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By Adele Haeg
LAKE PLACID — On the 30 miles into Lake Placid from Vermont, this reporter passed by at least two “Olympic gateway” signs in AuSable, New York. When we arrived at the venue, it was just as stately and historic-feeling as all the signs prepare you for it to be; there’s a sweeping sort of drama to the course, the snowy mountains as the backdrop.
You don’t hear or see the crowds from far away until you’re in the venue, and then it’s overwhelming.
“This is so cool. Everyone brought such energy,” Jessie Diggins said to Nordic Insights today, after finishing her last World Cup sprint competition ever. “I mean, listen to the cowbells.”
“I wish I could have, like, had even more time to just stop and really just walk along the trail to absorb everything,” Diggins said, ever so slightly sentimentally. “I would love to adopt the entire Ski World.”
On warmup laps and during each of the heats, fans all over the course were calling out nearly every athlete from every nation by name. Shouts — Sammy! Chicco! Gus! — could be heard throughout the venue, when there weren’t chainsaws running or cowbells clanging. Diggins said she felt “so loved,” and she wasn’t the only one.
“I announced at the start of the season this would be my last, and I wanted everyone to come celebrate with me,” Diggins said. Fans came from all over the country and world for Diggins, and other beloved athletes who aren’t returning to the racing circuit next year. Italy’s Federico Pellegrino and Switzerland’s Nadine Fähndrich, both known as sprinters and both legends in their own right, both got their own retirement fanfare today, too. Maybe they’d have stayed if they were promised more American World Cups.
All the sprinters put on a show for the American fans on a course of hairpin turns and steep uphills. The Adirondacks got about five inches of snow during yesterday’s 10-kilometer race, and conditions didn’t slush up under the cloud cover today, a reprieve for these tired athletes who have trekked through much fog and other precipitation in recent weeks.
Going into today’s sprint finals, only 20 points separated Fähndrich from Maja Dahlqvist in the race for the overall sprint globe. Dahlqvist, in first, had 720 points, second-place Johanna Hagström had 708, and Fähndrich 700.
Dahlqvist, who went into today wearing the red sprint leader’s bib, dominated in her qualifiers, as did Sundling and Svahn, although most of the heats and semifinals were very close.
After three rounds of sprints, it came down to six competitors, among them Dahlqvist, Hagström, and Faehndrich, all three of the Crystal Globe contenders. If it wasn’t dramatic enough, Fähndrich is one of several fan favorite athletes retiring this season. A sprint win is good for 100 points in the discipline standings — it was anyone’s game.
Linn Svahn, the Swedish sprint superstar who won yesterday’s 10-kilometer classic, also took the win today, lunging across the line less than a second ahead of second-place Jonna Sundling, who also did not place in the overall Globe competition.
While either Hagström or Faendrich could have pulled ahead and taken the Globe, Dahlqvist finished just behind Sundling, Hagström behind her, and Fändrich in fifth, with Coletta Rydzek in sixth. Dahlqvist claimed her third career sprint globe, by 16 points over Hagström and 21 points over Fändrich. So bitter-Swede.
“I just followed Linn’s ass the whole time. I was constantly checking it out,” Dahlqvist told Swedish outlet Expressen about her experience in the final. Svahn will likely make a run at the sweep tomorrow in the 20-kilometer skate race.
Jessie Diggins made it out of the quarterfinals as a lucky loser, but didn’t clear her semifinal. Though Diggins and teammates Sammy Smith and Julia Kern looked in position to advance to the semifinals going up up the second uphill of the course, neither of them advanced, finishing the day in 17th and 26th respectively.
Diggins, at least, wasn’t too worried about the results. She couldn’t get over the crowds at Lake Placid this weekend.
“For me, it’s so cool to get to be Auntie Jessie, and for these young boys to see professional women’s sport, and to see that the women are getting exactly the same amount of cheering as the men, and that we’re seeing the skiing the same course with the same level of intensity and competition,” she told Nordic Insights of her day.
In the qualifiers, Ava Thurston finished in 38th, Lauren Jortberg 40th, Rosie Brennan 42nd, Alayna Sonnesyn 44th, Hailey Swirbul 45th, Emma Albrecht 48th, Erin Bianco 53rd, Nina Schamberger 54th, and Renae Anderson 61st. It was Schamberger’s first World Cup start.
“Today was an unbelievable atmosphere and so fun to race in front of a home crowd! I pushed myself pretty hard in the 10k yesterday and am really proud of that race. It meant I was a bit tired this morning for the sprint quali so I was bummed to not have quite enough speed and power,” Alayna Sonnesyn wrote in a text to Nordic Insights.
Tomorrow will be a very, very emotional day for American ski fans, Diggins’s last dance. Get ready for drama, and tears.
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