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By Lukas Sæther Pigott
Norway were the favorites for Sunday’s men’s relay to take home yet another gold medal from the Milano–Cortina Olympics. With yesterday’s women’s relay reminding everyone that the race has to be raced, the Norwegians managed to stay on their feet and raced solidly, crossing the line ahead of France in silver and the home team, Italy, in bronze.
Second-leg skier Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget, who made the difference for the Norwegian team, said after the race that “this is Johannes’ hobby, but for me this is really big.”
An emotional Emil Iversen, who got a spot on the relay team against the odds, spoke to NRK after the race. “I ruined the last Olympics [relay],” he said. “It was terrible. After that, it’s been hell every day pretty much until this year. That I make it on the team and make it to the Olympics, I can’t believe it’s true yet, but I’m very happy.”
Klæbo himself, who today became the winningmost Winter Olympian of all time (now only 14 golds behind Micheal Phelps to have “winter” removed from that title), was also clearly very happy. “It’s a perfect day,” he said. “There are many who could have been part of this team so this is a medal we share with many people.”
Only 10 teams were on the start line, due to many second-tier teams like Great Britain and Austria only getting three quota spots from the IOC in an attempt to have more countries competing. However, this meant that many countries unfortunately (and controversially) could not start a relay team as they had only three male athletes. This podcast episode provides helpful background on the issue.
With temperatures dropping overnight, the course was much more firm than yesterday’s decisively sloppy conditions, at least at the start of the race.
On the first leg Ben Ogden was up against Iversen on one of the strongest ever Norwegian relay teams. Xavier McKeever was first out on a Canadian team hoping to keep the Americans behind them as they did in Trondheim last year, as well as to fight for a medal.
On the second half of the first leg, Iversen set the pace with Ogden right on his skis. Johan Häggström of Sweden was already struggling to get a grip and had to let a gap open up, one that would grow to a yawning 3.5 minutes by the end of the day.
On the steepest hill of the course, however, it was Ogden who set the pace, with many of the favorites struggling to keep up. He would come into the exchange zone in second, a fraction of a second behind Iversen in first. It was, we believe, the best opening-leg performance for a male relay team in American Olympic history, surpassing the previous highwater mark of third set by Dan Simoneau at the 1984 Games in Sarajevo.
In the exchange zone Ogden sent Gus Schumacher out for his 7.5-kilometer leg in a group of four alongside Norway, Italy, and Canada. Finland and France were a handful of seconds in arrears.
Speaking to Nordic Insights after his leg, McKeever spoke about how much this event meant for the Canadian team. “I was really nervous coming into today because as a team, this has been an event we’ve been talking about for a while,” he said.
McKeever is now accustomed to skiing the first leg for Canada. “As always, my job’s the same,” he said: “Try and set the team up as best as possible.”
“I think being leg one, you kind of get the first try at setting the tone for the rest of the team and trying to put some confidence in everything. That was my big goal today — to stick with the front leaders, tag Tony off in a good position, and I’m really happy with how I went.”
While some struggled with pacing themselves, McKeever clearly had a good plan and executed it well. “Lap one, I took it really conservatively and a little bit chill. I think that was probably a good strategy because I had quite a bit of energy at the end to just basically hang on and make and follow all the moves.”
Ogden, who appeared to be the strongest of the leg-one skiers, was the one he was hanging on to. Ogden talked to Nordic Insights about the great leg that he had raced, while the racing was still underway.
How are you doing?
“I’m nervous. I’ve been trying to follow along as I’ve been watching. It looks like Gus got a good leg and tagged off as close as is to be expected to our boy Martin [Nyenget].”
What was it like to be literally leading leg one of the Olympic relay and then be like, I’m gonna drop the hammer now?
“That was a dream,” Ogden said.
“I’m so glad I got to scramble because I love that. I love how in the scramble leg it’s kind of relaxed for a bit, but then all of a sudden it’s like somebody decides when it’s time to go. Today I got to be the one to decide, and that’s a memory I’ll never, ever forget.”
Ogden was not a part of this team in Beijing four years ago. Speaking to his development since that time, he said, “I’ve gotten stronger in my sort of day in, day out skiing, so taking a slot on the relay team isn’t costly for other races.”
“Also our team has gotten a lot better and I’ve just grown a lot and trained a lot since then. I’m honored to get included in the relays now, and I think our team is as competitive as ever, so I’m pretty excited.”
