This month’s coverage of [global sporting event in Italy] is supported by Runners’ Edge Alaska. We sincerely appreciate their belief in what we are doing here.
By Noah Eckstein
After an uneven — disappointing, really — early season on the 2025/2026 World Cup, Frida Karlsson logged a DNS at the final stage of the Tour de Ski and went home to Sweden to lick her wounds. She didn’t show her face in Oberhof, or in Goms, seemingly holding grander goals than piddly mid-season World Cups. She resurfaced a few weeks ago on the trails of Passo di Lavazè, an altitude training hotspot perched in the mountains just north of the Olympic venue, quietly laying the foundation for the most important races of her life. When she took off her sunglasses for the winners’ press conference, her redoubtable goggles tan was a testament to her recent training block.
On Saturday, Karlsson put to rest any questions about her form, and her motivation, by picking apart the field in the 20-kilometer skiathlon. And in Thursday’s 10-kilometer individual-start skate, she staked her claim as the best distance skier of her generation when she took a truly dominant victory (by 46.6 seconds over 22 minutes!) in this quadrennial’s race of truth.
Her compatriot Ebba Andersson, herself a generational talent, could do nothing but look on at this coronation as she took her second silver medal of the Games.
Just behind, American Jessie Diggins, pushing through immense pain, gave a genre-defining performance in determined grit to collect bronze. The images of her writhing on the snow in the finish pen, screaming in pain, were excruciating to watch. But that’s Jessie: digging all the way to the bottom of the well is her superpower, and today she leaned on that power to the extreme.
It was another bluebird, spring-skiing day in Val di Fiemme. With no hard freeze overnight, and after a very sloppy and unpleasant-looking Nordic Combined race yesterday afternoon, organizers opted to salt the course ahead of Thursday’s racing. As a result, the tracks were firm and eminently skiable according to American Kendall Kramer.
“Yesterday was the sloppiest snow I’ve ever been in,” she said of Wednesday’s training session, “and somehow they did something to make it very perfect today.”
“Yeah, it was a lot firmer than I thought it was going to be,” concurred Australian and fellow University of Alaska Fairbanks skier Rosie Fordham. “It didn’t really soften up at all. The corners were pretty nice.”
The course itself was complex, using multiple lap configurations in sequence.
“There’s a lot of overlapping sections where you could take a wrong turn,” recalled American Hailey Swirbul. “I don’t know if you could tell that from the screen but it merges and then splits and merges… in the warmup I took a wrong turn, and I was like, If I do that in the race we’re done.”
“This course has long, gradual working sections that are four or five minutes a couple different places,” she continued. “It’s hard to know how to properly pace it for the terrain. But this is such a cool course for a championship venue — it’s the favorite one I’ve ever seen.”
Patricija Eiduka, from Latvia and wearing bib 18, set the early standard today. Just behind her, Canadian Alison Mackie and Frenchwoman Leonie Perry traded blows in bib 23 and 25, respectively, both surpassing Eiduka’s time at the finish. Mackie, just ahead, quickly made her way to the leader’s chair, determined to get some TV time before the seeded skiers started rolling in. She would end up finishing 8th, an exceptional result in what is already a standout season for the 20-year-old from Edmonton.
Not much more than two minutes later, Mackie was bumped from the pelt-covered throne by Norwegian Heidi Weng. Trying to follow up on her bronze from the skiathlon, the Norwegian employed her typical up-tempo hop-skate to good effect and worked transitions aggressively. Her time, though, would only be good enough for fifth in the end.
Next around the course was Andersson, in bib 40, who slotted in ahead of Weng at every checkpoint. Second in Saturday’s skiathlon, and the winner of both the skiathlon and the individual-start at last year’s world championships, Andersson’s palmarès are sterling, and she has clearly peaked well for these championships. Her peak, though, right now, looks to be roughly the shape of K2.
Starting just two bibs behind her, Karlsson quickly showed that those weeks up on Lavazè were not just for sun and espresso. Wielding her Everest-sized fitness like a hammer, she opened up a 5.9-second gap by 3.7km. Even on a firm track that probably favored her less than Wednesday’s slop (nobody can handle slop like Frida, apparently), she used her big strokes and good angles to keep gouging time out of her competitors, staying poised and upright deep into the race as others’ form began to break down.
With Karlsson gliding toward victory, viewers’ attention turned to the close battle for the remaining medals.
Diggins has been open about the rib injury she suffered in a messy crash during the skiathlon. She noted in the post-race press conference today that an ultrasound has confirmed “there’s no actual break, but it was just blunt force trauma.” She opted to race Tuesday’s sprint but was visibly in pain and exited in the quarterfinals.
“Yeah, it’s been a tough couple nights,” she said after the race. “I’ve been waking up feeling things, like, clicking in and out. And it’s just been disconcerting and really pretty painful. Two days ago, I was like, I honestly don’t know how I’m going to do this.”
She went ahead and did it anyway, putting on a particularly gritty performance today, even by her own lofty standards. Swinging side-to-side and clearly hurting even in the first few kilometers, she kept driving, hanging within a handful of seconds of Andersson at each checkpoint.
