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American Team Announced for Tour de Ski
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.
U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced team selections for this year’s Tour de Ski on Friday afternoon. Per USSS, the athletes chosen are:
Men
- Hunter Wonders
- Ben Ogden
- Jack Young
- Zak Ketterson
- Gus Schumacher
- JC Schoonmaker
- John Steel Hagenbuch
- Kevin Bolger
Women
- Lauren Jortberg
- Jessie Diggins
- Julia Kern
- Rosie Brennan
- Luci Anderson
- Alayna Sonnesyn
The final three names on each list were chosen on a discretionary basis. The first five men and three women listed were chosen on an objective basis. The first name on each list is the current overall SuperTour leader at the close of Period 1. Everyone else here was chosen on the basis of their World Cup results during the first three weekends of this race season.
Note that, strictly speaking, these names are nominations, not starters. I know that Lauren Jortberg told me in Anchorage last week that she was leaning against starting the Tour, for example. I also know that Luci Anderson’s plans, at least as of earlier this week, were to “rac[e] US biathlon Olympic trials first week of January at our Olympic venue in Antholz.” So give me another day or two here to suss out who on this list is likely to actually be racing.
The 20th edition of the Tour de Ski starts in Toblach a week from Sunday with a skate sprint. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Therese Johaug won last year’s Tour. Astrid Øyre Slind is the highest-placing returning finisher from 2024/2025 on the women’s side.
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 going 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.
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Keep Calm and Put Your Skate Poles On: Tabitha Williams on her World Cup Debut
From the editor: Tabitha Williams is a British skier currently in her third year at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I first met her in January 2023 when her parents were graciously driving me the thirty minutes or more from downtown Whistler to the World Juniors venue on every single race morning, and have kept in touch since. You can find out more about Tabitha’s background in skiing, and financially support her season, here.
By Tabitha Williams
My name is Tabitha Williams, and I am a London-born U23 skier racing for Team Great Britain. In the U.S., I race for the University of Alaska Fairbanks, or UAF, and have been competing on the RMISA circuit for two seasons. This year, however, I have chosen to redshirt and for a very exciting reason, my World Cup debut season.
The bone-chilling mist rolling off the Trondheimsfjorden and the dangerously icy walking paths were my introduction to Trondheim when I hit the streets of the city’s suburbia for a post–travel day jog in early December. Great Britain, along with a variety of other nations including Japan, France, and Australia, was staying in the Quality Hotel Panorama, a 10-minute bus ride from the race venue of Granåsen. The hotel was also kind of in the middle of nowhere, in a sort of industrial park/shopping mall complex.
However, in true Norwegian fashion, the walking paths and areas to go for a recovery run were plentiful. My travel day had been super smooth and quick (a far cry from what I am usually used to in Alaska and the RMISA circuit), with the direct train from Lillehammer to Trondheim taking about four-and-a-half hours. Many of the British athletes are based in Norway, specifically Lillehammer, which is where I started my journey with the British team four years ago. I have spent so much time there that it is now like a second home to me. This trip up to Trondheim was my first time venturing into northern Norway, which was exciting. I didn’t quite know what to expect.
The hustle and bustle at Granåsen on Friday morning was something I hadn’t experienced before. It was like a World Junior or U23 Championship on steroids: crowds of people hoping to catch a glimpse of Klæbo winning on his home turf, coaches, wax techs, and athletes running all over the place, and the massive Norwegian wax truck in the background just towering over everything.
I met up with some of our team who had just finished the classic sprint qualifier then connected with Rosie Fordham, a teammate at UAF who competes internationally for Team Australia. Together we hit the skiathlon track for some pre-race intervals, a session I do before every distance race. I won’t give away too many of my secrets, but I like to do a threshold interval to start (in this case, we did one lap of the classic portion of the track, so about 3.3km), and then follow that up with some shorter, more intense intervals.
This also happened to be my first classic interval session of the season that was conducted in tracks. Snowfall has been low in Alaska and Norway up to this point in the year, hence the lack of tracksetting.
