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By Gavin Kentch
LAGO DI TESERO — Put on your relay socks, it’s time for the team sprint.
There are just a few historical resonances at play here when it comes to this event at this venue. Jessie Diggins won an Olympic gold medal in a team sprint eight years ago this Saturday in Pyeongchang, alongside teammate Kikkan Randall; the moment was so famous that the New York Times has a deep dive out on Chad Salmela’s broadcast call. Five years before that, Diggins, again with Randall, claimed gold in a skate team sprint at world champs. 2013 World Championships were held at… Val di Fiemme. Lots going on here.
And that’s even before we get to the fact that American commentators for today’s race include one Kikkan Randall. This goes deep I tell you. I bet you any amount of money you want that Randall is wearing her relay socks in the booth today.
Diggins has also medaled in this event at 2017 world champs in Lahti (classic, with Sadie Bjornsen), 2023 world champs in Planica (skate, with Julia Kern), and 2025 world champs in Trondheim (classic, with Kern); four of her seven career world championships medals have come in the team sprint. There is some history here, and Diggins is clearly very good at the specific aerobic demands of this race format.
Today, Diggins and Kern are doing this, together, one last time. The lede pretty much writes itself.
Oh, also Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher are racing for the men, and have a not-zero chance of winning a medal today. I have less of a history deep dive here for the guys, sorry, but I am very excited for their race today. They also, it must be said, qualified better than the women just now, so there’s that.
On to the details:
When are the races?
Wednesday, February 18, team sprint
Women’s final: 11:45 a.m. local time, 5:45 a.m. EST, 1:45 a.m. Alaska Time
Men’s final: 12:15 p.m. local time, 6:15 p.m. EST, 2:15 a.m. Alaska Time
What is the weather like?
It is once again a basically perfect day for ski racing. With the exception of, notoriously, the race-destroying slop of the women’s relay, the weather has been great here all week. It was cold last night, well below freezing; the course was firm for the qual. Current air temp (11 a.m. local time) is +3 C, but I would guess that it won’t soften up all that much by race time, given the short duration of the race and the cool overnight temps. That said, this is a great thing for me to ask the athletes about. Stay tuned.
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.
