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By Peter Minde
As one might have expected, Norway’s duo of Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Einar Hedegart won the men’s team sprint today in Val di Fiemme, with a time of 18:28.98. Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher were second for the United States, just 1.37 seconds back. On home snow, Federico Pellegrino and Elia Barp took third, 3.31 seconds back of Norway, the wily veteran Pellegrino claiming the first two Olympic team medals of his storied career as his racing days quickly draw to a close.
There are so many ways to lead off this story. Norway wins team sprint; water is wet. Klæbo expands on his record-breaking haul of Olympic gold and goes for number eleven on Saturday. Another medal for Federico Pellegrino in his final Olympics. On the Americans’ silver medal, an appropriate rock ’n’ roll lyric: “See here how everything / Lead up to this day.” (Grateful Dead, from Brokedown Palace.)
If you’d asked this ancient writer whether he’d live to see the U.S. take three, count ’em three, cross-country skiing medals in one Olympics, he would have replied, “Probably not.” But that is what happened today (and there are still two races yet to come).
For a change, the weather seemed like actual winter, at least for the morning’s qual. Bluebird sky combined with 29 degrees air temperature, snow temperature 20 degrees, and middling humidity. The course was the same 1500-meter loop used for the individual sprint eight days ago.
Unsurprisingly, Klæbo commanded the qualification round, followed by Spain’s sprint specialist Jaume Pueyo. Signaling their intentions, Schumacher and Ogden were third and fourth respectively, giving them bib 2 for the final.
Ogden would lead off while Schumacher would ski the second leg. The temperature rose considerably by the time the men’s final went off at 12:15 p.m.; it felt like spring by this point, though the snow stayed firm.
Ogden led a tight pack out of the start, with Italy’s Elia Barp and Einar Hedegart close behind. Switzerland’s Janik Riebli broke a pole in the scrum, but quickly got a new one. The 15 skiers in the final remained tightly bunched, with Ogden leading until the first climb, when Michael Föttinger, AUT, took over.
On the Zorzi Hill, it was still a tight pack, with Mathis Desloges, FRA, leading Ogden. Coming into the first exchange, they were still so tightly packed there there was some risk of carnage in the exchange zone. But it was Italy, France and Norway, first through third places, with Ogden in fourth, handing off to Schumacher one second behind.
The second leg was much the same: a tight group, nobody wanting to make a move. Schumacher skied near the front of the pack. Klæbo, skiing the second leg for Norway, skied easily up the Zorzi, with Pellegrino and Edvin Anger, SWE, marking him. Klæbo handed off to Hedegart for the third leg.
Third verse, same as the first. Ogden was up with the leaders, staying out of trouble. France’s hopes for a medal took a hit when Desloges broke a pole. Over the first hill, it was Lauri Vuorinren, FIN, Hedegart, and Ogden. Coming into the stadium, Hedegart led from Johan Häggström, SWE, and Barp. Ogden drifted back a bit, was still in touch. The pace began to take its toll, as Marc Colell Pantebre, ESP, dropped off the back.
Heading out for the fourth lap, Schumacher skied relaxed near the front of the pack. As was his wont, Klæbo led over the Zorzi, marked by Anger and Pellegrino. The pace appeared laid back; no one was ready to make a move. Klæbo led into the stadium, with Pellegrino right behind him.
Leaving the exchange zone for the fifth lap, a snakebit Desloges broke a second pole. He dropped to the back, putting paid to France’s medal hopes. At the front, it was Ogden and Hedegart. It was finally go time: on the Zorzi, Ogden threw down a huge effort to pull away, gaining a few meters on Hedegart. The two led over the top. On the descent, Ogden’s ski speed matched Hedegart’s.
At the final exchange, Hedegart handed off to Klæbo in first. Just 1.5 seconds back, Ogden tagged Schumacher in second. Leaving the stadium, Anger and Pellegrino were duking it out for third place, just adrift of Schumacher.
As they headed into the first big climb, Schumacher and Klæbo went off the front, a decisive move that ultimately decided the first two podium spots today. Behind them, descending to the hairpin before the Zorzi, Pellegringo gapped Anger.
On the lower part of the Zorzi, Schumacher matched Klæbo stride for stride, until Klæbo turned on the afterburners, with the same mind-boggling speed he’d displayed on the skiathlon’s last lap. He established a clear gap on the descent. On the finishing straight, Klæbo took one look behind him before relaxing a bit into the finish. Pellegrino put in a huge effort, but wasn’t catching Schumacher today.