I felt super fit and super fresh, which was a good sign going into my first World Cup, the 20km skiathlon the next day. After I had soaked up as much of the atmosphere as I could, gotten a feel for the distance courses, faffed around doing ski exchange practice, and snapped a selfie with Kenny K [former UAF teammate, forever friend Kendall Kramer], I got the bus back to the hotel. It was 3 p.m. It was dark.
From Fairbanks to the world: Tabitha Williams, left, and Kendall Kramer, Trondheim, December 2025 (courtesy photo) On the morning of my World Cup debut I woke up at 6 a.m., definitely not having eaten enough at dinner the night before, likely a result of the nerves. Or the fact that they were serving the Norwegian specialty, “Taco Friday,” which isn’t quite my pre-race meal of choice.
I was genuinely starving. I tossed and turned for a few minutes, deciding if I should get out of bed or try to get a few more minutes of rest, but I couldn’t fall back asleep because I was just so damn hungry. So I got myself out of bed and hustled down to breakfast, where I tucked into a plate of eggs, bacon, potatoes, yogurt with granola, and my morning black coffee.
We didn’t start until 1 p.m., so I had a lot of time to sit and think about the race, and that’s when the nerves really kicked in. I genuinely have never been so nervous in my entire life. I didn’t realize just how many things you need to think about for a skiathlon. There are so many logistics for the athletes, wax techs, and coaches. Feeds, spare poles for both disciplines, bib, leg bibs, timing chips, FIS GPS, Archinisis GPS [a form of wearable tech for performance monitoring], ski tests, warming up in both classic and skate. There was just a lot to think about.
The nerves finally settled on the line, where, way back in starting position 63, one of seven U23 starters, surrounded by the athletes I grew up watching on TV, I finally felt a sense of calm.
“It’s just another ski race,” I told myself, “you’ve done hundreds of these. Just ski well, you know how to push in the pain cave, race sensibly, and DON’T fuck up the exchange.”
The gun went off, and I started my first World Cup. The classic leg was difficult, and a lot steeper than the skate leg. My goal was to just hang with a pack for the classic and then break away on the skate, which ended up working for me. I was pulled along in the first half for a while by a group of girls (American, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and German), but lost some time on the final uphill push and the long downhill into the stadium.
Coming into the exchange, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to do it perfectly and quickly, and the ski changeover was very efficient. I thought the pole changeover was as well. However, after skating away from the exchange zone, I noticed after just one V2 push that my left pole was significantly shorter than my right. I had grabbed the same classic pole I had just put down.
There was nothing I could do, and I was already losing time, so I skied out of the stadium, mainly in V1 to accommodate the shorter pole, while frantically yelling for a new pole. A Polish coach handed me a pole with a biathlon strap at the top of the first climb, and I used that until my wax tech could give me a pole with a velcro strap at the start of lap two. That mistake definitely cost me some time, and I now know to place my poles very far off to the side when I take them off in the exchange. Despite these misadventures the race ended up being a solid start to my World Cup career, with a P.51, less than 20 seconds away from my first World Cup points.
Sunday was an early start, which was a surprisingly nice change from the day before. No sitting around and thinking, just getting up and going. However, disaster promptly struck when I poured out one of my packets of instant oats, and out plopped what looked like some sort of web. I kind of just ignored it and fished it out of my bowl, going off to the hot water dispenser before noticing A LIVE MEALWORM crawling up the edge of my bowl. I dumped the oats and substituted for some yogurt and granola, but I was pretty shaken up by the experience.
As for the race itself, I was significantly less nervous with my first World Cup race out of the way, and I was confident in the course and my fitness level, especially for a 10km skate. But once I was out on course I actually found that it was a lot harder to push during this race than it was the day before.
I am definitely more of a distance skier and prefer the longer races, so once I hit the skate portion of the skiathlon, I had warmed up and was able to pull off a great skate leg. The skate 10km, however, felt harder. My legs were not as fresh, which was to be expected for the second day of racing in a row, and I just didn’t have that kick that I did during the skiathlon.
