By Lukas S. Pigott
GRANÅSEN ARENA, Trondheim — “When I’m 70 years old, sitting in an old folks home, I will remember this race,” was how Johannes Klæbo addressed the 25,000 people at the medal ceremony Saturday night after winning the 50km.
He is not alone.
For all of us 100,000 people who were in and around Granåsen yesterday for the enormous party that it was, it is not a day that is going to be forgotten quickly.
While yesterday will be remembered in the years to come for its electric atmosphere, today’s race will be legendary in and of itself.
For the longest-ever race for women in a World Championship with the 50km on the program for the first time, the conditions weren’t going to make the race any easier.
While earlier in the championships rain had made salting the course more effective, lack of precipitation the last few days, though wholeheartedly welcomed by us spectators, meant that many parts of the course were extremely loose. They were also subject to a centimeter or two of damp new snow, which did not make anything faster out there.
Alayna Sonnesyn described the conditions as being like “really thick suction cupped mashed potatoes” that “sucked your skis in with every stroke.”
Her teammate Julia Kern stated without doubt, “that was the hardest conditions I have ever skied in,” and compared today to the final mountain climb of the Tour de Ski. “You think Alpe Cermis is hard, but Alpe Cermis is easy compared to today,” she said. “It was a fight just to get up through those hills because they were so deep.”
Former world champion turned NRK expert Martin Johnsrud Sundby was unsure if the athletes were going to even be able to make it around the course, with his colleague Fredrik Aukland calling the conditions “inhumane” after skiing around the course himself.
Someone who these conditions suited perfectly was one of cross-country skiing’s all-time greats, Therese Johaug. This race has been the center focus in her comeback, the reason for her training and living as a professional athlete the last two years even with a young child at home.
Would all that work be worth it? We’ll get back to that.
How it happened
After the championships that we have had, it seemed only appropriate that the weather was grim, the conditions were tough, waxing was difficult, and it was a fight between Norway and Sweden.
Apparently Johaug’s plan was to let the Swedish women take the lead on the first few laps, but that didn’t happen. From the gun Johaug pushed the pace, so much so that after only 2.8 kilometers the front group consisted of only 8 skiers. One of the pre-race favorites for a medal, Jessie Diggins, was decidedly not in this front group, already 34.5 seconds in arrears.
By the time the front group rounded the first lap, 8.3 kilometers into the race and with 41.7km left, the front group was whittled down to only five, and shortly thereafter only three. With Therese Johaug, Ebba Andersson and Heidi Weng out in front, Astrid Øyre Slind and Frida Karlsson were dropped on the climb up to the top of the course.
While Slind would only continue to lose time throughout the day, Karlsson managed to make it back to the front group. With only four skiers in the lead group with only a fifth of the race completed and the top 20 already separated by over three minutes, it looked like there were going to be big differences separating the podium places as well as the rest of the result sheet.
That was, however, not to be, with this group of four holding together for the rest of the race. While Johaug thought that these tough conditions would suit her strengths before the race, she was of a different mind after the race saying, “I didn’t get to use my capacity which is my strength. It’s hard to go around on the hills because you don’t get any response from the snow. It’s just about setting the skis up the hill and trying to stay on your feet on the downhills.”
With the snow so deep skiing is exceptionally tiring, especially over time as you have to lift up your legs unnaturally high so as not to get them tangled in the snow. This was something that happened to both Andersson and Weng today, among many others, causing them to fall while skiing uphill.
To avoid this, many athletes found themselves literally doublepoling on the climbs. “It was for sure freestyle skating out there,” Kern later said.
While Johaug controlled the race for the first 10km, Karlsson controlled the race for the final 40km. She was able to do so in part thanks to her and Andersson having noticeably better skis then the Norwegians, as well as skiing better technically. Karlsson used less energy throughout the course and was able to be in front at the bottom of almost every hill. This made it harder for Johaug to get in front and push the pace, which was what she needed to do if she was going to win.
Because of the skis losing their glide throughout the course all athletes have the opportunity to change skis once in a 50km. At the halfway point, after three laps completed, no one wanted to lead into the ski exchange, in fear of those following going straight through and getting a gap.
