Period 4 will wrap up this year’s race season, which is suddenly surprisingly close to its end. March brings three races in Lahti, two races in the greater Oslo area (one at Holmenkollen and one the city sprint in Drammen), and three races in Falun for World Cup Finals. And that is it; by March 17 it will be season-ending party time.
Going into Lahti Jessie Diggins leads the World Cup standings over Linn Svahn by 257 points with just seven scored races remaining, a fact that will likely be mentioned frequently in broadcasts. Rosie Brennan has fallen off the pace somewhat after her torrid start to the season, and saw a rougher block of racing in North America this month than she would have liked. Brennan currently sits in fifth in the women’s overall standings, and fourth for distance.
On the men’s side, Ben Ogden’s tenth in the sprint standings and Zanden McMullen’s fifth in the U23 standings mark the two Americans currently with a top-ten position in discipline standings. Ogden’s placing is unlikely to improve, as he is unfortunately out for the rest of the season with mono. Gus Schumacher leads the American men in the overall standings in 17th.
The athletes nominated for Period 4 are listed below. As always, these names largely overlap with but are not precisely coterminous with those athletes who will actually accept the starts; the presence of Ben Ogden on several of these lists should be a tipoff. (That’s no snark at all to USSS, which has accurately applied objective criteria that lead to Ogden, on paper, meriting a start. That’s why you have alternates, and why, say, Peter Wolter has showed up in social media posts from Lahti.)
Expect starters for the classic team sprint in Lahti to be announced separately. And, I would suspect, for Diggins not to race in that, because it is unscored, it is a long season, and btw she won a 50km last weekend and even she may need some more time to recover.
Lahti 20km classic, Holmenkollen 50km classic, and Falun 10km classic
Men
- Michael Earnhart (basis for selection: objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Gus Schumacher (objective) (16th in Distance Cup)
- Scott Patterson (objective) (30th in Distance Cup)
- Ben Ogden (objective) (39th in Distance Cup)
- Zanden McMullen (discretion) (29th in Trondheim 10km classic)
- David Norris (discretion) (33rd in Canmore 20km classic)
- Hunter Wonders (discretion) (34th in Canmore 20km classic)
- Luke Jager (alternate) (1st in U.S. Nationals 10km classic)
- Peter Wolter (alternate) (2nd in U.S. Nationals 10km classic)
- Zak Ketterson (alternate) (40th in Oberhof 20km classic)
Women
- Margie Freed (objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Jessie Diggins (objective) (current overall World Cup leader)
- Rosie Brennan (objective) (4th in Distance Cup)
- Sophia Laukli (objective) (15th in Distance Cup)
- Novie McCabe (discretion) (19th in Davos 20km classic)
- Julia Kern (discretion) (26th in Canmore 20km classic)
- Sammy Smith (discretion) (28th in Davos 20km classic)
- Haley Brewster (discretion) (12th in 10km classic at World U23s)
- Sydney Palmer-Leger (alternate) (31st in Davos 20km classic)
Lahti skate sprint
- Michael Earnhart (objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Ben Ogden (objective) (10th in Sprint Cup)
- JC Schoonmaker (objective) (13th in Sprint Cup)
- Gus Schumacher (objective) (24th in Sprint Cup)
- Kevin Bolger (objective) (26th in Sprint Cup)
- Zak Ketterson (objective) (33rd in Sprint Cup)
- John Steel Hagenbuch (discretion) (3rd in skate sprint at World U23s)
- Logan Diekmann (alternate) (16th in Canmore skate sprint)
- Jack Young (alternate) (23rd in Canmore skate sprint)
- Zanden McMullen (alternate) (25th in Davos skate sprint)
- Will Koch (alternate) (38th in Minneapolis skate sprint)
Women
- Margie Freed (objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Jessie Diggins (objective) (current overall World Cup leader)
- Rosie Brennan (objective) (10th in Sprint Cup)
- Julia Kern (objective) (14th in Sprint Cup)
- Sammy Smith (discretion) (2nd in skate sprint at World Juniors)
- Lauren Jortberg (discretion) (19th in Canmore skate sprint)
- Erin Bianco (discretion) (29th in Canmore skate sprint)
- Haley Brewster (discretion) (1st in skate sprint qual at U.S. Nationals)
- Ava Thurston (alternate) (2nd in skate sprint qual at World Juniors)
Drammen classic sprint and Falun classic sprint
Men
- Michael Earnhart (objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Ben Ogden (objective) (10th in Sprint Cup)
- JC Schoonmaker (objective) (13th in Sprint Cup)
- Gus Schumacher (objective) (24th in Sprint Cup)
- Kevin Bolger (objective) (26th in Sprint Cup)
- Zak Ketterson (objective) (33rd in Sprint Cup)
- Luke Jager (discretion) (24th in Canmore classic sprint)
- Zanden McMullen (alternate) (33rd in Canmore classic sprint)
Women
- Margie Freed (objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Jessie Diggins (objective) (current overall World Cup leader)
- Rosie Brennan (objective) (10th in Sprint Cup)
- Julia Kern (objective) (14th in Sprint Cup)
- Sammy Smith (discretion) (28th in Oberhof classic sprint)
- Erin Bianco (discretion) (35th in Oberhof classic sprint)
- Renae Anderson (discretion) (36th in Canmore classic sprint)
- Alayna Sonnesyn (discretion) (1st in classic sprint qual at U.S. Nationals)
- Haley Brewster (alternate) (3rd in classic sprint qual at U.S. Nationals)
Falun 20km skate
Men
- Michael Earnhart (objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Gus Schumacher (objective) (16th in Distance Cup)
- Scott Patterson (objective) (30th in Distance Cup)
- Ben Ogden (objective) (39th in Distance Cup)
- John Steel Hagenbuch (discretion) (13th in Östersund 10km skate)
- Zanden McMullen (discretion) (23rd in Canmore 15km skate)
- David Norris (discretion) (27th in Canmore 15km skate)
- Peter Wolter (alternate) (36th in Canmore 15km skate)
- Luke Jager (alternate) (39th in Minneapolis 10km skate)
- Hunter Wonders (alternate) (40th in Canmore 15km skate)
Women
- Margie Freed (objective) (current overall SuperTour Leader)
- Jessie Diggins (objective) (current overall World Cup leader)
- Rosie Brennan (objective) (4th in Distance Cup)
- Sophia Laukli (objective) (15th in Distance Cup)
- Julia Kern (discretion) (18th in Gällivare 10km skate)
- Novie McCabe (discretion) (21st in Ruka 20km skate)
- Haley Brewster (discretion) (25th in Minneapolis 10km skate)
- Sydney Palmer-Leger (25th in Canmore 15km skate)
- Sammy Smith (alternate) (23rd in Tour de Ski final climb)
- Mariah Bredal (alternate) (30th in Canmore 15km skate)
- Kendall Kramer (alternate) (36th in Minneapolis 10km skate)
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love project dedicated to publicizing American nordic skiing. Last season’s GoFundMe is literally the only reason why I turned a profit in year one of Nordic Insights, and in turn the only reason why there is a year two of Nordic Insights for you to be reading now: I was okay with working for very little money to get this love letter to American cross-country skiing off the ground, but I didn’t want to lose money for the privilege of doing so. If you would like to support what remains a brutally shoestring operation, this season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