I was able to get quite a lot of TV time on both the American and British livestreams, though. I was filmed all the way from the last climb into the downhill finish and sprint to the line, and I have definitely re-watched it a handful of times.
legit Overall, it was the best World Cup debut I could have asked for [maybe notwithstanding the literal mealworm in her porridge wtaf —Ed.]. The results made me excited for what’s to come, with both race results being just outside the top 50 and inside the top 10 for U23. I got my lowest-ever FIS points, which was a massive achievement, AND we even had an official photoshoot, meaning I have a profile photo on FIS. That’s a life goal ticked off right there.
After a quick stop in Scotland for Christmas, I will be heading to the Tour de Ski, which will be the first time Great Britain has women on the start list in seven years. Thank you to everyone who has supported my journey so far — my parents, my coaches, my wax techs and support crew, my sponsors, UAF, Snowsport Scotland, and GB Snowsport. You have all made this World Cup debut dream come true!
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Hunter Wonders Wins Again in SuperTour 10km Classic; Bushey, Bjørnstad Follow
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.
KINCAID PARK, Anchorage — On a blustery day when the classic tracks were unclear, Hunter Wonders emerged as the clear strength of the domestic field through Period 1 of this season.
Wonders won the men’s 10-kilometer interval-start classic race here on Sunday morning, crossing the line in 24:56.6. It was the APU skier’s second win, and third top-four finish, to start the 2025/2026 SuperTour season; he won last weekend’s 13km skate, and was fourth in the classic sprint. Wonders was also first and third in last month’s Anchorage Winter Start distance races here, competitions with a near–SuperTour-level field.
Wonders’s winning time yesterday morning was slightly under 25 minutes. He had just enough left over his second 5km lap to hold off Brian Bushey of Craftsbury, who would ultimately finish 2.6 seconds back. Erling Bjørnstad, of University of Alaska Anchorage, was third, 12.4 seconds back.
The rest of the six-deep SuperTour podium saw Michael Earnhart of APU in fourth (+27.0), Zach Jayne of Utah in fifth (+28.2), and Reid Goble of BSF in sixth (+28.6). Tabor Greenberg, USST/Vermont, was the top junior on Sunday, finishing seventh overall (+30.0).
Kai Meyers competes in the SuperTour 10km classic, Kincaid Park, Anchorage, December 2025 (photo: Anna Engel) I’m going to start with Bjørnstad, who finished third, because I want to talk about course conditions on Sunday (see photo above for a visual take on same). It was windy, again, like steady winds of 20–25mph and gusts to nearly twice that windy, and the set classic tracks quickly filled with windblown snow. This was small, dry, high-friction, and slow. (Cite: The athletes basically said as much; also, I live here, and I know from Kincaid wind.) The skate deck, meanwhile, was wind-scoured, fast, and inviting.
However, this was a classic race. And turning zones were set in standard and predictable portions of the course. This left multiple areas where even conscientious athletes had an incentive to go around a corner out of the tracks, in an area that had tracks set (i.e., not a designated turning zone). Which is fine, but one has to do so carefully. Ask your nearest TD for more on these nuances.
The women raced second yesterday. Nearly a quarter of the women’s field received a reprimand, either verbal or written, for a violation of ICR 343.8 during their race. There are no such jury actions noted in the FIS results for the men’s race. As between (a) the men skiing perfectly within the rules and (b) the men skiing roughly like the women but the race jury not fully appreciating the scope of the problem during the first race of the day, I… don’t think it was the former.
(Since members of the race jury will likely read this: nothing personal, at all, just calling it like I see it.)
Bjørnstad, a sophomore at UAA, did not think so, either.
“Part of the course had windblown tracks,” he observed, “and if I’m totally honest, I think today I saw a lot of skating. And I think we should have seen some yellow cards and some disqualifications today. So that’s one thing I’m not super happy about. So I hope in the next races we can have people watching and make sure it’s a fair race for everyone.”
“I felt strong today,” Bjørnstad added of his race. “I’m very happy with it.”
As for conditions, Bjørnstad said that the wind was the single most noticeable thing out there, but that conditions on the ground were “firm and fast today. So I think that’s good for me. I had a really good kick and firm conditions, so it was a fast day.”