Karlsson led down the hill into the stadium, but brought herself almost to a standstill at the point where the course divided and you had to decide if you wanted to change skis or not. The others slowed down as well with clearly nobody wanting to get caught out. Just as Karlsson started going in to change skis, Johaug and Weng attacked, going straight through onto the course. Karlsson immediately turned around and followed them instead of changing skis.
Though nothing came of this incident and they all changed skis together next time through, it highlighted the type of race that today became, with the Swedish women able to control the race and make it more tactical and therefore play into their favor.
24 kilometers later, the lead pack was going into the final hill, “Bjørgen bakken” or “Bjørgen hill,” named after ski legend turned national team coach Marit Bjørgen. The same quartet was still minutes out in front of the rest of the field, fighting for the final gold medal of the 2025 Cross Country World Championships. Karlsson led into the hill, but Andersson tried to get around her on the inside. This ultimately caused Andersson to crash, ruining her hopes of a fourth gold here in Trondheim (second slide above).
Karlsson continued to accelerate up the hill, followed by Johaug and Weng. Into the final straight neither of the Norwegians could do anything about Frida Karlsson and her superior skis as she brought home Sweden’s sixth gold medal of the Championships. A happy Weng followed ahead of Johaug while a devastated Andersson had to settle for fourth.
‘Happy but tired’
When asked how she felt, Karlsson answered, “It feels really good” while admitting that her overwhelming feeling was “tired.” She was not alone.
For Karlsson to take her first individual World Championships victory in skate, and at this time, is almost unbelievable. She has struggled with an injury in her foot most of the year, meaning months in the fall without being able to skate and leaving competition days a rarity this season. Her trainer Per Nilsson revealed after the race that she has been struggling with her injury this Championship, which was likely worsened in the classic leg of the skiathlon where she, as well as others including Diggins, struggled with grip.
Another happy skier was Weng, who told NRK after the race, “I enjoyed myself for two and a half hours.” This was probably not the most common answer in the mixed zone today.
Was it worth it?
“Life is more than just ski racing” was one of Johaug’s takeaways from her comeback as she acknowledges that she is “full” of ski racing now.
Was it worth it Therese?
“Yes. I feel that it was worth it. I feel that I’ve come back, I’ve won ski races and I’ve been so near, so near, to not just one, but multiple individual golds here in Granåsen. It was the Championship of near misses for me” said a tearful Johaug.
Swedish journalist Tomas Pettersson wrote in his column in Expressen this evening, “If Therese Johaug had known this summer that her comeback project would end up with at best a silver here in Trondheim, I’m absolutely sure she would have never even tried.”
Is he right? Probably, but we’ll never know.
The result of her comeback, however, as Norwegian journalist Birger Løfaldli writes in Adresseavisen, is that “Johaug has gone from being a supreme winner, a female superhero, to becoming more like you and me.”
Jessie Diggins stops courseside near the end of her race to hug an American coach (photo: screenshot from broadcast)
Highs and lows of waxing
As Norwegian coach Eirik Myhr Nossum said yesterday, “Sport is about contrasts; that’s what stirs our emotions and engages us.” Today was no different.
“Right now it feels just really sad” was Andersson’s comment after the race after colliding with her teammate on the closing stages of the race.
While Andersson is disappointed about this race, she has put together an incredible Championships with two individual golds in total as well as the relay gold, earning her the “Queen of the championships” title once more this year.
Part of the success is thanks to the Swedish wax truck. They had superior skis to the Norwegians on multiple days, and especially today, a feat not many can say they have accomplished.
While you can’t say that the Norwegians have struggled with their skis this championships, you can say that about the Americans. On the first day of racing here, Diggins publicly pronounced herself to be “heartbroken” about her skis. Today, an athlete privy to the best Salomon skis in the world was already 24.9 seconds back after just 1.2km, which tells you something about her ski speed.
Talking to the media after today’s race, Diggins, who finished 22nd, over 17 minutes behind Karlsson, said that she raced “As hard as I could, and honestly, I’m really proud of that, because there’s things I couldn’t control that were out of my control, and I just went as hard as I could.”
What were the things that were out of your control today? came the follow-up question in the mixed zone.
