Slind’s Marathon Mastery Comes Through in Engadin 20km Skate; Diggins Fifth

This article was updated Monday morning with additional athlete quotes.

By Noah Eckstein

Racing point-to-point over ski marathon hallowed ground, Astrid Øyre Slind of Norway channeled her deep marathon pedigree earlier Sunday to take an easy win in the Engadin 20-kilometer mass start skate and continue her late-career renaissance. Joining her on the podium were fellow Norwegian Nora Sanness and Jonna Sundling of Sweden.

Slind’s story is a powerful one. Apologies if you’ve heard this before, but here’s a brief recap: with promising results in Norwegian domestic races, Slind made her World Cup debut in the 2007/2008 season at age 20. Over the next six seasons, she made 27 World Cup starts, but her high-water mark was only 20th place. Tired of Norwegian ski politics and feeling like she wasn’t reaching her full potential, in 2015 she decamped from the World Cup and committed herself to racing ski marathons full time instead.

In the Ski Classics she found great success, eventually winning Birkerbeinnerennet (twice), Vasaloppet, and — of particular note today — La Diagonela (also twice). During the 2022/2023 season she finally returned to the World Cup, and since then has racked up a bevy of podiums, and — last month in Davos — her first World Cup win, at age 36. 

The Engadin Valley’s position in cross-country ski lore is not a result of World Cup racing. Rather, the Engadin Ski Marathon and the aforementioned Diagonela, both point-to-point epics, have vaulted this valley into cross-country skiing’s public consciousness.

Slind knows this valley and these trails well, and her affinity for this style of racing was apparent in her post-race interview. “I love these kinds of races,” she told the FIS reporter during the broadcast. “I’ve been doing it a lot in the Ski Classics Cup, and it’s something for me.”

The race began with roughly 10 kilometers of wide, flat marathon trail from St. Moritz to Silvaplana before joining the race course used earlier this weekend for three laps of 3.7km each. From the start line, the skiers set out on the snow-covered surface of the impossibly picturesque St. Moritzersee with a long, V2 alternate–dominated lap around the ice polo pitch (St. Moritz, right?).

From the gun, American Jessie Diggins, German Victoria Carl, and Slind took up the pacemaking. As the pack left the lake and began to climb into the woods, other athletes loitering near the front included Krista Pärmäkoski and Kerttu Niskanen, both of Finland, and Moa Ilar of Sweden.

Past the aid station around the 15-minute mark, Flora Dolci eschewed nutrition while her competitors doused their faces with sports drink and took a flier of a few seconds into the next climbing section. A couple minutes of half-hearted chase by Slind quickly brought her back into the fold.

With the exception of a prime at 9.5km, from which Diggins took the full 15 points to pad her lead in the overall standings, pacing through the point-to-point section generally appeared relaxed but not slow.

Yesterday, Diggins bemoaned a sprint course that was “almost always turning, just slightly,” discouraging passing and making it hard to find a groove. Today, the organizers were kind enough to include many, many kilometers of trail you could feasibly land a private jet on if the Engadin airport were to get too packed with Gulfstreams. 

As the pack rejoined the race trails, Slind put in a strong attack up the first hill of the 3.3km course, jumping out to a five-second lead. The pace behind picked up in response, with Diggins at the front. Quickly, though, Diggins’s V1 took on a ragged hue and Norwegian Nora Sanness pushed past in pursuit of her teammate Slind.

The Norwegian skis were typically excellent, with both Slind and Sanness stretching their gaps on each descent. By the 15-kilometer mark, Sanness had caught Slind and the two leaders were cooperating well.

Behind, the chase group was composed of Diggins, Anne Kjersti Kalvå of Norway, Flora Dolci of France, Jonna Sundling of Sweden, and, briefly, Kristin Austgulen Fosnæs of Norway. Each skier spent some time on the front attempting to reel in Slind and Sanness but the gap was clearly moving in the wrong direction.

At the front, Sanness looked incredibly strong, seeming to push Slind’s limits even on her preferred terrain. But Slind’s diesel motor kept chugging along, and over the final lap she pulled away to coast down the finish straight with a big smile. A few seconds behind, Sanness looked equally elated with her second place, marking her first ever World Cup podium at age 24.

In the chase group, Diggins tried a last gasp attack up the final hill but didn’t find any separation. As they rounded the bend toward the finish, Sundling’s booming V2 carried her to a clear third place while Diggins and Kalvå scrapped for fourth. The lunge was close enough that the winner was not immediately apparent, but a photo finish showed Kalvå ahead by a hair.

Although not obvious from the broadcast, Diggins spoke bluntly about working around less-than-blazing ski speed during the race.

In audio comments to multiple outlets, she said, “I used to be afraid to say publicly when we missed the wax because I didn’t want to sound like I was making excuses and I didn’t want to offend the wax techs. I’ve gotten better in recent years of just saying, Hey, facts are facts, we win as a team, we lose as a team, it’s okay, we work really hard, everyone works super hard, but sometimes we miss it. Today we missed it, so that definitely impacted the race. 

“I realized I had to change some of my strategy up during the race. I made every push that I could in that final uphill but it was not enough of a gap to not be reeled back in on the downhill. I’m really proud of how hard I tried. I feel like I played the cards I had.”

Behind Diggins, Sophia Laukli and Julia Kern skied to 16th and 19th, respectively.

Laukli was left wanting more, but Kern was largely satisfied with her race. When asked about the approach behind her steadily improving distance results over the past few seasons, she responded with some sage reflections on self-belief.

“It feels good to be in the mix in distance races more,” Kern mused. “I’m not sure my mental approach has changed all that much — in the past I have skied with the belief I could stay with the top skiers, and told myself that if I continue to ski a few more km at the pace before blowing up, at some point my fitness will be there to hold, so I always went out and tried from the start.”

A bit farther down the list, 22-year-olds Kendall Kramer and Kate Oldham (Montana State University), both racing in their second European World Cup today, finished respectably in 36th and 38th. Sometimes biathlete Luci Anderson (Team Birkie), having made her World Cup debut only last weekend in Les Rousses, was 46th. Lauren Jortberg (Centre National d’Entraînement Pierre-Harvey) was 54th and Alayna Sonnesyn (Team Birkie) 55th. Two Canadians cracked the top thirty, with Liliane Gagnon in 15th and Katherine Stewart-Jones in 18th.

“The support from the team here including coaches and techs has made managing this new environment as easy as it can be,” Oldham wrote to Nordic Insights when asked about adjusting to World Cup racing. “It has also been super helpful to just focus on learning the process and keeping the pressure low. I think today’s race was different enough from yesterday’s that it felt like a new challenge, but it was an awesome experience to ski in a huge pack and go head-to-head with some talented skiers.”

Anderson is not not a talented skier, as witness her two top-30 finishes in three World Cup starts this month, but she will be taking her talents back to her other sport for the time being. “I will be prioritizing biathlon racing for the rest of the season with Biathlon World Champs coming up soon,” she wrote to Nordic Insights, “but hoping to race xc again in Trondheim if I qualify!”

As for today’s race, Anderson felt that it went fairly well. “I was definitely feeling the altitude today,” she noted; “that 20k was a grind. I’m proud of myself for sticking with  a big pack over the point to point section. Going across the lake would have been very hard without a draft! There was a bit of splintering across the lake and then as soon as we got into the first lap of the main course the groups really fell apart.”

Racing continues next weekend in Cogne, Italy, Federico Pellegrino’s hometown (where he’ll certainly be looking for redemption after his relegation on Saturday). Expect a classic team sprint Friday, a classic sprint Saturday, and a 10km skate Sunday.

Results

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