By Merridy Littell
Today’s 50-kilometer race was a nailbiter: The winner of the Distance Globe would come down to this last effort. Astrid Øyre Slind was within striking distance of Jessie Diggins for the globe coming into the day. Slind had a total of 1215 points over all the World Cup distance races she had contested this year, compared to Diggins’s 1310. Given that a win alone is worth 100 points and that each of the six bonus point opportunities on course today yielded as much as 15 points to the first athlete through that checkpoint, Slind could absolutely give Diggins a run for her money.
Slind and Norwegian teammate Therese Johaug charged hard from the beginning, leading the pack through the 1.1km checkpoint. However, by the time the lead pack reached the 3.4km checkpoint just a few minutes later, the combined efforts of Slind, Johaug, Ebba Andersson, and Diggins had created noticeable gaps, especially toward the back end of the field.
Johaug looked in it to win it from the beginning. She employed a high tempo in both her striding and doublepole from the time she took the lead right after the aforementioned checkpoint and would (spoiler alert) stay that way the majority of the race. The expression on her face could be described as one thing: determined.
“I had a really, really good day,” Johaug told FIS. “My shape is really good at the moment and my skis were perfect. I just really enjoyed it out there; it was good to have some power.” Power was something Johaug clearly had in spades today, right from the gun.
all photos: screenshots from broadcast
Coming into the stadium after the first 7-kilometer lap of the course, Johaug and Slind were leading the field. Diggins sat in seventh and around 10 seconds off the lead, in the middle of the first chase pack. Diggins was clearly charging hard, despite appearing to be in the pain cave from early on in the race: Her technique was confident, making her blonde ponytail bounce with each stride.
And then suddenly there were two. Sweeping into the stadium in the middle of their second lap, Slind and Johaug sped down the hill, around the stadium and… there’s the chase group, Ebba Andersson and Nora Sanness, around 20 seconds back. They were closely followed by the second chase group, containing Diggins. As Diggins climbed out of the stadium, one of her coaches can be heard in the background telling her to “remember to stomp.” It’s not uncommon for athletes to ask their coaches to remind them of a technique pointer that they want to focus on during a race.
At 12.9 kilometers into the race, the first opportunity for bonus points arose. Johaug surged up the hill to create a slight lead over Slind, taking 15 points to Slind’s 12. Just under a minute later, Diggins came through the checkpoint in 10th to take one point. At this time, the U.S. had two other athletes in the top 30, with Julia Kern in 26th and Sydney Palmer-Leger just a few seconds behind her in 30th. Alayna Sonnesyn sat in 38th, and Sammy Smith, racing her first career FIS 50km at age 19, in 44th.
Halfway through her third lap Johaug was trying to convince viewers that she was finishing a 10km race with her powerful doublepole, but nope, that’s just Johaug in the middle of a 50km effort. Johaug was clearly trying to widen the gap to Slind, who came through around 17 seconds later. As the chase group, with Diggins a few seconds off the back, skied by 1:15 after Johaug Diggins was still well ahead of Moa Ilar in 11th, meaning that she was still in contention for future bonus points.
I want to briefly highlight how fast these women completed this 50-kilometer race. Johaug’s time for the 20-kilometer race in Oslo on March 15th, also a classic race, was 49:59.9, meaning that her pace there was around 2:30 per kilometer. Her pace for today’s 50km averaged out to around 2:42 per kilometer. Johaug’s pace was only around 8 percent faster for the 20km effort, despite the race being only 40 percent of the distance. This doesn’t come as a surprise, but it is testament to these athletes’ incredible stamina.
At around 22 kilometers in, Diggins entered the stadium and entered a slot near the far end where an extra pair of skis waited for her in the optional exchange zone. From the time that she entered the slot to the time that her tails exited it, 10 seconds had elapsed. In that time, she undid both bindings, clipped her boots into the other pair, and was off. This is impressively fast, and with that little time lost it might have proved a beneficial decision.
Diggins definitely thought it was. “Oh my goodness, I am so thankful for the wax technicians,” Diggins told FIS after the race. “My second pair of skis were so good, they gave me a second life out there and I really needed it.”