Snow conditions on the course were, shall we say, variable; the host club, Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage, has performed heroically over the past week-plus to expand manmade snow coverage from the core of the distance course out to its further reaches, but the long A-Climb in the opening kilometer remained largely natural snow. Which, after the past few weeks of Anchorage weather, means relatively icy, somewhat dirty natural snow.
“Elliott’s Climb was very different snow than the other uphills,” noted Bjørnstad of this section of the course. “So that’s where you had to get the to work in all the uphills. So I think that was key.”
Hunter Wonders competes in the SuperTour 10km classic, Kincaid Park, Anchorage, December 2025 (photo: Anna Engel) “NSAA did an amazing job with how much snow we have,” echoed Wonders, the winner on Sunday. “I was shocked that they actually have a track, two tracks, set up Elliott’s. Kind of impressive. I don’t know how they do it. And they’re not too dirty. You know, there’s some dirty spots out there; you gotta watch it and try not to ski through the dirt as much. That’ll slow down your skis. But the trails were shockingly good.”
Wonders did take the win yesterday, but Bushey made it close: While Wonders put 17.3 seconds into the Craftsbury skier over lap one, Bushey closed 14.7 seconds faster than Wonders over lap two. 17 is obviously greater than 14, so Wonders had just enough left in the tank to hold on for the win by 2.6 seconds. But it was close.
“I’ve been taking it out hot this year,” mused Wonders of his race strategy on Sunday. “I feel like having good splits on the first lap gives you something to fight for in the second half, and it’s been paying off so far this season. I’m just trying to take it out hot and see how long I can hold it. And one of these days, I bet it will bite me in the butt, but so far it’s been working.”
“I had a big slowdown in the last 3km especially,” Wonders candidly stated. “I had a couple of guys I was skiing with and I made a surge trying to get them off. And that just I think blew me up too early, and they were able to hang with me. And so then I was just trying to ski with them and stay a little bit more relaxed until the finishing stretch. But I’m happy with the day.”
So what do you tell yourself in that moment, I asked, when you’ve been getting great splits for 7km and then all of a sudden things start going backwards.
“Just gotta put my head down and do what I can do,” Wonders said. “It’s been a fun season so far. And we’re out here for fun, but we’re also out here to win. So I just kind of remind myself of that. I’m also trying to keep my arms moving, and let that kind of drive the body and keep the tempo a little higher. And just enjoy it while I’m doing it.”
Finally, I had to ask Wonders about the current strength of American men’s skiing. In late 2018, Gus Schumacher told me for a profile, “I think the goal [for the American men] obviously, sort of unspoken, but I would like to see us get to where the girls are. … I would like, everyone would like, us to be like the girls — they’re really good. I think it’s possible. It would be really cool, and I think it’s doable.”
Seven years later, the U.S. put two men, Vermonters Ben Ogden and Jack Young, in the sprint final on Saturday, and the American men were ranked sixth in the Nations Cup standings while the women were fifth. (For perspective, in the 2018/2019 season when I conducted that interview, while the American women ended the year ranked fourth, the men were eleventh. One spot behind Great Britain.)
“There are a lot of good skiers,” said Wonders of the current American men’s field. “And I think we’re all just feeding off of each other. You know, my teammates are pushing me, and I think we’re all seeing how often we’re showing up for training. It just makes a good, cohesive group. And I think it’s fun to be a part of the group that is making U.S. skiing climb the ranks.”
Do you mean the APU group specifically, or American skiers more broadly, I queried.
“I mean the U.S. group,” Wonders said. “I love the APU group, but we’re seeing the guys out in Vermont are kicking butt over on the World Cup, and, you know, I wanna be right there with them. I want to be fighting all my U.S. competitors as well, but it just gives me a boost in confidence that I can be right there with them.”
