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By Adele Haeg
“Surf the snow, surf the snow,” Julia Kern said of her approach to racing today, which is not exactly what you want to be hearing at the Winter Olympics. “You just gotta ride it, ride the slush,” she said.
Kern joking about the snow today is admirable. Weather was an…equalizing factor during today’s relay in Tesero. It was 40 degrees and raining for the event, making conditions nearly un-skiable at times.
“You know it’s bad when the best of the best are opting for pizza over french fries,” on-site Nordic Insights reporter Anna Engel wrote on Instagram, appending the following photos of Jessie Diggins and Frida Karlsson:
The classic course, which Kern took today on the scramble leg for the U.S. women’s team, was especially slushy, and the skate course icier. Both courses are already “punishing” even in perfect conditions, as Kikkan Randall, herself a four-time Olympic relay team member, said on the broadcast.
The Norwegian team of three first-time Olympians plus Heidi Weng took first in today’s relay, taking best advantage of both the slush and an all-time nightmare of a second leg from Team Sweden. Weng, the Norwegian anchor, was the only team member who had raced in the Olympics before. She was preceded by, in order, Kristin Austgulen Fosnæs, Astrid Øyre Slind, and Karoline Simpsen-Larsen as they completed the first ever 4 x 7.5-kilometer Olympic relay race in 1:15:44. “We are so proud,” Øyre Slind told OIS afterwards.
Apparently Heidi Weng made a “where are you?” gesture after finishing ahead of the Swedes, putting a hand over her eyes and looking for them. Sweden did not like this. Norway thought it was an appropriate display of emotion.
Team Sweden finished about 50 seconds back, the silver medal going to four women who are each legends in their own right: Linn Svahn, Ebba Andersson, Frida Karlsson, and Jonna Sundling. Two sprinters, two distance skiers — but they are each all-around champions too.
Before we get to the Swedish drama, a shoutout to the Finns, who aren’t flashy but can really ski fast. About 24 seconds back from the Swedes (and 1:14 back from the Norwegians) were the Finnish team, who in post-race comments to OIS seemed relieved just to have finished. “It was a really hard race in really hard conditions,” said Kerttu Niskanen, bronze-medal winner.
The Swedish women, who have been dominant in Milano–Cortina and are usually dialed in for wax and technique no matter what, had it worst of all today in the slush, even though they ended up with the silver medal.
Swede Ebba Andersson took two falls during her race. First, she crashed around a corner in her first lap, recovering to continue skiing at the front of the pack. She seemed fine, if hesitant to go all out down hills, until she hit the corner (choose your favorite name for it from the suggestions here).
She tried to snowplow down the hill, but her ski caught, and she flipped over once, splintering her ski and breaking it off of its binding. She got back on her feet and scootered down the hill, where a coach replaced her ski. On the way to get her ski to her, the coach fell too, and was caught on camera. “Oh my word,” said Steve Schlanger on the broadcast.
“My body is okay, but not my heart,” reads an auto-translated reflection on Andersson’s fall published today in Expressen. She spoke about feeling like she went into the downhill too fearfully — caution there was not the move.
Her fall put Sweden out of gold medal contention. Frida Karlsson received news of Andersson’s mishap while she was standing in the exchange zone in the stadium, whereupon she looked about ready on the broadcast for steam to come out of her ears. Sweden had wanted to sweep gold in every event these Games, but Andersson’s trip-up made that impossible.
When Andersson finally tagged off to Karlsson, the two-time gold medalist took off with fury, passing Germany, Finland, and Italy and everybody else to put teammate Sundling in position for silver. Karlsson skied mad today, and it paid off.
“I thought, ‘Now it’s just about going with what I have and giving my all for the team.’ As the competition went on, we fought back and won the silver medal,” she said to OIS.
“It’s not memories that I want to remember,” said Andersson. “It was a tough day for me and unfortunately, that made it a tough day for the team. But we share victories and also when it’s not going that well. Today was one of those days.”
