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By Angie Kell
It’s that revered time of year when every play in a sporting event holds weight. Playoffs in the NFL mean that every missed catch or botched field goal can lead to a premature end of season, ruining Superbowl dreams. So too, does every race in the World Cup mean that a bad race weekend can lead to a missed spot in the 2026 Olympics starting in just twenty days. There’s so much on the line. (The U.S. will release the full Olympic roster within a few days. You can read a very educated guess of what that will look like here.)
The women’s 10-kilometer classic interval-start race held in Oberhof, Germany, earlier Sunday held critical weight for several skiers looking to finalize their bids for Milano–Cortina. For many others, their starts today signified that they too belonged on the World Cup circuit. It was a doozy of a venue for such weight on an athlete’s shoulders, as a demanding course and tricky conditions meant there were no guarantees.
Over two laps of a 5km course, man-made snow with daytime temperatures above freezing created sugary, choppy conditions with an icy foundation and kept changing as the day progressed. As the course contained very sharp turns and technical downhills, these features kept athletes on their toes.
Team USA started seven female athletes on this important distance day: Jessie Diggins (SMS) and fellow veteran Rosie Brennan (APU), Hailey Swirbul (APU), Novie McCabe (APU), Team Birkie’s Alayna Sonnesyn, Samantha Smith of SVSEF, and Kendall Kramer (APU).
Sweden, however, fielded just five athletes, but took two podium spots, and had four athletes in the top ten: Moa Ilar claimed gold for the day, in a time of 24:37, and Jonna Sundling placed third in 24:57.8. Both skiers have previously secured their Olympic spots, as has Maja Dahlqvist (sixth today), and today only affirmed the selection. Moa Lundgren (10th) has not been selected to complete in Milano–Cortina as of this writing.
Aside from the first time-check, at 0.8km, which occurred at the top of a steep climb, Ilar remained atop of the leaderboard at almost every other checkpoint to secure her first World Cup win for the 2025/2026 season. It was also her first win in the classic discipline.
Austrian Teresa Stadlober, who recently placed second behind Diggins in the overall Tour de Ski standings, again took second place today. She finished less than a second behind Ilar, in 24:37.7, after a furious pace in the final kilometers. Stadlober, too, strengthened her credentials for the Austrian Olympic team.
Diggins was the first U.S. finisher with a time of 25:07.1, in fourth place. After a good start (7th at the 0.8km time check), Diggins’s positioning appeared to falter, as she suddenly fell to the 17th-best split at the 2.6km mark.
Though the live feed didn’t demonstrate any hardship at this point of the race, Diggins later shared, “The reason my splits looked a little funny is that I had a crash on one of the downhill corners and caught my tip in some really deep sugar, and I used my arm as a brake to keep myself from sliding off the course which worked really well. But it was time lost, and a lot of adrenaline lost. Showering after the race was not fun.”
You can see her road rash in the first slide below:
Diggins collected herself, pressed on the gas on the second lap, and impressively still placed fourth for the day.
Diggins, notably, is the lone American female cross-country skier to have already qualified for the Olympics. She also continues to lead the women’s overall World Cup, by 149 points ahead of Ilar. After the Swede slightly closed the gap to Diggins this weekend, Ilar told FIS, “Of course I am” contending for the overall crystal globe. “I would lie if I’d say anything else.”
The next finisher from the U.S. was Rosie Brennan, making her return to the World Cup after a lengthy hiatus owing to ongoing health issues. Brennan finished 30th (26:00.02); for those looking to gain experience, this would be a glorious result. Given that Brennan’s strengths lie in this precise discipline, the result surely felt less than like her old racing self. Brennan has a spot in hand for the Olympic team based on her sprint results from Period 1, but there may be some hard conversations yet to come as to which races she will enter. Roster spot ≠ race starts.
After an even more prolonged hiatus from World Cup racing than Brennan [though not as long as the above embed would imply –Ed.], Hailey Swirbul’s return found her finishing just behind Brennan in 33rd (26:05.2) as she looks to land a second Olympic bid. Swirbul’s case strengthens following her dominating win in the 10km classic at U.S. Nationals, along with a bronze in the classic sprint at the same event.
No doubt, Swirbul is feeling some optimism amidst this season’s results, and it showed. Swirbul told us, “I am enjoying myself! I’m making sure to enjoy this life the most I can. The smiles have been genuine!”
But even the most hopeful of athletes experience discomfort in the journey.
She continued, “I did not enjoy the feelings in the middle of this 10km today though, I won’t lie. I think a lot of us who came from Nationals, straight to international travel, straight to the World Cup were fighting some demons out there. It feels the most challenging, in my opinion, to find the will to keep fighting when your body feels heavy and the suffering feels unrewarding.”
“But that’s also what keeps us coming back: the days where you can keep leaning into the discomfort and be in the fight and be rewarded for it is like no other feeling.”
McCabe presumptively has a spot on the Olympic team as the top-ranked domestic distance skier; she was first and second in the two distance races at U.S. Nationals. Her 35th-place finish today does not hurt her case. But according to McCabe, today might have been more of a character-building day.
“Today was ok and I am happy with the effort,” she wrote to us. “I didn’t feel super great out there energy-wise but just tried to focus on the good things — one of which was having super good skis!”
“I think one of the key takeaways from today is that I’m not really where I want to be at the moment,” McCabe lamented, “but also not so far off, so I think I can see that as a positive and just try to take some steps forward next weekend.”
Sonnesyn finished 45th after her DNF from a crash in yesterday’s skate sprint, and as she may be in consideration for a sprinter’s spot on the Olympic Team, must be feeling some pressure following this weekend’s results.
Sammy Smith, who has been making headlines with her recent athletic feats including winning both the skate and classic sprints last week at U.S. Nationals, came in 49th.
Smith, too, is vying for a coveted sprinting spot on the Olympic Team along with Sonnesyn, though she presumptively has the inside track over the Team Birkie athlete by virtue of ranking within the top-50 for the World Cup sprint standings (42nd), while Sonnesyn lies both outside the cutoff and behind Smith (58th). Today’s results in a distance race are unlikely to affect that sprint-specific calculus, for either athlete.
Smith echoed as much when she told us, “Today, for me, was less about a result and more about just trying to work on some distance skiing, have an opportunity to race in a really competitive field, and push myself and build fitness for the rest of the season.”
“Obviously, I would’ve liked to do better than I did today, but every race is a learning opportunity, and I think I have a lot more to show, and it’s just about figuring out the pacing and just kind of racing into the season… because honestly, I haven’t been on skis that much this year!” (Much has been said about this unconventional journey previously, as reported here).
The final Team USA finisher was Kendall Kramer, taking the 54th spot. Kramer, who is still in the running for one of the final spots on the Olympic team, used the day to build her experience.
She told us, “As you could see from the 0.8km split, which was at the top of the first and longest climb, I tried an experiment to start fast today and see if that worked for me. I discovered I like to gradually build into the race like I usually do! It was worth a shot and now I know how it feels. It was a great learning experience, I put myself out there, and it was definitely the most fun event and venue of the circuit so far!”
On a weekend with American football playoffs and Olympic bids looming, many athletes are feeling the pressures of their performances. Fans of both sports await final decisions with bated breath.
Racing resumes next weekend in Goms, Switzerland, beginning with the team sprint on Friday, January 23. There is a three-day race weekend from January 23–25, then a weekend off. The Olympics commence in Val di Fiemme the following Saturday with the women’s skiathlon.
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