Tabor Greenberg, foreground, competes in the SuperTour 10km classic, Kincaid Park, Anchorage, December 2025 (photo: Anna Engel) And speaking of Vermont, let’s hear from yesterday’s top junior man, Tabor Greenberg (he is shown above, closest to the camera, tailing Wonders in lap two). Greenberg is from Moretown, Vermont. He is currently on the ski team at the University of Vermont, which is located in Burlington, Vermont. His last name, Greenberg, can be parsed as “green + mountain,” if you take some slight liberties with the German. This evokes to me the Green Mountain State, viz., Vermont. I respect this level of state pride.
“I’m pretty happy with it,” said Greenberg of his day. “I kind of just sat on Hunter Wonders once he caught me, and tried to stay with him. Pretty windy, so it was nice because he was blocking the wind for me. But I felt pretty good. I thought my striding was pretty smooth today.”
As for growth areas on the day? “I think I could have warmed up a little better, to be honest,” Greenberg candidly noted. “Or just probably toss in a few more intensities, ’cause I felt like the start was a little cold. And then probably a few sections, I could have pushed doublepole up the hill a tiny bit more. Overall, I thought it was decent, but always things to improve on.”
Final question for Greenberg, which is sort of a softball and sort of an object lesson about how development works in this country: What’s it like to see the Vermont boys crushing on the World Cup?
“It’s awesome,” said Greenberg, his face lighting up. “I’ve known those guys a while, and seeing them out there doing well is super inspirational. I’m hoping to join them soon enough. So it definitely keeps us training and racing hard here, I think, as a nation.”
Greenberg was the top junior yesterday, in seventh, as noted above. The rest of the junior podium was Vebjorn Flagstad, of Alaska Winter Stars, in 15th, and Lucas Wilmot, of Utah, three-plus seconds back in 16th.
High-level domestic racing resumes with U.S. Nationals in early January. Nordic Insights will have boots-on-the-ground coverage from all races out of Lake Placid, as is our wont.
bonus photos of some podium skiers:
Michael Earnhart:
Michael Earnhart competes in the SuperTour 10km classic, Kincaid Park, Anchorage, December 2025 (photo: Anna Engel) Brian Bushey:
Brian Bushey competes in the SuperTour 10km classic, Kincaid Park, Anchorage, December 2025 (photo: Anna Engel) Results: Zone4 | FIS (but currently entered using a mass start F-value so everyone’s points are wrong after the winner) (yes the jury knows about this; I notified them last night before posting the women’s article; they are working on this)
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 going 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.
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Hailey Swirbul Wins SuperTour 10km Classic by a Minute; Bångman Second, Jortberg Third
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.
KINCAID PARK, Anchorage — Hailey Swirbul won the race by over a minute, then said she was still learning. Lauren Jortberg was third overall, second American, and it was her worst showing in all four races in Anchorage. Sammy Smith was fourth, in just her second time on classic skis this season. The 10km classic at U.S. Nationals next month is going to be [synonym for “lit” that my elder millennial self can use in 2025 without being hopelessly cheugy. Or is it cheugy now to say “cheugy”? Discuss. LFG 🔥.]
The women’s 10-kilometer interval-start classic was the final event held here over four days of racing. The field was small, with just 39 starters total, but of high quality. The weather was objectively speaking not great — air temps of 21° F with winds steady at 22mph, gusting to nearly twice that, are fun for neither racing nor standing around in — but after nine days of this in Anchorage it felt like everyone was just sort of used to it by now.
Renae Anderson competes in the SuperTour 10km classic, Kincaid Park, Anchorage, December 2025 (photo: Anna Engel) Renae Anderson, fifth today, was previously hesitant to claim too much for the early stages of her experiments with improving her cold tolerance, but at least she’s had plenty of chances to work on it since. Also, she was, you know, on the podium today, so things may be working there for her.
Here is your overall SuperTour podium on the day before I go any further: Hailey Swirbul, of APU, won today’s race going away. Her final time, for two laps of the full 5km course, was 28:12.1. Tilde “Hedda’s sister” Bångman, of the University of Colorado, was second, just over a minute back (+1:03.2). Lauren Jortberg, of Centre National d’Entraînement Pierre-Harvey, followed in third, 1.5 seconds back of Bångman and 1:04.7 back of Swirbul.
