By Merridy Littell
Today’s interval-start classic race in Davos treated athletes to some tricky conditions. The 20-kilometer course was covered in the snow that was actively falling during last night’s skate sprint and had become chopped up from the men’s race that ran a few hours before. The American women took this challenge in stride, putting two skiers in the top 10 and three into the traditional cutoff for points (top 30).
Rosie Brennan maintained a strong performance throughout the race, sitting within one place of her final result, eighth, at every intermediate time checkpoint.
Brennan, who seems to be bouncing back from a somewhat mysterious injury that hampered the start to her season, told Nordic Insights, “I definitely felt I was able to find a good and consistent pace and hold that throughout the race. So that was definitely a positive.” Jessie Diggins was similarly consistent on Sunday, with a powerful doublepole that sent her braided hair flying en route to her seventh-place finish on the day. Both racers looked strong, herringboning up the hills with a quick tempo that was required to stay out of the soupy snow.
Astrid Øyre Slind of Norway employed a different strategy; at the first checkpoint she was sitting in sixth, 14 seconds back from the fastest time. Throughout the race, Slind gained back time on Victoria Carl, Kerttu Niskanen, and then-leader Therese Johaug. Only at the 19.6-kilometer checkpoint, two kilometers from the end of the actually 21.6-kilometer race, did Slind take the lead, having gained almost eight seconds on Niskanen since the previous checkpoint just a kilometer ago and “lighting the lantern green,” as the commentator for today’s race, Andrew Kastning, would say.
Slind maintained this position to take first, and her first career World Cup win, with a time of 1:02:38.4. She was 10.1 seconds ahead of Kerttu Niskanen in second (1:02:48.5), and 13.5 seconds up on Therese Johaug in third (1:02:51.9).
“I had kind of given up on this dream,” Slind told FIS at the finish; the nearly 37-year-old Norwegian had been a sporadic World Cup starter as early as the 2007/2008 season, but spent the past decade primarily focusing on Ski Classics and other long-distance, non–World Cup racing. “Then, after getting back into it, now it’s worked out. It’s such a big day.”
Slind on the top of a World Cup podium for the first time, next to Niskanen on her 27th podium and Therese Johaug on her 153rd:
In a strong showing for the U.S. Ski Team, Jessie Diggins led the Americans in 7th (1:04:24.9) with Rosie Brennan close behind in 8th (1:04:41.8). Sydney Palmer-Leger rounded out the top 30 in 28th (1:08:04.5), her best result of the young season, followed by Haley Brewster in 35th (1:09:37.2) and Alayna Sonnesyn in 37th (1:10:47.7).
Kerttu Niskanen’s brother Iivo Niskanen also finished second in his race. Given that both siblings (and Finland as a whole) are known for excelling in distance classic events, this was not necessarily a surprising result. Both siblings raced 20km today because, as you may remember from the spring of 2022, FIS decided to make World Cup races equidistant for men and women.
Interestingly, the fastest time for today’s women’s race (Slind’s 1:02:38.4), would have put her well into the field of men’s finishers. To be clear, where a female skier sits compared to the men’s field is not in any way an indicative or important measure of her success. Rather, it reinforces that the women’s field as a whole is capable of racing these longer distances, fast, as many racers before them have proved.
When asked by Nordic Insights what she likes to focus on during a long interval-start race, Alayna Sonnesyn said, “I like to focus on skiing as efficiently as possible. So that might mean hammering the doublepole and staying relaxed on the climbs, or kicking butt on the climbs and staying powerful on the doublepole. You can play to your own strengths. It’s almost nicer to not have competition surrounding you in a race like today (at altitude) because you can ski your own race rather than trying to keep up with a pack and risk blowing up.”
As the last race before the holidays, today wrapped up Period 1 of the World Cup. Reflecting on this first part of the World Cup Season, Rosie Brennan told U.S. Ski & Snowboard, “This weekend was definitely a step in the right direction. I’m feeling good about wrapping things up here, taking a breather and refocusing and gaining speed for the Tour!”
As things move into the holiday break, 8 out of 31 scored events into the season, Jessie Diggins sits clearly in first in the World Cup overall standings, already with a lead of 83 points over Victoria Carl of Germany. Diggins sits 60 points back of Johaug for second in the distance standings, and is currently seventh in the sprint standings. Rosie Brennan, 12th in the overall standings, is the next-highest-ranked American skier.
After a much-needed rest, Period 2 starts on December 28th with a skate sprint in Toblach, Italy. American starters for the Tour de Ski are scheduled to be announced on Wednesday, and may be found here once they are available.
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 years one and two of Nordic Insights, and in turn the only reason why there is a year three 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, last season’s GoFundMe may be found here. Thank you for your consideration, and, especially, for reading.
