By Gavin Kentch
This is a reader-funded website. Virtually all of my income (for perspective: I took home less than $5,000 from Nordic Insights last year after paying staff) comes from reader contributions, which I sincerely appreciate. If you would like to support the site, including helping us get to the Olympics in February, you may do so here. Thank you.
2026 World Juniors kicked off in Lillehammer yesterday with a skate sprint. The U.S. had four starters per gender: Murphy Kimball, Vebjorn Flagstad, Micah Bruner, and James Underwood for the men, and Neve Gerard, Annelies Hanna, Maeve Ingelfinger, and Britta Johnson for the women.
Kimball had the best showing on the day, qualifying in sixteenth, finishing a close-second in his quarterfinal, and winning his semifinal outright to reach the final. He came in sixth there; the race was won by Eddie Pettersson of Sweden.
Here are some photos of Kimball. All photos here, and out of Lillehammer this week, are by the incomparable Steve Fuller, better known as @flyingpoint on Instagram. You can find his website here for your photo viewing and purchasing needs.
On the women’s side, Gerard and Hanna were placed in the same quarterfinal heat, the day’s fifth. Neither athlete was able to advance from here. Gerard finished 25th on the day, and Hanna 27th.
Here is a photo of these two in the heats:
In the qual, Ingelfinger placed 33rd, 1.73 seconds out of advancing, and Johnson 50th. Here are some photos of them:
On the men’s side, Flagstad was 35th (1.49 out), Bruner 49th, and Underwood 57th. Here are photos of the guys in the qual:
Finally, you may view a replay of the entire day here.
Okay, one last photo, this of Kimball with coach Greta Anderson, because Steve does great work:
Racing continues at the venue today with the U23 skate sprint. Result highlights and photos on this site afterwards. I’m on family vacation after the Olympics so that is realistically the likely extent of coverage here, sorry.
Thanks again to Steve Fuller for the amazing photos. This week is a pillar project of NNF, in case you are curious where your Drive for 25 donations go. Go team.