On racing for the Stars and Stripes at a moment when America occupies a, shall we say, complicated position on the world stage, Ogden said, “I am extremely proud of where I’m from and what I do. Maybe there are things about the U.S. that I’m not proud of, but the majority of the way I grew up and the people that I know, I’m extremely proud of. I’ve got as much American pride as the next guy.”
With Iivo Niskanen (Finland) and Hugo Lapalus (France) chasing, Schumacher, along with Canadian Antoine Cyr, Norwegian Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget, and Italian Elia Barp set a steady pace over the first half of leg two. With Finland and France making contact, a group of six came into the stadium after the first lap of the second leg.
But when Nyenget pushed the pace into the steepest part of the climb, nobody could follow. Niskanen, Cyr, and Schumacher were closest to the Norwegian veteran, but had to leave a 10-second gap to Team Norge by the exchange.
What were you thinking when you took the handoff from Ben in basically first place? Schumacher was asked.
“Yeah, it was good,” he said. “I knew I still had an entire race to ski, so that was on my mind. But it’s good to have momentum for sure.”
Schumacher, who thought that his leg’s result was “more representative of how I’ve been feeling,” said of his race tactics, “I think just trying to save energy on the flats and downhills, like there’s good rest out here. I just know that the last climbs are going to be hard for sure, and I think I did a good job.”
With Einar Hedegart heading out on the third leg with a gap of around ten seconds, John Steel Hagenbuch, Rémi Drolet (CAN), Mathis Desloges (FRA), Arsi Ruuskanen (FIN), and Martino Carollo (ITA) had their work cut out for them. They started the chase immediately.
Going through the stadium with half of the third leg complete, Hedegart had extended his lead to France and Italy to 16 seconds, with Canada and Finland at 21 seconds, and USA 30 seconds behind.
At 20 km completed Drolet was clearly paying for his efforts earlier in the leg. With Steel Hagenbuch now only 7 seconds behind, life was blown into the USA–Canada battle.
Desloges of France, however, clearly paced himself well, limiting his losses to Norway, with Ruuskanen also skiing solidly, building the foundations for a possible medal to Finland. Drolet managed to bring back time to Italy.
At the third exchange Norway’s anchorman Klæbo had 12.2 seconds on France and 37 seconds on Finland. Frederico Pellegrino, in his best attempt at getting a home Olympic medal, went out 58 seconds back of Norway, and 21 seconds out of bronze. Thomas Stephen of Canada was 1:04 off the pace, with Zak Ketterson of the U.S. 1:19 behind.
“It was really hard. I tried as hard as I could. There just wasn’t a thing I could do” Steel Hagenbuch, who had clearly struggled with his skis, was understandably very disappointed.
“Lost everyone on the downhill. I was with everyone at the top of the climb, and then, yeah, no longer,” was his succinct summary of what happened.
What’d you tell yourself then?
“Just try as hard as I could, ski as well as I could. But there was nothing I could do. I tried as hard as I could.”
With Klæbo opening controlled, Lovera brought in some time on Klæbo but was never able to reel the Norwegian superstar in. On the penultimate round through the stadium, Norway looked like they had the win in the bag with France now 19 seconds behind.
Behind, the fight for third place was on for real with Pellegrino having caught Anttola, with Stephens 10 seconds behind. Ketterson was still chasing at 1:35 behind.
While Klæbo crossed the line securing only the Norwegians’ second gold in the last five editions of the Olympic men’s relay, it was without a flag, as the guys responsible for that apparently “couldn’t get the tape off” in time.
That didn’t stop the celebration in the finishing area containing 12 overjoyed skiers, as France came across the line carrying their flag and celebrating, and with all reason to do so. Not far behind, sprinting legend Pellegrino secured a medal at his home Olympics in one of his last ever races as a professional skier, saying, “today is possibly the most proud day of my life.”
“We believed, and then we achieved it. This was the goal of the last four years and it’s incredible.”
Throughout the Olympics both France and Italy have shown that men’s cross-country skiing is not just a Norwegian sport, with many young stars ready to challenge the very best in the world, and already doing so.
With Finland coming across the line in fourth, Canada and USA finished 5th and 6th respectively.
With the U.S team gathered to talk to journalists after the race Ogden kicked things off, talking about putting the hurt on Iversen on his leg
“Maybe it’s just in my own head, but I’m gonna go with it because we got like halfway up the big hill on the second lap, and he was starting to do the type of breathing [breathes really hard]. And I was like, this is my chance. I didn’t drop him, I didn’t put much time into him, he’s strong for sure, but I got to have a little hero moment striding away from him on the last hill.”
