By Gavin Kentch
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In a Wednesday press release, USSS announced the athletes officially nominated to the national team for the 2026/2027 season. The 21 athletes nominated are:
A-Team
men
Ben Ogden (SMS)
JC Schoonmaker (APU)
Gus Schumacher (APU)
B-Team
men
John Steel Hagenbuch (Sun Valley)
Zak Ketterson (Team Birkie)
Zanden McMullen (APU)
Jack Young (Craftsbury)
women
Julia Kern (SMS)
Kendall Kramer (APU)
Sophia Laukli (Team Aker Dæhlie)
Novie McCabe (APU)
Sammy Smith (Stanford University)
Ava Thurston (currently Dartmouth, though she graduates soon)
D-Team
men
Corbin Carpenter (University of Alaska Anchorage)
Tabor Greenberg (University of Vermont)
Zach Jayne (University of Utah, though he graduates soon)
Murphy Kimball (University of Alaska Anchorage)
Jack Leveque (Alaska Winter Stars)
women
Haley Brewster (University of Vermont)
Neve Gerard (University of Utah)
Sydney Palmer-Leger (Mansfield Pro)
On my reading, 18 of the athletes listed above made the team under objective criteria, which look to their results during the 2025/2026 season. Those athletes were first reported here two weeks ago. (That article also contains the basis for selection for every athlete mentioned, in case you would like to read the footnotes; I am pretty scrupulous about showing my work with this stuff.) The additional three athletes who made the team on a discretionary basis are Sophia Laukli, on the B-Team, and Haley Brewster and Sydney Palmer-Leger, on the D-Team.
I nodded to the possibility of bringing on both Laukli and Palmer-Leger under the illness/injury criterion when I previously wrote about this in April. Since Brewster (a) raced broadly last season and (b) was literally one-half second out of making the team under the application of objective criteria,* I would assume that she comes in on a discretionary basis.
(* Brewster was born in 2003. An athlete in her birth year could make this year’s D-Team on the basis of, inter alia, one individual top-10 result at 2026 U23 Championships. In the 20km mass start skate in Lillehammer (photos here, results here), Brewster finished twelfth, in a time of 50:06.7. Tenth place in this race crossed the line in 50:06.2, 0.5 seconds ahead of her. If the KO criterion of 2020 suggests that 1.3 seconds is close enough to make the team, then apparently 0.5 seconds is, too. But not 11 seconds (David Norris Rule). Disclosure, I did not mention Haley Brewster in my preview article, if you are checking my receipts here.)
The discretionary criteria are both broadly written and not limited to those bases enumerated in the selection document, so I’m not going to spend too much energy trying to suss out which bullet point or bullet points encompass Brewster. I will editorialize only that Haley Brewster is a good skier, and, again, was approximately two ski lengths off the team over 20km of racing, so her selection here does not offend me. I am spending ink on this because hers is the one real notable choice on this list vis-à -vis the criteria, not because I think it is a poor choice.
[Read more: Complete National Team Rosters for the U.S. Ski Team, 2004/2005 to 2023/2024]
An official team naming announcement should come in October. Judging from USST want ads during April, look for a new Development Coach, a new World Cup Coach, and at least two World Cup techs to be named at that time. On the final point, happy trails to Chris Hecker and Per-Erik Bjørnstad. Per-Erik, I would like to share here that I still have a pair of hand-me-down World Cup skis from [redacted, because brands don’t like to think about their skis being resold] with your zone markings on them. I feel like a good classic skier every time I look at them. It is a welcome contrast to how I feel when I then look at footage of me actually classic skiing. But those markings are 🤌😙.
Congratulations to all athletes nominated to the team. An especial shoutout to first-time national-team members Corbin Carpenter of Carbondale, Neve Gerard of Bend, and Jack Leveque of Anchorage.
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American skiing. We started with nothing, and then we made it to 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.