Fourth place went to Sammy Smith of Sun Valley (+1:21.8). I am not trying to make excuses for Smith, nor would she want me to, but the fact that Sunday was just her fourth day on snow of the season — Thursday was the first — feels like relevant context for interpreting this result. As does the fact that Thursday’s session was on skate skis, preparatory to Friday’s skate sprint (which she was second in), and that she switched over to classic skis only on Saturday. Breaking, Sammy Smith is a talented athlete.
Fifth today was Renae Anderson, of APU (+1:27.2), and sixth was Novie McCabe, also of APU (+1:37.5). The training partners’ results capped a strong day for the home team: Of a combined twelve total podium spots available today, APU skiers claimed five of them, and a University of Alaska Anchorage athlete another one. There are a lot of good skiers in Anchorage, or, you must have 150 FIS points or fewer to even think about sniffing the overall podium in a citizens race.
Hailey Swirbul competes in the SuperTour 10km classic, Kincaid Park, Anchorage, December 2025 (photo: Anna Engel) “Gosh, my skis are so good today” were the first words out of Swirbul’s mouth, as we huddled in the sort-of-shelter of the timing building to attempt to get out of the wind.
“Really good kick and so fast, which is just a real treat on this blustery day,” she continued. “I’ve been working really hard on some changes with my classic skiing this year and trying to dial it in, and this was a really fun course and chance to get to try some things out.”
Can you say more about the changes, I prompted.
“I’ve been changing my doublepole a lot this year,” she mused. “Just some technique changes. … But that’s been really huge. And just getting to ski a lot this early winter here and classic ski a lot; it’s just been really fun to get to stride and glide.”
What’s the secret, I further prompted, well aware that the truism “the only secret is that there is no secret” is a truism because it is true.
“Nothing crazy,” was the appreciated but at some level predictable response to this. “I think like consistency and building strength. That’s I think the key about skiing, is trying to play with things and play with different techniques that might work for you over time, and then building strength in those techniques to ingrain it so that it’s your default when it comes to a race. So I’m on that path.”
Hailey Swirbul is currently 27 years old, and has been on this path for some time now. As just one example of many, I can pull this photo I took in October 2016 to illustrate the point (Swirbul is shown with then-UAA teammate Casey Wright):
Hailey Swirbul, left, and Casey Wright, UAA campus, Anchorage, October 2016 (photo: Gavin Kentch) So what’s it like, I asked, to still be working on and improving at this sport. Cut out the following paragraph and frame it (sic; I know this is an online-only publication) if you are a skier at any level of this sport who cares about getting better:
“I just love learning,” enthused Swirbul. “I think learning is the greatest feeling in the world, so I hope to never stop improving and learning. But that’s the joy of nordic skiing; I think it’s a sport that’s impossible to master. There’s always going to be something that we all could continue to improve on, so, what a joy.”
Tilde Bångman competes in the SuperTour 10km classic, Kincaid Park, Anchorage, December 2025 (photo: Anna Engel) While I like Swirbul’s comments as a holistic statement about growing in the sport, a specific skill she mentioned for this course on this day was doublepoling. Colorado skier Tilde Bångman sounded similar notes when we spoke. By this point we were all inside the wax bunker, the persistent wind, and a lengthy jury review — more on that below — having driven the whole traveling circus inside.
“It’s so windy and a lot of doublepoling out on the course,” said the Swedish skier. “And not that much striding. It was more like, just up and run on your skis and then hammer the doublepoling. So I tried to just find a good rhythm and flow in that.”
Bångman reported that there were classic tracks set up the long A-Climb that opens the course, Elliot’s Climb, which, if you’ve followed Anchorage weather the past two weeks, is something of a minor miracle. “Lots of kudos to whoever does the ski tracks here,” Bångman observed, “because they really did what they could with the tracks.” Preach.
That said, Bångman recounted, she primarily ran the steeper parts of the hill, so she “didn’t really use the tracks. … I went on really little kick,” she noted, “and my plan was to just doublepole as much as possible. So, yeah, it was a lot of running.”
