By Gavin Kentch
It’s late April, which means that national team nominations should officially be announced soon by U.S. Ski & Snowboard. [Update: Okay, no announcement yet as of September, but I’m sure this will come at some point within the fall?] But if you would like to know what that team announcement will say, I can tell you that now. Read on for more.
There are two avenues by which an athlete may make the U.S. Ski Team, objective selection and discretionary nomination. There was only one athlete named to the national team on a discretionary basis last season, and that athlete, Zak Ketterson, qualified for this year’s team on an objective basis. I do not, personally, foresee USSS naming any athletes to the team via discretion this year, but stay tuned. This article addresses only objective qualification.
Without further ado: Here are the athletes who have qualified for the 2024/2025 national cross-country ski team on the basis of objective criteria:
Women: Rosie Brennan, Haley Brewster, Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern, Kendall Kramer, Sophia Laukli, Novie McCabe, Sydney Palmer-Leger, Sammy Smith, and Ava Thurston
Men: Fin Bailey, Kevin Bolger, Michael Earnhart, John Steel Hagenbuch, Luke Jager, Zach Jayne, Trey Jones, Zak Ketterson, Murphy Kimball, Will Koch, Jack Lange, Zanden McMullen, Ben Ogden, Derek “Buster” Richardson, JC Schoonmaker, Gus Schumacher, and Jack Young
The precise breakdown by team level, and each athlete’s basis for qualification, are set out at the bottom of this article. Plus, of course, links to the data sources I consulted in compiling this roster.
This year’s national team contains eight athletes on the A Team (if Sammy Smith is placed there; the age-based criteria don’t account for an 18-year-old being so good so young so I wasn’t quite sure where she should be listed), nine athletes on the B Team, and 10 athletes on the D Team. The 27 total athletes on the U.S. Ski Team make for the largest cross-country national team this century, and I am virtually certain, but don’t have a cite for, the largest ever. Recent teams have been close to this large, with 21 to 23 athletes on the U.S. Ski Team in each of the last four seasons. A bumper crop of D-Team men is largely the reason for the increased team size this year.
This year’s national team counts 10 women and 17 men. Team affiliation is heavy on the clubs you would expect: APU and SMS claim eight athletes apiece. But other teams represented here include Aker Dæhlie, Sun Valley, Team Birkie, and Alaska Winter Stars, while NCAA schools include Dartmouth, Colorado, Vermont, Utah, Colby, Alaska Fairbanks, and Alaska Anchorage. There’s a lot of different paths to the top. (If you add up all the athlete affiliations here it will sum to more than 27, n.b., since I counted some athletes for both their club and their school.)
Incoming D-Team men Fin Bailey, Zach Jayne, Trey Jones, Murphy Kimball, Jack Lange, and Jack Young all join the national team for the first time this year. Kendall Kramer and Kevin Bolger, on this year’s D-Team and B-Team, respectively, were not on the national team in 2023/2024, but had been on the national team in prior seasons.
Speaking of prior seasons, Rosie Brennan, now in her third stint on the U.S. Ski Team, was first named to the national team in 2007/2008, a full 17 years ago. Her teammates at that time included, among others, Laura Valaas and Lindsey Weier, if that helps to date this for you. May I intone, for not the first time on this website, that success in high-level cross-country skiing can take a long time and require a lot of persistence.
Full projected team rosters, and bases for qualification, are below. Congratulations to all athletes.