Just a few bibs and a few seconds behind Diggins came Astrid Øyre Slind, doing her best to break up the Swedish hegemony and make Norway proud in the perpetual Scando-rivalry.
With one kilometer to go, Diggins was 5.1 seconds behind Andersson, Slind a further 3.5 seconds behind.
By the finish line, those gaps would compress slightly but the positions would not change, leaving Andersson doubled up on silver medals from these Games and Diggins with a brutal, well-earned bronze.
As she crossed the line, Diggins crumpled into the snow, grabbing her ribs and screaming in pain. Teammate Hailey Swirbul, having just finished her own race, rushed over for comfort. Diggins is so well known for her dramatic finish-line collapses that there is an Instagram account dedicated to her craft.
This was different.
“I worked as an EMT last winter as a ski patroller during my retirement,” Swirbul said in the mixed zone, “and I saw some people writhing in pain for broken bones and such, and Jessie looked comparable.”
Diggins herself knew what was coming.
“I knew it was probably going to be really tough to breathe and really painful,” she recounted in the mixed zone. “You can block out a lot during the race, but the second you finish, it all comes roaring back. And I knew it was probably going to be a little bit of a panic for me.”
“And I just was focusing on doing the best that I could in every moment,” she continued “So, to be honest, I had no idea what place I was in at the finish, and I really didn’t care. Like, I was just focused on doing the best that I could do. And that’s what I wanted to be proud of.”
While the spotlight is justifiably on Diggins today, other North Americans had their own notable races.
“I’m still in a little bit of shock,” Canadian Mackie said in the mixed zone upon finishing eighth. “Right now I’m just really riding on this good fitness that I’ve built over the summer and fall and I’m trying my best to keep it throughout the entire season.”
In response to a question about whether she felt any sense of imposter syndrome as one of the youngest racers in the field, she gave an emphatic response.
“I know I deserve to be here just like everyone else deserves to be here,” Mackie said. “We all work super hard and I’m just taking in this entire opportunity. It’s pretty rare for someone my age, let alone anyone, to be an Olympian, so I feel really privileged and lucky and really proud of all the work that I’ve put in as well.”
For Kramer, 38th today, the emphasis was on completing her first ever Olympic race, even if getting the start came as a bit of a surprise.
“It was awesome to get the call-up two days ago,” the pride of Fairbanks said afterwards. “So I really had to adjust the mindset really quickly because I didn’t think I was getting this start. I really had to remember what I had seen on the courses and go into race mode, since I’ve kind of been in training mode this week and the last few weeks.”
Taking the start line wasn’t the only excitement in her day.
“I was starting on the red course as I assumed was right,” she related, “and the coaches were yelling red course, red course because they knew I would get confused and I was confused. But I thought they were saying ‘wrong course’. So I stopped on the hill and I looked back to see if they were pointing and then I resumed where I was going.”
What did they do when you stopped?
“They’re like, go! Go! But I still wasn’t completely sure that I was going on the right thing, but I just kept going forward.”
That incident did nothing to take away from the significance of the day and the support she felt on the course.
“It was really cool that so many Americans were here,” she noted. “It was the closest race experience that I’ve gotten to Minneapolis — just in the sense of how many people know your name when you’re warming up and that was great.”
Fellow APU athlete Novie McCabe finished 31st. On-site reporters were occupied with other athletes and were unable to catch her in the mixed zone.
And for Swirbul, in 39th, today marked the culmination of a, let’s say, non-traditional Olympic build, with her decision to return to competitive skiing after a two-year hiatus coming only just over six months ago.
“I just feel so honored and shocked to be here at all, to be honest,” Swirbul reflected in the mixed zone. “It was a stretch, I think, to make this team. The U.S. has such momentum and such a wave of fast, incredible skiers coming right now. So getting to be part of it is just amazing.”
“I wish today had been the race of my life,” she continued. “I think we all come to this stage and wish that the Olympics is where we get to have everything come together perfectly. That wasn’t the case for me, but that also isn’t what this is about. I think just getting to represent and bare your teeth and find the grit as much as you can is what the Olympics is about.”
She went on to consider the meaning of success on this biggest of big stages.
“I think what’s been interesting about being here this last week is seeing how most of our teammates are bummed a little bit with their races here, myself included,” she reflected. “But, in a way, I think it’s just an interesting platform that we all just hope to have something come together on this stage that we otherwise can’t. I think since everyone in the whole field is trying to peak for these races and be their absolute best, it levels the playing field yet again.
“But I think, like, gosh, being anywhere in the mix on this stage is so impressive, and I see my teammates in the 20s or 30s who are not stoked with their days, and I’m like, You guys, I watched your race and you’re so strong. That’s the reality of it.”
And what next for this two-time Olympian?
As she began to walk away toward food and water, the intrepid, if shameless editor of this site tossed out one last question.
Do you think you’ll come back to coach APU Masters?
“I hope so. For you, Gavin, anything.”
Racing continues tomorrow with the men’s 10-kilometer mass start skate.
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American skiing. We started with nothing and now we’re at the Olympics. You can read more about our first three years here, and donate to the Olympics fund here. Thank you for consideration, and, especially, for reading.