Bångman said that she had spent other races this week “struggling a little bit the other day to get into that [race] zone, but today I felt better.” Up next for the Östersund athlete, a senior at Colorado, is Christmas break in Boulder, then on to U.S. Nationals in Lake Placid. Add her to the mix for that 10km classic on January 4.
Finally — and this is an awkward segue because Bångman was not part of the jury meeting and did not receive a reprimand, so don’t hold this against her — I should note that the awards ceremony for today’s women’s race was delayed for quite some time, on the order of at least a half hour, due to an extended jury meeting.
I obviously wasn’t present in the jury meeting, so I’m not going to speculate on what occurred therein. That said, I can pass along two things:
One, conditions on the ground today, in which windblown snow collected in the classic tracks and the skate deck was frequently scoured and fast, would have made it difficult for even well-intentioned athletes to maintain proper classic technique when, for example, going around turns in areas that had tracks set and so were not designated as turning zones.
And two, if you look at the FIS results for this race, a full nine athletes, in a women’s field of 39, received a written or verbal reprimand today, all under ICR 343.8 (classic technique violation, quoted above).
Anyway. Anna was on site today, so I have some more, actually good photos to share in addition to those already illustrating this article. If you’re looking for more images, be in touch. And tip your photographer.
Lauren Jortberg:
Sammy Smith:
Junior podium!
Ally Wheeler:
Ruby Serrouya:
Piper Sears:
… and, finally, the wind in the Kincaid stadium (this also shows the direct sunlight at 2:02 p.m. lol):
Results: Zone4 | FIS (but currently entered using a mass start F-value so everyone’s points are wrong) (yes the jury knows about this; I notified them before posting)
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 going 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.
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Diggins Fifth in Davos 10km Skate as Karoline Simpson-Larsen Claims First Career Win
By Angie Kell
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.
Sometimes, things happen in December that can’t be planned or predicted. I’m not necessarily talking about how temperatures have atypically and sadly been in the 50s (Fahrenheit) all this month where I reside in Utah. Or am I necessarily referring to the musky perfume gifted from Grandpa of all people at an early Christmas gift exchange.
With these two examples, though, one can either ignore the December oddities, or exercise some patience and assume that things will return to their rightful order: January is predicted to be wetter than normal. Maybe Grandpa isn’t the best person to assume what your olfactory preferences are anyway. And there’s always next year!
Stranger things were also present at this weekend’s World Cup stop in Davos. The high-altitude terrain at the Swiss venue is notorious for providing surprising outcomes.
Today marked the third Sunday in a row that a World Cup weekend ended with a 10-kilometer interval-start race: today in skate, for the first time this season. The venue had held the previous two days’ sprint events in the late afternoon into evening, ensuring ice at spots on the narrow, winding course. The 10km race, while held during the daylight today, offered some tricky, transformed snow conditions in the sun and shadows alike. The courses, plus the altitude of Davos, plus the ever-fluctuating roster of skiers reflecting fatigue or looming illness, ensured some results that couldn’t be predicted.
A pared-down roster from the Norwegian and Swedish teams helped a lesser-known 10km distance expert take the crown for the day. Karoline Simpson-Larsen of Norway, 28, claimed her first World Cup win in her 17th career start, with a time of 26:34.9. A sixth and eighth in Ruka distance races at the start of this season were her previous career bests.
Simpson-Larsen started slowly but turned on the jets over the last few kilometers to overtake her fellow countrywoman, Astrid Øyre Slind, who led the race at every time check aside from the finish. Slind would fade ever so slightly to take third place for the day in 26:37.1. Coming in a single tenth of a second ahead of third was Moa Ilar of Sweden, who secured second place with a tactic resembling that of the winner — a measured start followed by an increase in intensity. She would finish between the two Norwegians in a time of 26:37.0. This was 2.1 seconds back of Simpson-Larsen and a tenth of a second up on Ilar. Every second counts out there.
