By Gavin Kentch
In a Friday evening update (Saturday morning European time), the U.S. Ski Team announced the seven men and six women who have received start rights in the 2025 Tour de Ski for Period 2 of the 2024/2025 World Cup season.
Update, December 27: John Steel Hagenbuch, Luke Jager, and Nina Seemann did not accept the nomination, and are not on the start list for tomorrow’s sprint in Toblach.
The athletes are:
Men:
John Steel Hagenbuch*
Gus Schumacher
Ben Ogden
Zanden McMullen
Jack Young
JC Schoonmaker
Luke Jager*
Women:
Nina Seemann*
Jessie Diggins
Sophia Laukli
Rosie Brennan
Julia Kern
Alayna Sonnesyn
* Update, December 27: Athlete did not accept the nomination.
Every athlete save for Jager and Sonnesyn was chosen on the basis of objective criteria. Steel Hagenbuch and Seemann are the current SuperTour leaders; everyone else skied well enough on the World Cup during Period 1 of this season to earn a spot. Jager was chosen via discretion in light of his two first-place finishes at last week’s Birkieland SuperTour races. Sonnesyn was chosen via discretion for her 22nd-place finish in the Davos skate sprint.
In a statement, USSS added:
“The Working Group decided not to nominate additional athletes to the Tour de Ski due to the logistic, support demand, and health concerns surrounding the Tour, as well as to create a balanced and fair selection platform at the U.S. Nationals, where athletes currently performing at comparable levels can demonstrate their abilities. The ski service demands of the Tour alone are massive, with each athlete competing seven times in nine days, including one Skiathlon, and requiring world-class skis each day to compete for podiums. The Working Group views the Tour de Ski as a platform for elite performance and not a primary development opportunity. Individual World Cups are much better designed for developing athletes and we intend to populate starts much more generously in the remainder of the World Cup season.”
Full information on selection criteria and the makeup of the working group behind the nominations may be found here.
The 19th Tour de Ski starts on December 28 with a skate sprint in Toblach.
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