By Devin L. Ward, Ph.D.
Missing World Cup racing this weekend? Fear not, the 2025 FIS U23 World Nordic Ski Championships men’s and women’s interval-start 10-kilometer skate had you covered. Schilpario, Italy, looked a little light on snow as the day began, but there were plenty of spectators around the course as well as Italian flags fully customized to feature racers’ faces.
It turns out we are actually spoiled with comparatively excellent FIS coverage of World Cup races. Coverage of the men’s race via the much-vaunted FIS TV platform ran for about an hour-and-a-half, of which 20 minutes featured 20 minutes of zero video or audio feed, sometimes interspersed with a jumble of lagging mess.
Anyway, Sweden and Norway have been dominating the gold medal table for this event so far and the men’s race was no exception. Mathias Holbæk (Norway) had a dominant win in 26:40.9, his second distance gold this week, with Thomas Linnebo Mollestad (also Norway) in second (+25.1) and Martino Carollo (Italy) in third (+42.5).
For the Americans, Brian Bushey had a strong start to the race, ranking 13th at the 1600m mark, but then fell to about 40 seconds back by the halfway point. Will Koch’s race took the opposite path, ranking 44th early on but then gaining up to to be about 40 seconds back by halfway. Both racers would ultimately finish in similar positions, with Koch in 25th (+2:43.0) and Bushey in 28th (+2:49.2).
Michael Earnhart raced consistently throughout and finished slightly ahead in 24th (+2:30.9). Trey Jones rounded out the American performances in 63rd (+6:02.9).
Swapping over to the women’s race, which started 2.5 hours after the men’s, we saw the racers brave what can only be described as ankle-deep snow. It continued to fall throughout the race, accumulating on athletes waiting to start and sometimes completely obscuring the camera lens. Kendall Kramer’s bun was fully covered by the time she was in the starting gates, evoking a cupcake with vanilla frosting. I’m not complaining about the race coverage, though, because the audio and video did work for the entire race!
Helen Hoffman (Germany) won in 32:26.4, with the same 25-second margin of victory as in the men’s race, taking her third consecutive gold medal in the 10-kilometer interval-start event at World U23 Championships dating back to Whistler in 2023.
Rosie Fordham, an Australian national who skis and runs for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, came in second (+25.7). Fordham’s result was historic: It was Australia’s first-ever medal in international cross-country skiing, per FIS.
While Fordham does have World Cup results to her name, I found it difficult not to get excited to see Australia on the podium. I suspect I’m not the only one because Fordham was met by a crowd of people in the finish area, Australian and otherwise, with hugs and congratulations.
“Oh my god, I’m freaking the frick out” said Kramer’s mom, Susan Schwartz, as she embraced Fordham in the finish pen. Hopefully Fordham’s mom eventually picked up the phone in Australia; she could be seen on the livestream breaking down as she talked with someone.
Canada’s Liliane Gagnon backed up her bronze in Thursday’s 20-kilometer mass start classic with another bronze (+37.3). It may have been the first tri-continent podium in high-level FIS racing history.
Kendall Kramer claimed the American standout performance for today, finishing fourth (+1:00.3) after climbing up from ninth at the first time point.
Kramer has been Fordham’s teammate at Alaska Fairbanks for the past several years. The home venue for both women is Birch Hill, the nordic center nestled on a small rise at the eastern edge of Fairbanks that consistently has one of the longest groomed ski seasons in North America. It is… probably not a coincidence that two Fairbanks athletes were in the top four on a day like today. Birch Hill can be a difficult place to work on high-end speed. It is one of the best places on the continent to work on strength and grinding, given the cold temps, slow snow, and massive hills. If a 33-minute 10km gets you on the podium, look for the Fairbanks folks to shine.
Longtime fans may also remember Kramer’s breakthrough performance in the 15km classic at World Juniors in Lahti in 2019, where the then-16-year-old claimed a then-surprising fourth while wearing two hats and doublepoling the downhills on what can only be described as Fairbanks snow.
Kate Oldham was also fighting for a top-10 finish throughout the race, holding fourth place around the middle of the race, but ended up in 12th, capping off an impressive series of races in Schilpario for this week’s breakout star for the American women. Behind her, Sydney Palmer-Leger finished in 21st (+2:33.7) and Nina Seemann finished 51st (+5:55.0).
Tomorrow concludes the 2025 FIS Nordic Junior/U23 World Ski Championships with the junior and U23 mixed 4×5 kilometer relays. The Americans will send out Cole Flowers, Maeve Ingelfinger, Lucas Wilmot, and Sammy Smith for the juniors, then Michael Earnhart, Kendall Kramer, Will Koch, and Kate Oldham for the U23s. Canada will have Zachari Moreau, Clara Hegn, Jonas Rolseth, and Alison Mackie for the juniors, then Tom Stephen, Jasmine Drolet, Max Hollmann, and Liliane Gagnon for the U23s. Canada will start in bib number 1 there, reflecting the fact that they won this race last year. The U.S. will be in bib 9.
Full race replay (only the women’s for today; the men’s race may have been shoddy enough that it was scrubbed from YouTube)