A Team
women
Rosie Brennan (basis for qualification: top-15 in sprint and distance standings for last World Cup season; top-20 world ranking)
Jessie Diggins (top-15 in sprint and distance standings for last World Cup season; top-20 world ranking)
Julia Kern (top-15 in sprint standings for last World Cup season; top-20 world ranking)
Sophia Laukli (top-15 in distance standings for last World Cup season; top-20 world ranking)
Sammy Smith (top-50 world ranking for female athlete born in 2005) (* I think, the A-Team criteria only go down to a 2003 YOB; Smith clearly qualifies for the B and/or D Team otherwise)
men
Ben Ogden (top-15 in sprint standings for last World Cup season; top-20 world ranking)
JC Schoonmaker (top-15 in sprint standings for last World Cup season; top-20 world ranking)
Gus Schumacher (top-30 world ranking for male athlete born in 2000)
B Team
women
Haley Brewster (one top-10 finish at World U23 Championships plus one top-30 individual World Cup finish) (* I think; this is the standard for an athlete born in 2001, and Brewster met it with a 2003 birth year; place her on the D-Team for sure if not here)
Novie McCabe (one top-10 finish at World U23 Championships plus one (or more) top-30 individual World Cup finishes for an athlete born in 2001)
men
Kevin Bolger (top-40 world ranking for male athlete born in 1995 or earlier)
Michael Earnhart (world rank of 125 or better for male athlete born in 2002)
John Steel Hagenbuch (one top-10 finish at World U23 Championships plus one (or more) top-30 individual World Cup finish for an athlete born in 2001; world rank of 125 or better for male athlete born in 2001)
Luke Jager (world rank of 90 or better for male athlete born in 2000)
Zak Ketterson (top-50 world ranking for male athlete born in 1997)
Will Koch (world rank of 125 or better for male athlete born in 2002)
Zanden McMullen (world rank of 125 or better for male athlete born in 2001)
[Scott Patterson (top-40 world ranking for male athlete born in 1995 or earlier) (I placed him in brackets here because he is retired. If the team is named today I think that, on paper, Patterson qualifies, but come this fall — when official team naming occurs — he will presumptively have an inactive FIS license and thus no longer qualify, as not having a “valid USA-coded FIS license. Just showing my work here. In practice, I would not expect Patterson to be nominated this spring, the same way that a then-retired Hunter Wonders was not nominated in May 2023, even though his results from the 2022/2023 season appeared to technically qualify him for the team.) That said, if you’re reading this USSS, Patterson does not currently have a “valid USA-coded FIS license,” per your selection criteria for World Cup starts, and so probably should not be listed as receiving starts for distance races in Period 1 of the 2024/2025 World Cup season]
D Team
women
Kendall Kramer (world rank of 125 or better for female athlete born in 2002)
Sydney Palmer-Leger (world rank of 125 or better for female athlete born in 2002)
Ava Thurston (top-10 finish at World Juniors; world rank of 250 or better for female athlete born in 2004–2007)
men
Fin Bailey (world rank of 400 or better for male athlete born in 2004–2007)
Zach Jayne (world rank of 400 or better for male athlete born in 2004–2007)
Trey Jones (world rank of 400 or better for male athlete born in 2004–2007)
Murphy Kimball (world rank of 400 or better for male athlete born in 2004–2007)
Jack Lange (top-10 finish at World Juniors; world rank of 400 or better for male athlete born in 2004–2007)
Derek “Buster” Richardson (world rank of 400 or better for male athlete born in 2004–2007)
Jack Young (world rank of 175 or better for male athlete born in 2002)
Methodology
This article is based on my reading of the official U.S. Ski & Snowboard criteria document for selection to the 2024/2025 cross-country skiing national team, which you can find here. This document in turn makes reference to the final sprint and distance standings for the 2023/2024 World Cup season, the 8th FIS points list for 2023/2024 (“world rank” in the selection document), and individual results from 2024 World Junior and U23 Championships in Planica.
I batted 1.000 on objective selections for the 2023/2024 national team last year (compare my version with official USSS version), and I believe that I have done the same again here. Come back next (?) week to check my work once the official announcement comes out from USSS; I will of course also publish that press release on this site.
Update: This article has been edited to move Michael Earnhart and Will Koch from the D-Team, where I originally listed them, to the B-Team. The criteria document is silent regarding what to do with athletes who qualify under the criteria of a higher team, but whose year of birth suggests that they “should” be listed on a lower team. USSS, if you’re reading this, you could consider adding a “YOB x or later” line to next year’s criteria document, if you share my interpretation that, say, a male athlete with YOB 2002 and a world rank of 125 or better potentially making the B-Team is not explicitly accounted for within the four corners of this document.
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