World Cup Viewing Guide for February 27–March 2: Literally World Championships in Norway

By Gavin Kentch

Skiing is back, baby. World Championships in Oberstdorf in 2021 occurred amidst the strictures of (medically appropriate) Covid precautions. Cross-country events at the 2022 Winter Olympics were held in what appeared to be some sort of subzero treeless hellscape, with virtually no outside fans present in Zhangjiakou due to stringent Covid regulations. World Championships in Planica in 2023 were, like both events mentioned above, of high quality, but were not exactly the most well-attended races out there.

Now we’re in Norway. Organizers in Trondheim have sold over 200,000 tickets for the nine days of racing, which is not nothing with daily prices starting at 450 NOK (about $40). Johannes Høsflot Klæbo — this is a really, really obscure factoid that you’re unlikely to hear again over the next 11 days — is from there; he represents Byåsen IL domestically. Therese Johaug, another recherché skier, has ties to the area. The narratives write themselves.

World Championships in Norway is “kind of like the World Cup in Minneapolis,” said Gus Schumacher at a pre-champs press conference earlier this week, perhaps somewhat facetiously. “People here love skiing.”

“I would say it’s like the Olympics, only more fans on the ground,” echoed Jessie Diggins. “[The grandstand in the Granåsen arena] is massive. When you drop into the stadium, you will drop into a wall of sound and at least 20,000 fans. So that is very, very cool.”

Lukas Pigott will be on site for Nordic Insights throughout the championships. Noah Eckstein gets into town this weekend. Things will be [synonym for 🔥 that my agèd millennial self can use without trafficking in the deeply cringe].

Here’s the schedule for the first three days of racing. This table will be updated later with the rest of the championships.

World Championships in Trondheim (local time at venue: GMT +1. This is 6 hours ahead of the East Coast and 10 hours ahead of Alaska. Norway does observe Daylight Savings Time, but will not switch over until late March.)

Who will be racing for the U.S.?

In Thursday’s skate sprint: Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern, Rosie Brennan, and Kate Oldham, for the women. Ben Ogden, Gus Schumacher, Jack Young, and JC Schoonmaker, for the men. No surprises there, really.

The inclusion of Brennan here has to be taken as a positive sign for her current race fitness. On the one hand, Rosie Brennan is a decorated veteran with a World Cup victory in this event; a healthy Brennan is a no-brainer starter for a skate sprint. On the other hand, world champs are about performance, not participation; Brennan would not be on the start list here if she and the team did not think that she was capable of racing, and racing well, following her struggle with some form of illness throughout much of the first half of this season. I hope she crushes it tomorrow.

In upcoming races: Four athletes per race per gender. Five total in the women’s 10km classic on March 4, because Diggins is the defending world champion in the event hells yeah.

They will be drawn from the athletes listed below (plus Kevin Bolger, who was named to the team after this article was published) that are not Kendall Kramer (UAF) or John Steel Hagenbuch (Dartmouth), as both seniors will be remaining stateside to close out their college careers at NCAA Championships in Hanover:

Who will win medals for the U.S.?

The athletes — understandably! — don’t want to publicly think about results goals, but I am not thus bound. I also don’t have access to start lists for anything past Thursday’s sprint, but also I have a pretty good sense of a U.S. form chart by this point, so, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Subject to those caveats, and not shying away from a take or two, the following athletes will win medals for the U.S. in Trondheim: Jessie Diggins in both the skiathlon and the 50km skate. Ben Ogden and JC Schoonmaker in the classic team sprint. And Gus Schumacher in the 50km skate.

Count it.

How can I watch the races?

Here are your viewing options if you are tuning in from the U.S.:

• This worked last year but there’s a catch this year: Last season you could download a VPN (Windscribe should give you enough free bandwidth each month to stream all races), set your location to Canada, and stream races for free on the FIS cross-country page (link). This does work again this year, but only live; replays are not available. If you share my time zone and sleeping habits, this may not be a great option for you. There also may be different permissions that do not let this work for world champs; no way to know this but to try it once the races start.
• Paid and reliable: Pay Ski & Snowboard Live (link) if you would like to be assured of being able to watch the races, with good quality, and English audio commentary, and so on. Even if you have been paying Ski & Snowboard Live $12 a month all season long to see normal World Cup races, it appears that you need to pay another $20 just to watch the World Championships races. I am underwhelmed by this. Chad Salmela and Kikkan Randall will be on the call. Every time Chad mentions the Pyeongchang team sprint, take a shot of sports drink. You will leave the broadcast well-fueled.
• Free but take your chances: See what gets uploaded to YouTube after the fact. If you search for the race name and date, you can sometimes find a full broadcast online for a day or two after the race. Try also transliterating the venue name into the Cyrillic alphabet to loop in Russian users. Best to watch this with alacrity if you do find it; they tend to get taken down pretty quickly, because lawyers.

How can I find out more about the team’s mood coming into the event?

Lukas Pigott wrote an excellent preview drawing extensively from a pre-championships press conference, which you should read:

Enjoy the races, everyone.

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.