Diggins may have changed her skis for a few reasons. First, a lack of kick due to either warming conditions from the sun or wax being scraped off from scrubbing speed around the icy corners could result in a fresh pair being beneficial. Or, a lack of glide due to warming conditions (meaning more free water in the snow) could have also prompted the same decision.
Coming into the third bonus points opportunity at 27 kilometers, Johaug and Slind once again came through in first and second. Slind was at this point around 40 seconds behind Johaug, who had been gradually increasing her lead. The chase group, led by Kerttu Niskanen and Katharina Hennig, came in around 1:14 after that.
Diggins claimed the last, singular bonus point 50 seconds behind the chase group. Still safely ahead of anyone behind her, Diggins was by now losing points at a rate that would put her only barely in front of Slind. Should Slind catch up to Johaug or Diggins fall behind another racer, that rate would not hold.
Johaug and Slind also decided to change their skis, with Johaug taking a small stumble but righting herself as her wax (most likely klister; that’s certainly what Diggins had underfoot per the below embed) caught on the snow. The majority of the chase group opted for the same strategy. At this point in the race, many of these athletes were starting to show signs of exhaustion. Some of them were slightly bent at the waist during their doublepole with movements containing slightly less power. Having better kick or better glide can help remedy this slightly.
Diggins was skiing alone at the 33.3 km checkpoint, though by this time she had another skier within reach. Nadja Kälin of Switzerland was around 25 seconds ahead of her; Diggins’s choice to change skis earlier in the race was benefiting her now, as her kick and glide both seemed much improved. By the 36.9km mark, she had managed to get Kälin in sight on the hills, clocking in at around 17 seconds behind her.
Diggins would need to pass all the people she could; at the bonus points at 41.5 km Slind gained another 12, meaning that Diggins’s lead had narrowed from 95 down to 42 points. Slind would also receive many more points than Diggins for her higher overall finish position. Diggins passed this checkpoint in front of Kälin, meaning that she gained two points instead of one. In such a tight competition, every point that Diggins could gain could count toward the final result.
There would be only one more opportunity for bonus points before the finish line, at 48.6km. Johaug had seemingly clinched the win around 1:09 ahead of Slind; Ebba Andersson and Stadlober sat around 2:35 behind Slind, battling for third place. Slind and Diggins again took 12 and 2 points, respectively. However, by the time Diggins got to the checkpoint, Slind had finished the race, pocketing 95 points for the second-place finish. The winner of the Distance Globe would rest on Diggins’s final finishing position.
Johaug did indeed win, with a time of 2:14:40. Slind finished 1:03 behind her (2:15:44), having gained a little bit of time due to Johaug’s well-deserved celebrations coming into the finish. Andersson entered the stadium next, having developed a slight gap on Stadlobber, with a time of 2:18:08.
In discussing her win with FIS, Johaug said “It’s really good that the season is over and to be able to celebrate with first place in the 50km.”
At the finish line, Slind could be seen standing around with Johaug, presumably watching the standings to see if she would win the Distance Globe. As Diggins crossed the line just 3 seconds after Carl, her rankings were confirmed. Diggins would win the Globe by only two points (see the prophetic graphic below, which matches the current rankings on the FIS website), after collecting 66 points for the ninth-place finish plus a pivotal eight bonus points while on course.
Julia Kern (2:31:46) crossed the line in 32nd, followed by Sydney Palmer-Leger (2:34:28) in 36th, Alayna Sonnesyn (2:37:49) in 38th, and Sammy Smith (2:38:27) in 39th to round out the US women.
This race marks the last World Cup effort this season. After the race concluded, Diggins was on top of two podiums: one for the Overall Globe and one for the Distance Globe (photos below). If you want to read more about her perspective on the season, see this article about her postseason-ish press conference–ish media event.
In comments to FIS, Diggins said “There was some epic cheering out there so thank you to all the fans for all the love — I really needed it — and now I’m just so excited to go home and make some nachos with my husband.” And honestly, I couldn’t have said it better. That’s a wrap, folks!
bonus photo: the dog that was shown not once but twice on the broadcast today
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