The American women tied their record for best ever Olympic relay result today, from the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang, finishing about two minutes after Norway and :37 off the podium. Kern and Rosie Brennan took the classic legs, while Novie McCabe and Jessie Diggins took the skate legs.
McCabe’s mother, Laura McCabe, skied the same leg in two Olympic relays when she was on the U.S. National Team back in the 1990s, making today extra historic for their family.
“I definitely gave it my all. I’m a little bit sad that I couldn’t have done more, but I tried my best,” Novie McCabe said after the race. McCabe skied a sterling skate leg today, receiving the handoff from Brennan roughly one second behind Austria, then handing off to Diggins nearly 45 seconds up on Team Österreich.
McCabe’s leg-three skate time was only six seconds slower than Diggins’s anchor-leg skate time, though that may not be precisely an apples-to-apples comparison given how quickly the course deteriorated today.
“I think I definitely had not as bad conditions to contend with as Jessie did,” McCabe said. “I noticed even by my second time around that it was like the corners were way sketchier.”
Today was the fourteenth and final time that Diggins represented the U.S. in the relay at a global championship: eight times at World Championships, four times at the Olympics, and twice at World Juniors. She’s the most decorated anchor the team has ever had, that’s for sure.
“Is it really?” said Diggins when Nordic Insights asked her about this track record after the race. “It’s my 14th time on February 14th!”
The first of these fourteen races came in Hinterzarten, at World Juniors, in January 2010. Diggins skied the anchor leg, of course. Notably, Heidi Weng skied leg two for Norway that day.
Diggins was asked what she would tell 18-year-old Jessie, from that race, about what would happen over the ensuing sixteen years.
“I’m pretty psyched that this particular way of drawing the ‘USA’ has lasted for that many years,” Diggins said, gesturing to the facepaint adorning everyone’s cheeks. “So I think that’s actually one of my more proud legacies, the Team USA lightning bolt S.” [see close-up below]
Back to the present day: Asked how her rib injury is, Diggins said, “Yesterday I feel like it started to make a big improvement, which makes sense. They say days three, four, five are the worst. So I think we’re over the hump, which I am exceedingly grateful for. It’s making me feel really encouraged and optimistic. It’s still a little sore, but I’m really happy that I have three days off and to keep healing and getting better.”
As for her race today, Diggins said, “I went out hard and tried to be calm and deliberate and especially careful on the downhills because I figured, okay, like a really big crash is the one way to make sure that things aren’t possible.”
When she went out on her lap, Sweden still hadn’t caught up, and it seemed like she could redeem the U.S., maybe even push them into medal position.
Diggins said, “I just was thinking, like, you just never know, and trying to go out really hard and see what I could do. It wasn’t quite enough, but at the same time, you just gotta go out believing and giving yourself the best chance for your team. And every single one of these girls went out and skied their heart out, and so I wanted to go do the same thing.”
Kern was asked what it was like to be a part of the team for Diggins’s final relay, especially after a decade or more as club teammates and training partners at SMS.
“I think relay day is always incredible,” Kern said shortly after finishing her leg and while the race was still ongoing, “and the relay medal has been a big goal of ours at a championship. You never know what’s going to happen here in the next two legs. But yeah, it’s just really special. She brings out the team spirit, and it’s been an honor getting to do so many relays with her. And I feel like the relays always bring out the best in everyone, and we’re out there giving it our all.”
In that vein: On the team atmosphere today, Brennan said, “It’s just way better to do something together when you spend so much time together training and pushing each other. To be able to then put a result together as one is just really special.”
As for Andersson’s fall, which a particularly persistent Reuters reporter was trying to ask everyone about today even when they hadn’t seen it, Diggins said, “My heart goes out to her, and I hope she’s okay. … It’s nothing to do with your skill or competency as a skier. It’s just really tricky conditions, and it can happen to anyone.”
That it can, that it can. Tune in for the men’s relay tomorrow, for more slushy fun.
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.
