By Máximo Steverlynck and Gavin Kentch
The World Cup came to Drammen, Norway, this week, and with it brought the city sprints the venue is famous for. Classic skiing around tight street corners, Rosie Brennan skied to her second career sprint podium, and first in classic, after qualifying for the final via a lucky loser spot. Kristine Stavås Skistad took gold on her home soil, skiing a dominant final and taking her second straight sprint victory. Linn Svahn took second and secured the sprint points title after factoring into every sprint final this season so far.
Speaking to Nordic Insights at the finish, Brennan reflected on the season as it nears the end and her performance today: “I’m really excited. I’ve had some rough months, and I was incredibly excited to feel like myself again and find some strength out there. … Maybe I need a 50km [as warmup]; it seemed to work.”
Addressing the quick turnaround between two wildly divergent race formats — cross-country skiing may be the only sport in the world where the same athletes race a gruesomely hilly 50km on the weekend and then contend in a 1.2km sprint on Tuesday — Brennan frankly said, “I don’t know” when asked how she recovered.
“We had to do the same last year,” she continued in post-race comments to Nordic Insights. “And I thought there’s literally no way; it’s not possible. And then you just — I don’t know, I’m old, I guess. So you’ve done this enough times that your body knows better than your mind, so you try to just turn your mind off and let your body do its thing.”
Regardless of what Brennan’s mind thought about the day, her body was good for third place overall. The podium finish gives Brennan a World Cup podium in each of four disciplines over her career: classic sprint, skate sprint, classic distance, and skate distance. Brennan is the third American athlete to complete this career quadfecta, following first Sadie Bjornsen Maubet and then Jessie Diggins. (Diggins did it first if you count a time-of-day podium against this total, which I, and most people, don’t.)
Julia Kern also had a great day, placing 7th overall. It is Kern’s best result so far this season following an up-and-down year for her, including battling illness for much of the second half of the season.
Jessie Diggins made the heats but was out in the quarters, placing 16th overall after finishing third in her heat, the fourth quarterfinal. Diggins still leads the World Cup overall ahead of Svahn, but her advantage dropped from 159 points to 102 with three races, and 345 points, remaining. Diggins is making it interesting.
(The last three races, in Falun for World Cup Finals starting on Friday, are a classic sprint, a 10km classic, and a 20km mass start skate, if you would like to start scoreboard watching. Someone in charge of FIS television metrics is salivating at the likely prospect of the chase for the women’s overall globe coming down to literally the last race of the season.)
“It was tough,” Diggins candidly said of her day in audio provided by USSS.
“My body felt really good, but two things happened that were not great and sometimes part of ski racing. I got trapped on the inside. So it was frustrating because we were not going fast enough and I knew it, and I couldn’t get out. So that’s just what happens sometimes.
“And then I needed some better glide on the downhill. So I did everything I could, but I think I need to have a stronger doublepole and just be more aggressive out of the start, because I think that’s how I got just sort of trapped.”
Johannes Høsflot Klaebo topped the men’s podium just two days after winning the Holmenkollen 50km in dominant fashion. Following close behind him was Håvard Solås Taugbøl, and taking the 3rd step of the podium was Even Northug, making it another perfect day for the Norwegian men.
In 6th place on the day was JC Schoonmaker, leading the American men.
“It feels great to be back in the finals just to know I can be in there,” said Schoonmaker via written comments from USSS. “For sure would’ve loved to put up more of a fight in the end but it’s some pretty fast guys in there and they don’t make it easy.”
“I went into today trying to focus on trusting my finishing ability and even though I wasn’t finishing very well it was putting me in a good position to move on,” Schoonmaker wrote of his day today. “Was glad to feel like I was making smart choices and being active mentally during the heats.”
The U.S. was also represented in the heats by Zanden McMullen, who placed 17th on the day, and Zak Ketterson, who was 29th.
“I felt good today!” wrote McMullen of his career-best World Cup finish in comments to Nordic Insights.
“I’m still very sore from the 50k in Holmenkollen,” continued the young Alaskan, “but I felt like the mostly double poling course helped with not using my legs as much. And yes the course was very exciting and just a fun sprint to be able to take part in.”
Writing on Strava, Ketterson pronounced himself to have had a “decent qualifier,” segueing to a “brutal quarterfinal.”
Seven additional athletes raced for the U.S. today. For the women, Erin Bianco was 36th in qualifying, Sammy Smith was 42nd, and Renae Anderson was 43rd. On the men’s side, Gus Schumacher was an ohsoclose 32nd, Kevin Bolger was 34th, Luke Jager was 41st, and Michael Earnhart was 52nd. Smith, 18, seems to be on track to choose World Cup Finals in Falun over Junior Nationals in Lake Placid, which she is also eligible for.
As noted, racing continues in Falun later this week. There is another classic sprint on Friday, a 10km classic interval-start on Saturday, and a 20km skate mass start on Sunday. Expect Diggins and Svahn to be marking each other throughout that one.
— Foreign correspondent Izzy Quam reported from Drammen
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love 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.
