By Adele Haeg
Team Norway dominated in today’s 10-kilometer skate individual start, the fourth and final race in that format to be contested this season, sweeping the podium, the next two spots as well, and putting seven in the top nine. Fans in Holmenkollen wouldn’t have accepted anything less.
Fastest among the Norwegians today was reigning World Cup overall champion Harald Østberg Amundsen, who won at this format in Cogne in January. Today, Østberg Amundsen beat biathlete Einar Hedegart for first place by five seconds, in a speedy 22:06.4. A weary Johannes Høsflot Klæbo took third, 12.8 seconds off Østberg Amundsen’s time.
(all photos in this article: screenshot from broadcast)
Amundsen said to reporters on site that the race was “very hard” and that his muscles are “getting sorer and sorer”: “I was struggling to keep up with the pace but I had quite a good finish.” This was his tenth World Cup victory, a milestone he said he is proud to have reached.
It’s fair to say Østberg Amundsen has proven that he’s mastered the semi-sprint, semi-distance 10-kilometer distance, not an easy race to pace. Klæbo did not win at this distance this season, or last season. In fact, he hasn’t won a 10km skate race since Beitostølen in 2022. He is by any standard the greatest or very close to it, but not at this distance. That said, third place is an impressive feat for him after the week he had in Trondheim, especially since this distance does not seem to suit him.
Evidently, this distance suits 23-year-old biathlete Einar Hedegart, though usually when he is skiing he’s also toting a rifle. This is his second World Cup appearance and his second top ten, and his first podium. According to this FIS race report, he is switching to cross-country from biathlon next season, but Hedegart himself explained to Nordic Insights he’s not sure yet: “I have to see here now, there are a lot of questions about it, and I can’t promise anything.”
It is not easy to get a spot on the Norwegian National Ski Team, which has to be one reason Hedegart can’t make any promises about his future. That is likely also why Hedegart was so happy with his results today because, as he said, “it’s fun to deliver when it matters.”
Read: It’s fun to beat other Norwegians in Norway and use a starting spot to prove to Norwegian coaches that you can beat Klæbo in a ski race. And not only is it fun. It’s performances like this that will affect the trajectory of his skiing career. Hedegart wisely said to Nordic Insights about his future in winter sport, “You have to take it one step at a time.”
Østberg Amundsen said of Hedegart, “He is probably the best biathlon athlete I’ve ever competed against.” That is certainly a compliment, but it is unclear how generous of a compliment it is — Østberg Amundsen usually doesn’t compete against biathletes.
The American men did not interrupt the Norwegian party today. Gus Schumacher finished in 24th, Kevin Bolger in 29th, Ben Ogden in 33rd, and JC Schoonmaker in 59th. Luke Jager and Zanden McMullen were both DNS today.
Before Hedegart, Kevin Bolger, who started second, had posted the fastest time at the 1.3-kilometer mark. Bolger said to Nordic Insights after the race, “My plan was to start out hard. I mean I saw JC right in front of me … and I tried to get him as quick as I could. So that plan was just to get out to a hot start.”
Bolger noted that starting second was difficult, because “it gets a bit lonely on the course” when it’s a race against the clock.
Gus Schumacher might have preferred to start earlier, when it was cooler, and the sun was less of a factor in the snow conditions. Schumacher started in bib 42, as the first of 15 athletes in the seeded group.
He said to Nordic Insights that his race was okay. Conditions were okay. Schumacher said the trails were “a little weird … some super dry snow and some super wet snow, and neither really felt that good or fast. So it was a little tough.”
Xavier McKeever of Canada, who finished in 55th today, agreed with Schumacher. In comments to Nordic Insights, he said “Conditions are tough. It was really soft in some parts and hard in others. And then windy in some parts, not windy in others. Just like, yeah, very variable for sure.” He said he had a rough race; it was “not easy skiing out there.”
Schumacher famously won the 10km skate in Minneapolis in 2024 (I think I’ve managed to mention that stat in every article I’ve written this season). When asked by Nordic Insights where he had hoped to be today he answered: “I mean the podium honestly, that’s just kind of like where my head’s at these days, and I just felt flat. It was hard to tell how the skis were, but felt like a fight out there for sure.”
Ben Ogden did not use any superlatives to describe today’s race either. He said to Nordic Insights, “Not the best I feel. [I’m feeling] the effects of the season a bit at this stage of the game, but I’m in there and you know I think I’ll hang in there for maybe okay results, [which] are, you know, not so bad.” Ogden explained that he has been struggling with his fitness this championship season, having had to deal with sickness during earlier periods of competition.
On the conditions today, Ogden reported, “Yeah, it was just kind of getting to the point where it was like hard to ski right, you know It’s a little hard to go wobbly, but a lot of it’s holding up really nice.” He mentioned a focus of his training this year will be skiing in slush, on glaciers, or in Bend at the U.S. national team’s annual May training camp. He’s tired but not defeated, and already anticipating what he will focus on in training after this season.
Olivier Léveillé, another Canadian, had his second top-ten result yesterday in the 20-kilometer classic. It was also his birthday yesterday. He said to Nordic Insights, “I actually felt really good, but it was so short compared to yesterday. And I think I didn’t, maybe didn’t adjust my pacing strategy. And like in, as good as yesterday, like, I don’t know, maybe I could try to go a little harder or something. I’m less drained at the finish line than I was yesterday. So that’s the only thing I’m regretting.”
That’s it for Holmenkollen. World Cup racing resumes March 18 with a night sprint in Tallinn, Estonia, before three races in Lahti next weekend to close out the season.
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