By Gavin Kentch
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2026 U.S. National Cross-Country Championships will be held at Mt Van Hoevenberg, in Lake Placid, New York, from January 4–9. There is a distance classic race on Sunday, a skate sprint on Tuesday, a distance classic race on Thursday, then a classic sprint on Friday to close things out.
Here is some basic information about 2026 U.S. Nationals all in one place.
Results
Bullitt Timing has results this year. You can find results and start lists for all races here. Poignantly, the Bullitt Timing homepage still mentions John Ogden; I hope this does not change. You can find John’s obituary here.
During the races, you should be able to access live timing here.
Official FIS results will be here a day or two after each race.
Streaming
I am told that this will happen this year, and that the platform for it will be announced soon. I will update this section as soon as I know more.
Update, late Friday: It sounds as if this is going up tomorrow (Saturday, January 3), probably on or via the main Bullitt Timing site. This article will be updated for good once I have more info. Thank you so much to the athletes and coaches on the ground at the venue who reached out to me with updates; it truly does take a village. I really appreciate it.
Schedule
Briefly put:
Sunday, January 4: Interval-start 10-kilometer classic
Tuesday, January 6: Skate sprint
Thursday, January 8: Mass start 20km skate (U23 and older), mass start 10km skate (U20 and below)
Friday, January 9: Classic sprint
The final event here is “just” a SuperTour race; the 2025/2026 skate sprint national championship will be held during Spring Series at Craftsbury in March. The first three races are all national championships.
Here is a more detailed schedule of the week. All times are given in local time, which is EST.
Sunday, January 4: Interval-start 10-kilometer classic
| women’s 10km | 10 a.m. |
| men’s 10km | 1 p.m. |
Tuesday, January 6: Skate sprint
| men’s sprint qual starts | 10 a.m. |
| women’s sprint qual starts | 11:15 a.m. |
| open men’s quarterfinals start | 1 p.m. |
| open women’s quarterfinals start | 1:20 p.m. |
| men’s semis | 1:40 p.m. |
| women’s semis | 1:50 p.m. |
| men’s final | 2 p.m. |
| women’s final | 2:10 p.m. |
| junior men’s quarterfinals start | 3 p.m. |
| junior women’s quarterfinals start | 3:20 p.m. |
| junior men’s semis | 3:40 p.m. |
| junior women’s semis | 3:50 p.m. |
| junior men’s final | 4 p.m. |
| junior women’s final | 4:10 p.m. |
Thursday, January 8: Mass start 10/20km skate
| senior women’s 20km | 10 a.m. |
| senior men’s 20km | 11:45 a.m. |
| junior women’s 10km | 2:30 p.m. |
| junior men’s 10km | 3:30 p.m. |
Friday, January 9: Classic sprint
| men’s sprint qual starts | 10 a.m. |
| women’s sprint qual starts | 11 a.m. |
| open men’s quarterfinals start | 12:30 p.m. |
| open women’s quarterfinals start | 12:50 p.m. |
| men’s semis | 1:10 p.m. |
| women’s semis | 1:20 p.m. |
| men’s final | 1:30 p.m. |
| women’s final | 1:40 p.m. |
| junior men’s quarterfinals start | 2:30 p.m. |
| junior women’s quarterfinals start | 2:50 p.m. |
| junior men’s semis | 3:10 p.m. |
| junior women’s semis | 3:20 p.m. |
| junior men’s final | 3:40 p.m. |
| junior women’s final | 3:50 p.m. |
Points lists
Athletes this week are not only racing for national championships; they are also racing to qualify to represent the U.S. in upcoming international competition (okay, also domestic competition, given that World Cup Finals are at the same venue two months later). Here are the two points lists to follow for that:
Qualification for World Junior/U23 Championships and for U18 trip
(you can find more information about the SuperTour, including schedule and points lists, through the USSS site here)
Weather
Here are your point forecasts for the venue through NWS and yr.no. Looks cold to start, but then warming up.
Logistical information (parking, food trucks, etc.) for those attending in-person
Here is the general race webpage? Lol, it doesn’t tell you about any of those things for spectators, sorry. I would tell you more, but no one in ORDA media answers my emails. Ladies and gentlemen, your 2025/2026 World Cup Finals venue!
(And yes that’s quite snarky, but their site for World Cup Finals still says “details coming soon” under the schedule section, so I stand by my take. In case you’re curious, btw, the 10km classic races are at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. EST on March 20; skate sprint qual starts at 10:30 a.m. on March 21, with heats at 1 p.m.; and 20km skate races are at 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. on March 22. You can find out more here, at this obscure resource called the “FIS calendar page.” No one tell ORDA.)
Courses
Here are are the sprint courses for this week:
And here is the distance course:
Coverage
Saranac Lake resident Peter Minde will be on site all week for in-person reporting. We’ll have full writeups of all races here.
If you have any questions or comments on coverage throughout the week, please be in touch. I read my DMs at @nordicinsights, or you can email me at gavin (at) nordicinsights.news.
Enjoy the races.
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