World Cup Viewing Guide for March 4–9: Second Half of World Champs

By Gavin Kentch

2025 World Championships in Trondheim have indeed been lit. They have also been wet. Expect more of the same, on both fronts, as athletes race on the next six days in a row to close out world champs. There are two individual and two team events remaining: a 10km classic interval-start tomorrow and a 50km mass start skate on the final weekend, then a classic team sprint and a 4 x 7.5km relay in the middle. Based on the first three days of racing out of Trondheim, they should all be, and I’m not just saying this, really exciting.

Lukas Pigott and Noah Eckstein have been on site for Nordic Insights. They have been crushing it. Expect more of the same from the team on the ground over the second half of race week. I will sit behind a computer in Anchorage and edit and post while they do the hard work out there.

Here is the schedule for the final six days of racing.

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 Tuesday’s 10km classic: Rosie Brennan and Alayna Sonnesyn for the women. Zak Ketterson, Ben Ogden, Zanden McMullen, and Gus Schumacher for the men.

More starters to follow day by day, 24 hours in advance of each subsequent race. The prediction here — I’m writing this on Monday, and promise not to come back and surreptitiously change this paragraph later to make myself look good — is:

• Ben Ogden and JC Schoonmaker in the men’s team sprint;

• Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern in the women’s team sprint;

• Ogden, Gus Schumacher, Zanden McMullen, and one of either Ketterson or Kevin Bolger in the men’s relay;

• Diggins, Kern, Laukli, and either Brennan or Sonnesyn in the women’s relay, depending on whose form is better in the 10km classic;

• Schumacher, McMullen, Bolger, and Ogden in the men’s 50km; and

• Diggins, Kern, Laukli, and Brennan in the women’s 50km.

The largest question mark here is clearly Brennan, imho; we’ll know a lot more after the 10km classic about where she stands in her return to racing after a pretty rough start to the season for the longtime star.

We will also know if the American tech crew has been able to turn things around after a string of races to open the championships that were well below their customary high standards. “NRK expert predicts bingo weather: There will be competition between the greasers,” reads one recent auto-translated headline about the ghastly weather predicted for the 10km classic. I agree completely.

Reality check, there are at this point only five American women still on site, a mathematical limitation that bears directly on overall energy and load management over the final six days of racing. You can find out more about those dynamics here:

Who will win medals for the U.S.?

I wrote this last week, and am leaving it unchanged from the first preview because it would feel like cheating to change this now (yes I know that Jessie didn’t medal in the skiathlon). I guess the caveat to all of this has become, “If the tech team sorts out their issues and is able to give the American skiers competitive skis,” but I believe in them.

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. It sounds like this is indeed still viable during world champs, judging by reports from my Canadian friends. Also, sorry about the tariffs. Not great.
• 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.