By Angie Kell
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Kicking off the second weekend of 2025/2026 World Cup racing with classic sprints in Trondheim, one could describe the day with kitschy utterances: Swedish Sweep. Norwegian Nationals. American Advancement. [Sounds good to me. —Editor, who wrote the headline.]
With the Milan–Cortina Olympics looming in two short months, team rosters are being constructed, and each individual performance on weekends such as these holds extra meaning. For the Norwegians, there is no better place to hold their race-within-a-race than their home turf of Trondheim: This was basically a nationals event. This being, of course, the race to elucidate who will garner the four coveted Olympic start spots for Norwegian men for next February’s classic sprint. Or three, since it is a fait accompli that Klæbo gets one of them.
The 1.5-kilometer course at Granåsen is a special one; featured in last year’s World Championships, it’s a course of tactics. Spicy hairpin turns, two notable climbs with varying pitches, and fast descents assured an interesting day. The conditions at the venue appeared to be fast, smooth, and perfect for klister skis, not to mention primed for Norwegian superstar Johannes Høsflot Klæbo to secure his 100th individual World Cup win in the men’s race.
Indeed, Klæbo delivered a master class on the racecourse to secure this milestone as was anticipated, much as the Swedish women swept the podium in their race (also as expected).
The American men were able to advance two skiers to the heats in the form of Ben Ogden (who had the best qualifying time for the day of 2:58.87, which was notably 0.22s ahead of Klæbo) and JC Schoonmaker (who qualified in the 24th position, 5.59s behind Ogden). That said, a total of six members of the U.S. Ski Team toed the start line of the qualifier. All was not lost, as the Americans were undoubtedly looking for opportunities to advance their experience, knowledge, and fitness in this second weekend of racing for the 2025/2026 season.
Gus Schumacher (33rd overall for the day), Zak Ketterson (37th), Jack Young (42nd), and Kevin Bolger (46th) were unable to advance to the heats today.
Schumacher told Nordic Insights that this wasn’t the worst situation to be in. “It makes it easier to go into a distance double (Saturday and Sunday) that can be really good for me,” he noted. Schumacher continued, “My thoughts are definitely focused more on those ones, but it’s always good to get another sprint under the belt and try to move fast and well.”
Young too found his silver lining. “It’s not reasonable to expect perfect efforts,” he explained to this reporter, after expressing some frustration with the day. “I’m happy to have been so close to qualifying again. This is my lowest FIS points in a classic qualifier by a pretty large margin, so I can sleep easy knowing that I’m moving in the right direction.”
Veteran Bolger, possessing knowledge and experience, took the day in stride. “When you race for as long as I do, you start to know during a race, based on how the body feels, how the race is going. I had a great pre-race yesterday and the feeling was so good — so I carried a lot of confidence into today. But there was no top end speed. It’s hard to really say what I could have done better — some days are just not meant to be and that’s truly upsetting, but that’s life and sport.”
The heats were action packed with fights for lines and optimal positioning. Schoonmaker, opting for the third heat, found some bad luck upon the first descent as he appeared to cross skis with Italian Simone Mocellini. He went down, thereby ending his day early.
This heat was especially entertaining, as the 19-year-old Swedish up-and-comer Alvar Myhlback opted to adorn himself in skate skis and was forced to doublepole the entire loop. He was able to capitalize on the extra glide and doublepoled his way to win the heat, the fastest of the day, in 2:56.60. Schoonmaker finished the day sixth in this heat (+16.05s), and in 28th place overall.
Teammate Ogden chose the fifth heat and raced the lap appearing calm and collected. Ogden used the second and last climb to display his quick tempo to surge to the front, allowing for a clean and precise line for the final turn to the finish. Ogden won the heat to advance to the semifinals with a time of 2:57.83, faster than his qualifying time.
The semifinals, comprised of seven Norwegians, went as planned (if you’re representing Norway), as Klæbo and teammate Erik Valnes took the top two spots in the first heat in times of 2:55.79 and 2:55.87. Youngsters Oskar Opstad Vike and Lars Heggen, both of Norway, took first and second places in the second heat in 2:58.68 and 2:58.75. Myhlback and Ansger Evensen of Norway secured the lucky loser spots from the first semifinal in 2:55.89 and 2:56.41. Myhlback, again capitalizing on his powerful pole on skate skis, surged at the finish to become the lone Swede in the finals.
Ogden, who suffered from positioning problems from the outset, was never able to move himself comfortably and safely to the front of the pack in the second semifinal heat. At the same spot that ended Schoonmaker’s day in the quarterfinals, Ogden appeared to cross skis with Norwegian podium contender Harald Østberg Amundsen. Both went down to end their days in the semifinals. Ogden finished the day ninth overall, one position away from an automatic qualifying spot to represent the U.S. in Val di Fiemme in February.
While there was arguably more at stake for Amundsen, Ogden kept his legendary humor when speaking about the day.
“It was definitely a bit intense with all of the Norwegians out there, but they got the last laugh, I guess,” he told Nordic Insights. “They had the final results. Maybe I had the qualifier result, but I couldn’t convert. Or at least, not entirely, so all good.”
As was seen in his efforts today, Ogden appeared to be firing on all cylinders. “The qualifier today, I definitely felt good. I just think that the hills here in Trondheim really suit me and my strengths. They were not so steep where you had to run but definitely steep enough where having a fast turnover poser stride was really good. I felt really good.”
As one knows, good vibrations are only part of World Cup racing, and Klæbo executed upon perfect tactics in the final to win the race in 2:59.89. While the 21-year-old Vike appeared to challenge Klæbo on the climbs, he did seem to exercise some deference to the superstar on the final hairpin turn to the finish for the best line.
Vike would take second place behind Klæbo in 3:00.20. Myhlback again used the flat finish, plus superb positioning and an otherworldly doublepole, to come into third by the finish, preventing an all-Norwegian podium.
Myhlback was born in March 2006. He became the first teenager to reach a men’s World Cup podium in history. When asked about his mindset for doublepoling the whole day — everything from the qual to the final — he told Swedish paper Expressen, “I felt like, ‘fuck it, I’m going to die,’” according to an auto-translation. “It’s fun, I’m good at that.”
Klæbo was predictably content at the finish with his milestone 100th World Cup win. When speaking to the FIS live feed he said of the day: “It’s perfect. Couldn’t be a better place to take it, and to also do it in sprint distance, it’s special.” Then he struck a pose with a nod to countryman Erling Haaland’s recent post commemorating his 100th career Premier League goal, nailing the allusion but failing to perfect the Haaland smirk.
The victory today adds to Klæbo’s presumptively insurmountable lead in the all-time men’s standings. Second place in the career wins table is Bjørn Dæhlie, with 46. Next among active skiers is Alexander Bolshunov, with 28. Next among active skiers who are likely to be able to race this season is Federico Pellegrino, with 17.
Marit Bjøgen holds the overall record here, with 114 wins in her career. Klæbo should challenge that by early next season. Or later this season; his lowest win count in the last three years is 14, in 2024/2025.
Racing continues tomorrow in Trondheim with the 20km skiathlon. The start list can be found here. We’ll have Ogden, Bolger, Schumacher, Schoonmaker, Zanden McMullen, and Luke Jager for the APU American men. Still no Russian athletes in evidence.
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