By Gavin Kentch
A nation is typically allotted up to four starters per gender for a race at world championships. For tomorrow’s 10-kilometer interval-start classic race, Jessie Diggins is the defending world champion in the event; she gets an automatic entry that does not count against the quota. The U.S. could therefore start as many as five women in tomorrow’s race.
However, when the start list was made public earlier today, there were only two American women on it, Alayna Sonnesyn and Rosie Brennan.
What explains the discrepancy between potential and actual starters for Tuesday’s race? Here’s USST head coach Matt Whitcomb, in an email to Nordic Insights earlier Monday:
“We put a lot of effort into trying to fill all starts at World Championships, while trying to also minimize the number of athletes who might not get a single start. In the case of the women’s 10k, we had two athletes opt to race NCAA’s, and two athletes decide to sit out of the 10k in order to prioritize the team sprint. The race schedule is very tight, and unfortunately, in many cases, we can’t predict exactly what our race start strategy will be until the race week begins.”
Fair enough, and thanks to Whitcomb for his time. Now let’s break this down a little more:
There were seven women officially named to the American team for 2025 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships: Rosie Brennan, Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern, Kendall Kramer, Sophia Laukli, Kate Oldham, and Alayna Sonnesyn.
I subsequently reported that Kramer declined the spot in favor of racing at NCAA Championships, which occur at Dartmouth this Thursday and Saturday (for the nordic races).
In the same article, Oldham told me, “I’m excited to say I have accepted my spot on the World Championships team! I’ll be there ready to take the opportunity to start for Team USA. Based on how those logistics turn out, if I can get to Hanover in time for NCAAs, it would mean a lot to me to represent the Bobcats in my senior year at MSU too.” Oldham raced in the skate sprint in Trondheim last Thursday, finishing a solid 22nd in her first career world championships start, then did not start yesterday’s skiathlon.
Two athletes are racing NCAAs, Whitcomb stated; that would clearly be Kramer and Oldham. This leaves Brennan, Diggins, Kern, Laukli, and Sonnesyn still on the ground in Trondheim. Brennan and Sonnesyn are racing tomorrow. That leaves Diggins, Kern, and Laukli as the three women not racing.
Embed from Getty ImagesWith all respect to Laukli’s classic sprinting abilities, it feels safe to assume that the athletes sitting out Tuesday’s 10km in favor of Wednesday’s team sprint are Diggins and Kern, in what would be a reprise of their all-SMS, bronze medal–winning team from Planica in 2023.
Putting all that together, that leaves Rosie Brennan and Alayna Sonnesyn starting the 10km tomorrow, Kendall Kramer and Kate Oldham prepping for NCAA racing stateside, Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern resting up for the team sprint, and Sophia Laukli sitting out for an unspecified reason, such as general load management or energy levels.
As for the guys, my understanding is that two of the nine men named to this team for the U.S., John Steel Hagenbuch and Jack Young, are currently in or near Hanover for NCAAs. That leaves seven men — Kevin Bolger, Luke Jager, Zak Ketterson, Zanden McMullen, Ben Ogden, JC Schoonmaker, and Gus Schumacher — still on site in Trondheim. Of that septet, four names are on the start list for the men tomorrow: Ketterson, McMullen, Ogden, and Schumacher.
Races start at 1 p.m. local time tomorrow, for the men, and 3:30 p.m., for the women. The weather looks to be atrocious, because classic skiing in Trondheim. Noah Eckstein and Lukas Pigott will be back with you tomorrow for more from the venue.
Update: Whitcomb adressed this dynamic following Tuesday’s race.
“We had enough women to start today’s event,” he said, “and as of two weeks ago, it looked like this start was going to be filled. But we always know that because of the [density of races] there’s a chance that we could have some open start spots.”
As for the handful of bubble-sitting women at home watching rather than racing: “They will be frustrated with us. We know that,” Whitcomb plainly stated. But, he said, “having athletes that are sitting around without starts is really miserable for those athletes — it’s something that we really try to avoid.”
You can listen to his full thoughts here. Whitcomb speaks to athlete selection starting at roughly the 2:15 mark.
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.