As he crossed the finish line, one could hear Schumacher yelling “Yeeeeeaah!”
“Unbelievable,” Ogden said in the finish paddock when Schumacher came home.
On the pair’s race tactics today: “We talked about how we were going to meet on the right-hand side of the exchange zone,” Ogden said.
“And without fail, every single time we came in on the other side and had to cross through like 15 people in order to get to our guy on the other side. And it was one of those things where in between, I think we both honed in on the fact that being on the right hand side of the exchange room was not working. But it was also like we can’t risk going to the left hand side and having him not see us. So we just had to sort of stick with it. I skied a couple fast first 20 seconds of the legs to try and catch back up, but all’s well, that ends well.”
Schumacher added, “I was tagging off far back and he was bringing it up, so he made my job easy.”
Asked how the early portion of the race went, Schumacher said, “I was trying to save energy and not lead. When you start off out of the stadium in third or fourth, and another line comes up behind you, you’re eighth pretty quickly. And then coming into the stadium, there was a big slingshot and I felt like I was generally on the wrong side of that. But I kept my head about me and stayed calm, which I’m really proud of.”
Schumacher added, “It’s nice to be able to trust Ben too, like, tag him far back, he’ll tag me back in a great spot. And he set me up in that last lap perfectly. And then I had a pretty simple job to do. And I’m really glad I was able to do that.”
A reporter asked if the strategy was straightforward: just stick with Klæbo?
“Simple doesn’t equal easy,” Schumacher said.
“[Klæbo] had a bit of a gap off the [final] tag, but I had a clean line of sight. So I was able to lock in and stick with it. And I know I can ski technically just as well as him, through the corners and everything. I felt like I came into the hill with good speed. Switched to V1 a little early, kind of just like preemptively assuming that he was about to go, and his attack came a little later than I thought it would be, but you know, I’d burned a few V1 matches by then. But I’m really, really proud I was able to stay in striking distance.”
Is it fair to say your focus at that point was all forward and not what was happening behind you?
“You know, I’m definitely liable, especially with not having a medal yet, like just wanting to get a medal,” Schumacher said. “The best way to do that is just go as fast as you can. And I think today I did a good job of just looking forward. Knowing Klæbo’s going to ski this fast, if I can stay close to him, I’ll also ski it fast.”
What about the weight of that moment of Ogden tagging off to you?
“I felt pretty calm and light,” Schumacher said. “Like I was skiing free today, and I’m really proud of that. Coming into the downhill, I took a peek and it felt pretty secure, but like I was still gonna fight that finish stretch and use my no poles skate, which I know is strong. Yeah, just like secure it and let myself let myself go a little crazy 10 meters before the finish line, but until then.”
Andrea Ogden, Ben’s mother, watched her son win a second medal in eight days. What was it like?
“I am in shock,” Ogden mère replied. “It was such a fun race to watch. It was never a foregone conclusion. Every race with Klæbo has a clear conclusion, and he didn’t make that known until the end. It was so dramatic.”
When Klæbo accelerated and Schumacher went with him, what did that feel like?
“The whole entire thing was shocking,” Ogden said. “I just didn’t expect any of that to play out that way. I really, honestly, I thought they’d be duking it out with the Italians for second and third. If I had to let my imagination go, I would have never said that it was a clear second. I would have thought the Italians would have nipped him at the line.”
And what did Ms. Ogden say to her son when he approached her after the finish and gave her a hug?
“I probably said, holy [multiple expletives in a row deleted, keep the younger set’s ears pure] or something like that. I don’t remember. It was just a few seconds ago. I was still in shock. He came over. I was so pleased that he saw us and came over and recognized, shall we say, the two most important women in his life.” (Andrea Ogden said this while standing alongside Ben’s longtime partner, Phoebe Sweet.)
“Plus, my daughters [Katharine and Charlotte Ogden]. He’s got a lot of women in his life.”
And Schumacher’s mother? She has watched him compete all over the globe for years, including a poignant scene from 2019 World Juniors in Lahti where she waved an American flag in a near-empty stadium as the medals ceremony wound down. Was this any different?
“No,” Amy Schumacher immediately answered.
