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By Gavin Kentch
LAGO DI TESERO — The Olympics continue. The distance races were a little underwhelming, with multiple falls for the Americans on a course feature that hopefully does little more to merit its proposed names in the 10km skate. Then sprint day was completely overwhelming, in a good way. Btw, Julia Kern was sixth on Tuesday, and JC Schoonmaker eighth, results that in many other Olympic sprints would have been headline news for American skiers. But no longer.
I’m writing the first version of this on Thursday. It is warm today. The photo briefing is ongoing on the other edge of the media tent as I write this; course access restrictions are being imposed, with an eye to limiting course crossings with the soft snow.
“Don’t know if this is a sick joke or we are really gonna race in this tomorrow,” wrote Rosie Fordham on Strava after her pre-race ski yesterday. The post was titled, “Swimming.” Ski racing is fun.
On to the details:
When are the races?
| date | race | time (AK) | time (EST) | results |
| Thursday, Feb. 12 | women’s 10km skate | 3 a.m. | 7 a.m. | here |
| Friday, Feb. 13 | men’s 10km skate | 1:45 a.m. | 5:45 a.m. | here |
| Saturday, Feb. 14 | women’s relay | 2 a.m. | 6 a.m. | here |
| Sunday, Feb. 15 | men’s relay | 2 a.m. | 6 a.m. | here |
Local time at the venue is Central European Time. This is six hours ahead of the East Coast, and 10 hours ahead of Alaska. We’re gonna lead with Alaska Time here, now, as always, because half of the Olympic roster is based there. Them’s the rules.
Who will be racing for the U.S.?
In the women’s 10km skate: Kendall Kramer, bib 3; Hailey Swirbul, bib 39; Jessie Diggins, bib 44; and Novie McCabe, bib 47. Your #insight here is that Kramer is presumably a substitution for Julia Kern, after Kern declined the start.
I know this because Kramer posted to Instagram yesterday that she would be racing following a “call-up” to the 10km, showing that she is a replacement for someone. As to who that may be: Lauren Jortberg and Sammy Smith are both presumptively one-and-done at these Games, per their comments following Tuesday’s sprint. Rosie Brennan is unfortunately hobbled as a skate skier, per her comments following the skiathlon. All of Diggins, Swirbul, and McCabe are racing, and Swirbul knew she had the start as of a few days ago, per her Substack. Therefore, today involves Kramer slotting in for Kern, making her Olympic debut in the process.
What is the weather like?
It’s gonna be warm. It is currently overcast, rather than full-on blazing sun, and it is forecast to remain that way. But it is not cold outside. The course still looked firm when I was by the stadium around 10 a.m. this morning, but I am sure that it will soften and break down pretty quickly well before the 1 p.m. race start.
Frida Karlsson is starting two bibs ahead of Diggins, if you really want to drill down on this, suggesting that (a) she will encounter effectively the same course conditions as Diggins and (b) Diggins will be well situated to receive splits telling her where she stands relative to a main rival. If she wants them; she often does not in interval-start competitions. I don’t know if you know this, but Jessie Diggins is pretty good at pushing herself without external motivation. The New York Times has more on this if you would like.
Diggins is starting behind Heidi Weng and Ebba Andersson, and ahead of Moa Ilar, Astrid Øyre Slind, and Karoline Simpson-Larsen, just to briefly survey some other obvious favorites for today’s race.
Here is the point forecast for the venue fyi.
Where can you watch these races?
NBC, because Olympics. On broadcast television, and on something called Peacock. I think you can also watch live events for free on olympics.com. The venue wifi is emphatically not letting me geolocate to the U.S. via a VPN, so I can’t tell you what this looks like from the states, sorry.
How many Olympics stories have we written so far?
A ton. You can find them all here. Thanks for sticking with us.
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.
