By Merridy Littell
Wax techs are magic. We all knew this already, but today’s 10-kilometer classic interval start in Falun, Sweden further proved that point. New snow fell that had not been predicted by the forecast, covering the course in a layer of powder and resulting in tricky kick wax conditions. But the wax techs took it in stride, as evidenced by the skiers confidently striding up the steep hills while finding enough glide to doublepole over the tops.
This was the case for Jessie Diggins, who powerfully strode up the hills before transitioning into an “emphatic doublepole” (if you know, you know). After fighting hard for a podium spot throughout the race, she placed fourth at the finish, 37.3 seconds back, behind Ebba Andersson (first), Heidi Weng (second, +17.8), and Victoria Carl (third, +28.7). Diggins told various media outlets that she “came into the race with the mindset of being super excited to race, super excited to push hard but not push my foot hard.”
This was Diggins’s first classic distance race back after battling plantar fasciitis and a partial rupture of the fascia, as she had shared via her Instagram in early January. Her recovery consisted of “daily PT work, a lot of foot exercises, a lot of modified training, a lot of spin biking, a lot of figuring out exactly how much I can push it in order to help it heal,” she said. “Because with this specific kind of injury simply resting isn’t necessarily gonna heal it because there’s not a lot of blood flow to that area.”
Diggins wasn’t the only one experiencing triumph after a recovery: Ebba Anderson, today’s victor, hadn’t been on the top of a World Cup podium since December of 2023. “I struggled with Covid last season and after that, the performances have not been as before,” Anderson told FIS. “But now it feels great again to take this victory and to do it in front of the home crowd.”
The performances by these women bode well for World Championships, coming up in just over ten days in Trondheim. The Championships include a 10km classic interval start alongside five other races.
“I’m very excited and this gives me a lot to look forward to with World Championships,” Diggins said. “Hopefully I can keep this positive healing and positive momentum rolling forward.”
If you’d like to listen to Diggins’s full commentary on her recovery process, you can do so here:
The U.S. put two other skiers into the top 30: Sophia Laukli, in 26th, and Julia Kern, in 30th. Alayna Sonnesyn placed 34th, Kate Oldham was 43rd, and Sydney Palmer-Leger rounded them out in 48th. This was a far cry from the distance race in Falun twenty years ago: In 2005 (two years before this writer was born), the United States fielded a single female skier, Lindsay Williams, compared to today’s six starters. Female skiers were also racing shorter distances than their male counterparts, and Russia was still racing in the World Cup. It was different back then.
Sophia Laukli, who maintained a steady (if slightly upward-trending) placing throughout the course, remarked via her Instagram account that she’s “just out here doing my best to turn classic races into running races, i guess we’ll skate tomorrow instead🫡”. Laukli is most likely referring to the running classic technique (also known as “Klæbo-ing”) that many skiers used to get up hills quickly in the draggy conditions.
“Today’s course featured some pretty steep hills but the majority of it was doublepoling,” Laukli remarked. “So, as a stronger climber, my main focus was to really push it on the hills.” The strategy worked, as Laukli’s performance was well within her normal range, and contributed points to her current placing of 17th in the Distance Cup standings.
Julia Kern seemed to have a similar plan; when asked by Nordic Insights about her goals for today, she said they were “To push the transitions hard, start aggressive, and ski tall on the striding, and I felt like I executed that today.” She continued by saying, in a relatable fashion, “It was a weird day where I felt like I was skiing really well but the result didn’t reflect the sensations, but taking the good energy into tomorrow’s race for another chance.”
Speaking of which, tomorrow’s race is a 20-kilometer mass start skate to round out the weekend of racing in Falun. Jessie Diggins, Sophia Laukli, Julia Kern, Sydney Palmer-Leger, Kate Oldham, Alayna Sonnesyn, and Sammy Smith will be starting, seeded in that order.
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 toAmerican 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.
Fastest recovery from plantar fasciitis I’ve ever heard of.. I hope they’re sharing the treatment with the rest of the medical community!