By Gavin Kentch
Earlier Thursday, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced the athletes nominated for Period 3 World Cups. This spans four World Cup weekends, from Les Rousses in mid-January through Falun in mid-February.
The athletes nominated are as follows. Note, again, that these are nominations, not starters; I feel extremely comfortable predicting that largely retired mechanical engineer Scott Patterson will not be starting European World Cups next month, for example. And not just because he told me on the record in Anchorage this week that he will be going to Japan to go powder skiing, albeit while taking time out to race, and presumptively win, the Sapporo International Ski Marathon on February 2.
Other athletes here are also juggling commitments to NCAA racing or to World U23 Championship starts. Or World Juniors, in the case of Murphy Kimball.
The athletes nominated for the next 10 World Cup races* are:
Les Rousses 10km skate, Engadin 20km skate, Cogne 10km skate, and Falun 20km skate
men: John Steel Hagenbuch, Gus Schumacher, Zanden McMullen, Ben Ogden, Walker Hall, Luke Jager, Scott Patterson, and Hunter Wonders (alternate)
women: Kate Oldham, Jessie Diggins, Sophia Laukli, Rosie Brennan, Julia Kern, Alayna Sonnesyn, Kendall Kramer, Luci Anderson, and Sydney Palmer-Leger (alternate)
Les Rousses classic sprint, Cogne classic sprint, and Falun classic sprint
men: John Steel Hagenbuch, Ben Ogden, Gus Schumacher, Jack Young, JC Schoonmaker, Zanden McMullen, Luke Jager, Murphy Kimball (alternate), and Zak Ketterson (alternate)
women: Kate Oldham, Jessie Diggins, Rosie Brennan, Julia Kern, Alayna Sonnesyn, Erin Bianco, Sammy Smith, and Emma Albrecht
Les Rousses 20km classic and Falun 10km classic
men: John Steel Hagenbuch, Gus Schumacher, Zanden McMullen, Ben Ogden, Luke Jager, Zak Ketterson, Will Koch, and Michael Earnhart (alternate)
women: Kate Oldham, Jessie Diggins, Sophia Laukli, Rosie Brennan, Julia Kern, Kendall Kramer, Alayna Sonnesyn, and Sydney Palmer-Leger
Engadin skate sprint
men: John Steel Hagenbuch, Ben Ogden, Gus Schumacher, Jack Young, JC Schoonmaker, Zanden McMullen, Murphy Kimball, and Trey Jones
women: Kate Oldham, Jessie Diggins, Rosie Brennan, Julia Kern, Alayna Sonnesyn, Luci Anderson, Lauren Jortberg, Sammy Smith, and Emma Albrecht (alternate)
* Period 3 also contains a mixed relay, in Engadin, and a classic team sprint, in Cogne. Starters for those two team events will be announced shortly before race day, and will necessarily be drawn from the athletes mentioned above.
Full information on selection criteria and the makeup of the working group behind the nominations may be found here.
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