“I don’t really want to talk about it. I think it’s pretty obvious for fans of ski racing, but at the same time that is ski racing, you know. It’s an amazing sport, and it’s cool and it’s heartbreaking.”
Listen here: Jessie Diggins speaks after her race:
Devon Kershaw had a chance to speak a little more extensively with Diggins from his mixed-zone spot as broadcast media.
“Usually she’s pretty bubbly, or has some inspirational message for the kids,” Kershaw later said of his interaction on his eponymous podcast. “Or, as in earlier in these championships, she’s been very blunt about what the equipment is, and trying to educate the fans that, Listen, sometimes things don’t work, but we all try our best. And today: glasses stayed on. You could tell she’d been crying. And very, very short. Didn’t want to be there. Trying to leave. … She was so disappointed that she was like, I can’t even.”
“They really struggled with the skis at these championships — or I should say, they struggled with Jessie Diggins’s skis,” Kershaw also noted. “Because I wouldn’t say they struggled with Julia Kern’s skis.” (Diggins has been a Salomon athlete for decades; Kern skis on Atomic.)
Between the ski brand, the grind, the structure, or the interaction of all three: “something wasn’t working” in today’s race, was Kershaw’s take.
While there is no doubt that Diggins raced as hard as she could today, and that her skis were suboptimal, questions have also been asked about whether she has been racing too much and if that has affected her form here this week.
While Karlsson, Andersson, and Johaug have all taken multiple weeks off from racing to pursue midseason training, Diggins’s quest for the overall World Cup — which she currently leads by a nearly insurmountable 472 points with just five scored events remaining — has led her to compete in almost all races this year.
As U.S. program director Chris Grover pointed out earlier in the week, it’s much harder for the Americans to take a week off racing and relax, because they don’t have a home to go back to for a week like the Europeans do.
Kern has a rest at the finish (photo: broadcast screenshot)
Back to Kern, who did undertake the substantial travel necessary to make it back to New England over the winter holidays, spending multiple weeks training at home.
Kern, who finished in 19th today, described the race as “A fight to the finish line.” She continued, “I think these conditions just go to show how important it is to advocate for solutions to save our future winters. That was not winter ski racing; I’ve never experienced anything like that before. They’ve had to salt the courses these entire championships, and the salt wasn’t feasible today because the snow was just run to the ground. And so there was no good solution for making it, I would say, anywhere close to a normal type of ski condition.”
Hear more here: Julia Kern speaks after her race:
Sophia Laukli completed the race today in 21st place, Canadian Olivia Bouffard-Nesbitt finished in 30th, while Sonnesyn finished in 23rd.
Talking to the media after the race, Sonnesyn said, “I’m really proud of myself. It was quite a fight out there, and I think for anyone who just got through that, they should be proud of themselves.”
Sonnesyn continued by saying that she has never witnessed conditions like today before explaining how you bond with competitors on a day like today.
“On the first or second lap I was skiing with another girl from Czechia,” Sonnesyn said, “and we just looked at each other and were like, What is this? Like, this is insane, and this is crazy, but we were like, well, Let’s do this together. I think moments like that, it’s like, you just bond.”
Thank you Trondheim!
Trondheim 2025 has been a raging success, non–U.S. skis division. As Antoine Cyr said earlier this week, “The sport needs more events like this.” Trondheim 2025 will be remembered for the racing, for the atmosphere, but most of all for a community that came together, despite challenging weather, to put on an event for the history books.
Trondheim 2025 has breathed a breath of fresh air into the sport of cross-country skiing. Ski races can be a massive coming together of enthusiasm, excitement, and joy for the sport. This World Championships has set a golden standard of what a ski festival can look like, something for the sport to live up to in the upcoming years.
Thank you Trondheim!
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.
Great insightful article.. mentioning American and Canadian skiers..Jessie Diggins, Antoine Cyr, Laukli, Sonnesyn, Bouffard -Nesbitt and others! Great Klaebo triumph! The picture with the title is not of Karlsson..but maybe just one of the skiers was the intent..
Yeah, I don’t exactly have the money for a NordicFocus subscription here (I think they’re quite reasonably priced for what they do, just I don’t have the money for it). I had screenshotted the Americans for the Instagram post and just went with that for the header. I feel like it sort of illustrates “day to forget”…