Weekend Viewing Guide for January 17–18: Onward to Oberhof

By Gavin Kentch

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We’re back. The last time a World Cup race was held was January 4, just under two weeks ago. On that day Jessie Diggins was second in the final stage of the Tour de Ski. She won the overall Tour, for the third time in her career, taking home 300 World Cup points and 80,000 euros for her efforts.

After that, everyone just sort of took a break for a bit. Diggins went to Seiser Alm, where she took things easy for long enough to absorb the load of the Tour before getting back to training. She also knitted a sweater. Julia Kern headed stateside to Vermont. Jack Young went to Seefeld. Zak Ketterson went to Geilo. I feel like Gus Schumacher said he was heading home, but I didn’t cross paths with him skiing locally this week so I can neither confirm or deny. I saw his mom skiing yesterday at practice, because there are 17 people in Anchorage, but we just talked more broadly about the vibes of the American men’s team these days (in a word: good).

But now people are back. Diggins, who leads the women’s overall World Cup standings by 184 points, is racing. Klæbo, who leads the men’s overall standings by 246 points, notably is not. As of earlier this week he was training at altitude in Italy with Emil Iversen, per Instagram.

Broadly speaking, this is sort of a liminal time in the calendar. Athletes are for the most part taking actions that will set them up well for performance at the Olympics, which commence in three weeks. That looks like different things for different people.

But there are also two World Cup races this weekend, in Oberhof, and three next weekend, in Goms. Here is when those races will be:

World Cup (local time at venue: GMT +1. This is six hours ahead of the East Coast and ten hours ahead of Alaska.)

Who will be racing for the U.S.?

Good question. American starters in Saturday’s sprint are Sammy Smith, Alayna Sonnesyn, Rosie Brennan, Jessie Diggins, Lauren Jortberg, and Hailey Swirbul, for the women, and Kevin Bolger, Jack Young, JC Schoonmaker, Zanden McMullen, Michael Earnhart, Zach Jayne, and Owen Young, for the men.

The sprint will mark the World Cup debut for both Zach Jayne and Owen Young on the men’s side. Pretty good excuse to miss classes this week (they attend and ski for the University of Utah and the University of Vermont, respectively). And it will be the first World Cup race in nearly three years for Swirbul, who last raced on this circuit at World Cup Finals in Lahti in March 2023.

(Unsolicited plug: Swirbul, as of recently, has a Substack. It is good. You can and should read it here, and probably also subscribe.)

Saturday will also mark the first race for Rosie Brennan in nearly a month; she last raced on the World Cup on December 14, when she was DNF in the 10km skate in Davos. Brennan spent the holiday period largely training in Park City and environs. She did not race U.S. Nationals.

Brennan has a spot on the Olympic team for Milano–Cortina well in hand, on my reading (see article embedded below for more on this), but not necessarily a start. My speculation is that she is racing in Period 3 not just for a check on her fitness but also to give both herself and her coaches more data points vis-à-vis appropriate starts in Val di Fiemme, if any. But that is definitely my speculation rather than sourced reporting.

Starters for Sunday’s distance race will be drawn from the athletes found here. From these lists, and writing this on Friday night, Schumacher is not on site in Germany, I believe. Ogden isn’t starting Saturday, so I would assume he’s not there either; he has an Olympic spot assured and may be opting for a longer training block right now. Look for just about the rest of the men on that list to be there, and starting, seeking to shore up standing for an Olympic nod. Among the women, Kern is not in Europe at present, as noted. Don’t know about Ava Thurston. Everyone else should be racing on Sunday.

Update on Saturday night: Sunday starters are Alayna Sonnesyn, Kendall Kramer, Rosie Brennan, Novie McCabe, Sammy Smith, Jessie Diggins, and Hailey Swirbul for the women. Then Hunter Wonders, Luke Jager, John Steel Hagenbuch, Zanden McMullen, and Zach Jayne for the men.

And speaking of the Olympics, what do we know about likely teams?

A great question. I have thoughts on this:

Follow along with weekend results and fill in your own form charts.

When can you read an article about these races on this fine website?

Another good question. We are moving to an afternoon-paper model this year, so that I can go skiing in the scant Alaska daylight and not get stuck inside all day waiting for articles, then go out only in the (admittedly lengthy) gloaming and get depressed. Skiing should make people happy, not sad.

So: Wake up, skim the results to see who won, read FIS’s writeup of the day here, and then go for a ski or play with your kids or what have you. Check back here later — much later, candidly, if you live on the East Coast — to see what the athletes had to say about their day. I promise that our… insights will be worth the wait.

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