By Gavin Kentch
It has been nearly four months since the 2023/2024 World Cup season began. As Americans celebrated Thanksgiving in late November, 2023, Ben Ogden and Ebba Andersson were trendy picks for the season-long overall podium. Bill Koch was the last American man to win a distance World Cup, a full 40 years in the past. The World Cup had not raced on American soil since 2001. Sophia Laukli was the youngest American World Cup winner. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo’s status going into the season was in question, following a recent bout of illness, but he hoped to be back at full strength in time for the Tour de Ski.
Time passed. Klæbo was not himself, and then sat out even more races, and then came roaring back with a vengeance. Jessie Diggins said in a pre-season press conference (and I have no doubt meant it) that she was taking things one race at a time and was truly uncertain whether she was going to complete the season… then seized the yellow bib for the World Cup overall leader in Gällivare on December 2, and has yet to relinquish it. Ben Ogden claimed his first career podium, but presumptively not his last. JC Schoonmaker claimed his first career podium, but presumptively not his last. Gus Schumacher claimed his first career podium, an outright win at that, but presumptively not his last.
The World Cup came to North America. I provided live coverage from Canmore and in the process got to see what I at the time believed were my first-ever World Cup races, but I learned while skiing the imaginatively named “World Cup start area” trail at Kincaid earlier today that my father took my 18-month-old self out there in March 1983 to watch Svan and Koch, et al., whiz past, so shows what I know about my personal mythology. (Also, I am very old.) The World Cup came to Minneapolis. It was memorable.
Anyway, enough scene setting. World Cup Finals are in Falun over Friday through Sunday, and then that’s it. There are 345 points still available toward the World Cup overall crystal globe. Diggins’s lead for same on the women’s side, going into the weekend, is 102 points, down from 340 when she left Europe for North America in early February. You can do the math on the various scenarios vis-à-vis Diggins vs. Linn Svahn. Diggins will tell you that that’s not currently her focus.
Here is when the races will be this weekend:
World Cup (local time at venue: Central European Time. This is currently 5 hours ahead of the East Coast and 9 hours ahead of Alaska. Sweden doesn’t observe daylight savings time until the end of this month, so no need to do math this weekend.)
| date | race | time (Alaska) | local time | results |
| Friday, March 15 | classic sprint qual | 3:15 a.m. | 12:15 p.m. | here |
| classic sprint heats | 5:45 a.m. | 2:45 p.m. | here | |
| Saturday, March 16 | W 10km classic | 2 a.m. | 11 a.m. | here |
| M 10km classic | 5 a.m. | 2 p.m. | here | |
| Sunday, March 17 | W 20km mass start skate | 2 a.m. | 11 a.m. | here |
| M 20km mass start skate | 5:15 a.m. | 2:15 p.m. | here |
Who is racing for the U.S.?
In the sprints: For the women, Rosie Brennan, Jessie Diggins, and Julia Kern, as you might expect. Then also Sammy Smith, Erin Bianco, Renae Anderson, and, new this weekend post-Drammen, Haley Brewster. For the men, it will be the same seven starters as in Drammen on Tuesday: Gus Schumacher, JC Schoonmaker, Kevin Bolger, Zak Ketterson, Zanden McMullen, Luke Jager, and Michael Earnhart. My “joke” about APU and Team Birkie dominance from last week still applies.
How can you watch the races?
I have thoughts on this. TLDR, pay Ski & Snowboard Live (link) $8 to $9 per month throughout the season if you would like to be assured of being able to watch the races, with good quality, and audio commentary in American English, and so on. For as little as $0/month, depending on VPN cost, get a VPN that will let you geo-locate to Canada, then watch the free livestream on the FIS YouTube channel, with commentary in British English. Find out more about that here. You might want to try Windscribe as a VPN; their free version gets you a fair amount of data.
You can also take your chances with what gets uploaded to YouTube after the fact, which is free but not always as reliable, and subject to pesky take-down notices. Find out far more about all of these options, including some VPN how-tos, in this article:
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.