“I’m so happy for him,” she continued. “Both for them and the whole team and the whole community. Just so happy for them.”
On a parent’s nerves while watching her offspring compete on the world’s biggest stage: “I think I was good at being in the moment today. I took no pictures. I just enjoyed it. … It’s just really hard to have everything come together, so pretty amazing when it does, and you have to believe.”
Coach Matt Whitcomb, when asked how he was feeling, said, “It’s a feeling you probably only get to experience several times in your life and I’m just in it right now and it’s a surreal world. Proud of these boys. I’m proud of anybody who’s ever helped them. I’m proud of their families and just of our team that’s behind them.”
“The vibes are limitless,” Whitcomb continued.
“They are in sync. We’re rolling, you know, and at the same time it’s been a really long Olympics. They all are. These are incredibly long, arduous events. Whether they’re going well or not, it’s a long time.”
‘Our team is our superpower’
Last week, Ogden took home his first ever Olympic medal, silver in the individual sprint. Schumacher, his roommate, missed out on qualifying by a fraction of a second, in an event where he had recently medaled on the World Cup and had harbored hopes of medaling at the Olympics.
Nat Herz covered this earlier in the week. How do you address this dynamic within the team?
“I’ll attempt,” Whitcomb said. “I think today is a good example of what happens when human beings really work together and start vibing. Someone has success and then somebody else has success and it just starts rolling together and everybody rolls along. for a good bit. For us, it’s been through three races. We asked Ben and Gus at the beginning of the Olympics if they wanted to be in a single. And they instead wanted to room together, because of that exact thing, that esprit de corps, that if you can lock in with that, that is our superpower.”
“Our team is our superpower. We know we can always have fast skis. We know we’re going to work just as hard as the next team. But can we lock in as a team and feel that, that sense of camaraderie that helps propel them today?”
“It’s very difficult, Whitcomb continued. “And we actually had a full team meeting where we discussed the emotions that everybody’s feeling. And we tried to validate them. Some of those feelings are excitement and pride, sometimes it’s envy and jealousy. And we tried to just validate those as authentic feelings that you should talk about. With us or with your roommate, let them out because the person you share them with also feels those feelings from time to time. Even those of us who consider ourselves to be upstanding citizens, we have these. quote-unquote negative emotions and I think to validate those can remove the pressure a little bit and we just try and do our best. We’re complicated humans.”
Erik Flora, Schumacher’s coach at APU, has been at the venue all Games, assisting with ski service and logging many, many kilometers on test skis. A reporter asked him, what did it take for Schumacher to have his biggest day today?
“I think it’s just years of being hungry, and training, and persistence, and having a desire for it, having a community that supports it, people that have the same vision and dream,” Flora said. He added that Gus is “just very good at preparation and training.”
How do you feel right now?
“Oh, I feel good,” Flora said. “I’m so happy for the U.S., I’m happy for Alaska, I’m happy for all the people that have been a part of this and helping, and it’s really cool. It feels like this huge victory for all of us.”
Embed from Getty ImagesAnd speaking of all of us: Erik Flora has been here before, on this stage, at this event; he is second from left in the above photo. Two athletes to his left is of course Kikkan Randall, who along with Jessie Diggins brought home that team sprint gold from Pyeongchang in 2018. Final word here to Randall, the pioneer who is as qualified as anyone to speak to breakthrough moments for the sport in this country.
“This medal today is huge for American skiing,” Randall wrote to Nordic Insights. “Along with Ben’s silver in the sprint, we now show that we have a system. That success is not solely based on one or two athletes but multiple athletes being successful. Three medalists at these Games is another huge breakthrough.
“This is absolutely a passing of the torch and what a spectacular way to do it. We’ve known for eight years that this men’s team was coming and this is the stamp that shows they’re the real deal.
“The way they are skiing with such confidence is inspiring and I think it’s going to take U.S. skiing to an even higher level.
“And it couldn’t have happened to better representatives for the sport. Gus and Ben are both such generous and humble guys. They represent a team of guys that are all great role models.”
Racing continues on Saturday with the men’s 50-kilometer classic mass start. Don’t touch that dial.
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.
The French biathlon athlete Fourcade did what Klaebo did to Gus. Create the slinky effect at the base of Zorzi. Hopefully Gus counters next time and keeps the energy at the base of the climb.