By Adele Haeg
Therese Johaug won four medals at this year’s World Championships in Trondheim: three silvers and one bronze. She won four medals but not one of them was gold.
Johaug told reporters that she was out for revenge today in Holmenkollen; she wants gold. Even after she came out of retirement this year and then won a medal in every World Champs race that she started, and even with her Tour de Ski trophy from January, not to mention her 88 career World Cup wins so far, she isn’t done.
She looked unstoppable today on course in Holmenkollen. Johaug is the queen of Norwegian skiing — only gold will do for her, especially in Holmenkollen, on her home snow. And gold she got today, in front of the King, Crown Prince, and Princess of Norway themselves.
“Today was my day,” a beaming Johaug said to reporters after the race, “but it was a really hard fight with Astrid. She was so strong today. But I feel that I had a little bit more in the end.”
this is the last thing you see before you die (screenshot from broadcast)
Johaug crushed today’s 20-kilometer classic individual start course in 49.59.9. Second place Astrid Øyre Slind was 16.5 seconds behind, and Victoria Carl finished third, 36.9 seconds behind Slind, about a minute off Johaug. Johaug said to reporters that she was smiling and having fun today, and she was, but she was also skiing with a vengeance. Kikkan Randall commented on the broadcast that Johaug was skiing angry.
Johaug started in bib 42, two minutes before Slind in bib 46. The two Norwegians were fastest through most of the time checks, bouncing between first and second, Slind chasing Johaug. Slind said to Norwegian news outlet NRK that it was a “rat race.”
Ebba Andersson of Sweden initially finished in third, but was disqualified for a technique violation. The jury cited improper use of freestyle technique. This was Andersson’s second yellow of the season.
Andersson explained to reporters afterwards that she had “a completely different view of that incident” than the jury, according to a translation. She said, “I’m not here to skate today, I’m here to ski classic technique. I’m not here to cheat in any way and that’s why I think it’s so harsh how they judge this situation.”
Hear more from Andersson in this audio clip [it would be helpful if you speak Swedish, heads up]:
Johaug commented, “It’s a shame for Ebba then, but rules are rules.” That’s first place talking to a fourth place who thought she was on the podium. That’s ski racing.
Victoria Carl, who assumed Andersson’s podium spot, said to reporters in the mixed zone, “I’m happy, and she’s unhappy.” Carl added that when she sees Andersson, she will say sorry. I don’t know if Andersson will receive that too kindly.
As much as she might want to, Johaug can’t have all the gold. Jessie Diggins, who finished 10th today, still has the gold World Cup leader bib, and an 800-point lead over Johaug in the overall standings to boot. Second-place Victoria Carl and third-place Astrid Øyre Slind are within 100 points of each other. Carl has 1,551 points after today’s race to Diggins’s 1,996. With just four scored races remaining on this year’s World Cup calendar, Diggins is on the cusp of securing her second consecutive and third career overall title.
Conditions were markedly better in Holmenkollen today than for this past weekend in Trondheim, where Sunday brought a sloppy, slushy, sad 50-kilometer trudge for the best athletes in the world.
Canadian Katherine Stewart-Jones, who finished 31st here, preferred today. She said to Nordic Insights that she missed conditions like today’s after Trondheim: “It was a nice day and I was enjoying the crowds and the sun.” She was still tired from the 50km in Trondheim, but said that she did the best she could. “I’ll ride it out and keep racing and see how it goes,” she said, chipper.
Chad Salmela deemed it a bluebird day on the broadcast, and for March, it was. Jessie Diggins said that the sunshine in Holmenkollen gave her a boost too, and that she had good kick the entire race, thanks to her service team.
Diggins said in an audio recording from USSS that she was “super proud of today…My energy and body felt surprisingly okay” after the World Championships.
She told Nordic Insights how much she enjoyed the sunshine, and sounded orders of magnitude more upbeat than the last time she had talked with media, following the Trondheim 50km. Diggins also spoke to her thought process as a late starter in the seeded group on a quickly warming day, and how she had to approach the course as a result.
Notably, Diggins did not shy away from a question about her season-long racing load, and what form that left her in at this point in the season relative to her competitors. “I feel like I’m right where I want to be” in terms of her ability to push her body when racing, Diggins said on this front.
Hear more from Diggins here:
As for her fellow Americans, Rosie Brennan finished in 17th, Sydney Palmer-Leger in 38th, and Sammy Smith 44th.
This was Sammy Smith’s first ever 20km classic individual start, and the 19-year-old’s first race back on the World Cup in a while (she was busy with World Juniors in February). Smith said to Nordic Insights, “It was a fun race and a good challenge for sure,” noting that she has a lot to learn about the format.
Rosie Brennan told Nordic Insights that she wasn’t thrilled with her race today. This format is her favorite, but by her own assessment, she didn’t perform her best.
When our Lukas Pigott asked her, “How do you feel?” Brennan responded, “I don’t know.”
A dejected Brennan elaborated, “I am far from being where I want to be but I had to give it one more try because this is probably my favorite race. Eh, it was okay.” Even though she said she had good kick, Brennan made clear that she is not in top form right now.
Hear more from Brennan here (starts about seven seconds in):
Sydney Palmer-Leger won the American Birkebeiner in February. She told Nordic Insights she’s traveled back and forth from the United States to Europe three times this season. “The travel takes a really big toll on you,” she said. “It gets a little bit tiring.” She said she gave it her everything today in Holmenkollen, and “it was as fun as it [could] be.”
Palmer-Leger did not compete at World Champs. “I was pretty bummed with that,” she admitted.
She had a top-30 result in Falun, which might have been enough to qualify her to race in Trondheim, but, according to Palmer-Leger, “That’s how skiing goes, and sometimes it’s not as easy as one race getting you in. It’s a lot of work for the techs, so they try to take a smaller team. … I understand. It’s really bumming to put your whole life into it, and there’s certain races you want to compete at, and you don’t make it, but you kind of take a different path.”
For Palmer-Leger, that path went right down Main Street in Hayward, Wisconsin, last month. Wisconsin cheese is gold, isn’t it? Perhaps it’s the kind of gold Johaug is still searching for.
Tune in tomorrow for coverage of the 10-kilometer individual start in the freestyle technique. Yes, that is Diggins’s speciality. Other American athletes on Sunday’s start list include Palmer-Leger, Brennan, Smith, Julia Kern, Alayna Sonnesyn, and Kate Oldham. Lukas Pigott will be on site for Nordic Insights once more.
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