By Gavin Kentch
Friday morning in Lombardy the Canadian women took home a bronze medal from World Junior/U23 Championships for the third day in a row, while the American team had by far its strongest day so far in this week of racing, as athletes contested the 10-kilometer interval-start skate. Overall victories went to Lars Heggen, again, and Milla Grosberghaugen Andreassen, again, as the young Norwegians each claimed their second gold, and third medal, of the week. Alison Mackie took her second bronze in as many races, after finishing fourth in the classic sprint to start the week.
But now let’s talk about the Americans. I don’t ever want to be in the position of saying, or even intimating, that junior results are “bad”; we’re talking about high school or early-college kids here, not professional athletes, and I’ve beat the drum for a range of development pathways pretty hard on this site, so I certainly appreciate that not every athlete will be top-10 in every race always.
(Indeed: For a fun exercise, look at these results from the 10km skate at 2013 Norwegian U18 champs some time. Klæbo was 21st; Erik Valnes was 26th; Henrik Dønnestad was 115th. If you know anything about the guy who won, Sjur Slettom, you’re doing better than I am. Athlete development truly does tend to look more like whorls than like linear pipelines.)
All that said, American results today were, collectively, the strongest of the week, and the most indicative of what this group of skiers is capable of. Yet.
For the women, all four starters were clustered well within the top 20: Sammy Smith (Hailey, Idaho; USST/Sun Valley) was eighth, 1:23.4 back; Neve Gerard (Bend; University of Utah and Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation) was 12th (+1:41.6); Lena Poduska (Wilson, Wyoming; Jackson Hole Ski Club) was 14th (+1:51.6); and Nina Schamberger (Leadville, Colorado; University of Utah and Summit Nordic Ski Club) was 17th (+2:00.0). At any level of racing, be it JNQs or World Cup, if your lowest finisher is 17th in a field of 74, that’s a good day for the team.
With the exception of Smith, who was fifth in Monday’s classic sprint, today was by far the strongest result (yet) for everyone mentioned above. Gerard, 12th, had been 38th in the sprint qual; Poduska, 14th, had been 26th in the 20km classic; and Schamberger, 17th, was DNF in the 20km classic. See above point about development arcs sometimes pointing down before they go up.
For the men, Lucas Wilmot (Wilson, Wyoming; University of Utah and Jackson Hole Ski Club) was the top American finisher for the second race in a row. But he was ninth this time, 1:09.7 back, up from 19th in Wednesday’s 20km classic, earning a spot on next year’s U.S. Ski Team D-Team in the process.
Next came Jack Leveque (Anchorage; Alaska Winter Stars) in 22nd (+2:00.9). This was not only the second-best American male placing on the day, it was also, by a substantial margin, the best showing in the field for anyone born in 2008. Or 2009. Which is Leveque’s birthday. Yes, young Jack Leveque is, per his public FIS profile, still just 15 years old. What were you doing your sophomore year of high school.
Behind them, Grey Barbier (Steamboat Springs; Montana State and SSWSC) in 30th (+2:30.2) and Justin Lucas (Anchorage; APU) in 46th (+3:01.2) rounded out the American finishers, each with their best distance result of the week.
Anyway. Go team.
You can watch a full broadcast of today’s women’s race here; this is cued up to Sammy Smith, an early starter in bib no. 5 (the Eurosport announcer raising questions about her form is likely unaware that Smith now attends school at the nordic powerhouse of Stanford University):
And here are the men, as cued up to, uh, a slightly glitchy slo-mo of Leveque, because I know his mom is reading this and she will appreciate the airtime even if the audio is garbled:
Tomorrow is the final day of individual racing before Sunday’s mixed relays. American starters for the U23 10km skate are Will Koch, Brian Bushey, Michael Earnhart, and Trey Jones for the men, and Nina Seemann, Kendall Kramer, Sydney Palmer-Leger, and Kate Oldham for the women.
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.