“And then, of course, I was breathing like that. So, you know, it’s kind of the way she goes in these races, but it was a nice feeling for sure.”
Schumacher also talked more about his race saying, “The pace was really solid for the first lap, but I felt like I was able to stay relaxed.”
“It’s nice to have just a solid day where I feel like I was skiing how I feel like I can ski and tag off in a good spot.”
“The skis were really good” was Schumacher’s opening line in the post-race interview, one that wouldn’t be repeated by every member of the American quartet.
When it was Steel Hagenbuch’s time to share about today’s adventures he said, “I had the tough position of being the one to lose the lead. But I was trying as hard as I could, and I was with the leaders at the top of the hill, and then just trying to do as much damage control as possible for the rest of the lap and the second lap as well.”
“I had a great day the other day. It just didn’t come together in the same way today. Obviously, it’s tough to be the one to lose the lead like that in a team event and I feel badly about that, but I think it’s a testament to how great our team culture is that these guys were there for me after that.”
Steel Hagenbuch, who placed 14th in the 10km skate event only a few days ago, despite taking a wrong turn costing him likely five places, is clearly in good form, but was visibly struggling with the skis today.
“We keep trying again because one of these times we’ll have everyone come together on the relay and everyone will ski a good leg,” Steel Hagenbuch said. “I’m upset, but that’s the way it goes.”
Do you feel as if your skis on the downhill were what you wanted them to be today? came the carefully phrased question.
Steel Hagenbuch paused, clearly not wanting to put the blame on the equipment or to speak ill of the hard-working crew in the wax truck.
A teammate joked that he could “plead the Fifth” before Steel Hagenbuch answered much the same as before. “I think I did the fullest extent of what I could do,” he said. “I think I had good energy and was skiing well, but there wasn’t a ton I could do from the top of the climb.”
“I’m confident that in the future, maybe next time, the stars will align for us. But for me and for our team today, unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.”
On a question as to if it is harder to shake off a disappointing result like today’s race and get ready for the next in an Olympics, Schumacher volunteered to answer, saying, “I’ve done some work on this one for sure.”
“World Cup weekend, it’s just like, we missed a couple World Cup points today, we go again. It doesn’t really matter. But here it’s a very anomalous amount of attention, so you want to do well, but you also still need to be able to move past everything, good or bad.”
A clearly reflective Schumacher continued to share what it’s like winning or losing, and how to deal with it.
“Feel what you have to feel, because I think that’s a really important part of it: understanding and almost enjoying whatever emotions you get and letting it out, processing it, rationalizing everything, coming back and just like being ready to race again.”
“I think it’s a really important part of developing and growing. We look at this as a two-week thing, and you can develop over two weeks, but the real win is like doing that over years because that’s when you get to like 1 to the 1.01 exponent instead of 0.99.”
On to leg four, which started with the above handoff [click any photo to enlarge]:
Ketterson said that he was “nervous, but also just so excited to see that your team is with the medal fight.”
What’s it like to be in the Olympic relay?
“It’s a big honor, especially to get the task of being the anchor leg. I think every kid dreams of that chance.”
“I’m really proud of these other three guys for the leg they skied. I was on the warm-up track watching on the big screen and seeing Gus and Ben and Johnny up there fighting with the leaders for a medal and that’s a pretty crazy thing to watch when you know you’re gonna go up and race in a few minutes.”
How do you stay chill while you’re warming up?
“For sure nervous, but also just so excited to see that your team is with the medal fight. But obviously you have to still try to focus on your warm-up and the things that are within your control, because if you’re just standing there watching the race, then you’re not really preparing for your leg.”
Czechia, Germany and Switzerland followed Team USA across the line today as Sweden, rather embarrassingly, ended last. Pictures of a Norwegian T-shirt reading, “Sorry Sweden” summed up a day to forget for the Swedes.
Racing continues in Val di Fiemme on Wednesday when team events are back on the menu, now the team sprints.
While neither Schumacher or Ogden felt comfortable publicly stating if they are racing [I would assume that they are, and not just because watch parties are already being announced in Vermont for Wednesday morning –Ed.], things are looking more and more positive for the two.
“It’s fun to be doing something together, like truly together” was what Schumacher said of racing team events today, with Ogden exclaiming:
“I think going through the race today and getting dialed in, I’m back to just feeling like I’m a cross-country skier, and I’m really psyched for the rest of the week.”
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.