Team USA’s Jessie Diggins was the top American finisher today, taking fifth place with a time of 26:45.2. Diggins’s splits revealed a seemingly even effort, as she maintained fourth or fifth position throughout both of the two 5km loops. It did, however, make for the first weekend of the 2025/2026 season where Diggins did not snag a podium spot.
Diggins unlikely cared about this aforementioned little factoid.
“I felt awesome today,” Diggins told Nordic Insights. ”My body felt really good, my energy felt good, and I was really proud of how I skied it. I actually think this is one of the best, in terms of how I felt and how I felt I skied it, Davos 10k’s ever, which was a really fun way to end it here so I’m super grateful for that.”
Next finisher for the Americans was dual nordic skier/biathlete Luci Anderson of Team Birkie, in her fifth career (skiing) World Cup start. Anderson notably placed 25th in 27:58.6.
“I have been training my normal biathlon way!” Anderson wrote to Nordic Insights on how she prepped for this time on the “other” World Cup. “The last two weeks before coming to Davos I was in Östersund for biathlon World Cup, so I was focused on those races. Coming into this week I adjusted my mindset towards purely skiing, so I did an interval set on Tuesday to prepare myself for the continuous racing effort, as opposed to in biathlon where I need to factor in the shooting stages. The sprint Saturday was definitely a wake up call for my body, since I haven’t done short races like that since last season. But the 10k is a similar effort to what I get to do in biathlon so I was pretty confident with my fitness going into it!”
She continued: “Up next for me is a biathlon IBU cup this week in Lenzerheide, very close to Davos so that was convenient for travel. And after that I will be racing US biathlon Olympic trials first week of January at our Olympic venue in Antholz.
“My strategy for today was to go out controlled, trying to go a pace that felt more like a threshold for the first big 2.7k climb. I knew that at altitude it would feel like I was going slow, but it meant that I had more to give for the second half of the race. The snow was a little slower than I expected, but very treacherous on the downhills with some icy turns in there. The biggest downhill honestly looked like a GS course with a big net and spray paint on the edges of the trail.
“Overall a great race and I’m super happy with how I executed it!”
Julia Kern wasn’t too far behind Anderson, in 30th, in 28:12.5, and appeared to have a very smart and measured day on skis.
When asked by Nordic Insights to reflect upon the day, Kern told us, “My plan was to start fast today and settle into a good pace, pushing the transitions and upper part of the course. Based on my splits I paced it evenly which is good, but my top-end gear is still a work in progress.”
Next American finisher was 29-year-old Alayna Sonnesyn, of Team Birkie, in 33rd, in 28:33.3. Sonnesyn, who has not been afraid to discuss the perils and fears of racing at altitude, told us of her race: “Today I focused on skiing really smooth and never getting frantic — I think skiing frantic at altitude is how you can blow up. So I found a pace where I was pushing hard but just below my red line for the entire 10k-this is usually the hardest type of racing for me-I like to push hard, recover, and push hard again. But I’ve been working on this in training a lot and so I’m really proud of my effort today.”
The fifth member of Team USA to round out the top 50 was APU’s 23-year-old Kendall Kramer who placed 44th, despite falling on the icy downhill, in 28:56.5. Of her strategy, Kramer told us, “I like to start relaxed in altitude and ramp up the second lap (I’ve experimented through my RMISA racing years). That usually works well, and it definitely worked today. I wish the race was another lap to make up time because I just kept feeling better and better!”
Kate Oldham was the last American finisher, in 56th place. Veteran skier Rosie Brennan started the race in bib 29, her first race of the weekend, but pulled out of the race after the 6.7km checkpoint. Brennan, who has been handed the trials and tribulations of mysterious health issues over the past season-plus (not to be confused with the initially undiagnosed mono that saw her racing poorly in the 2017/2018 season and cut from the national team as a result), told Nordic Insights that this was in fact the reason for her DNF.
“I continue to have issues with blood flow in my leg,” she said. “I’ve worked extremely hard to figure things out and get myself back and it’s been unbelievably heartbreaking and challenging to continue to struggle with unknown things.”
Perhaps the next two weeks will bring low temperatures with record-breaking snowfall to Utah, no one buys anyone perfume for Christmas, and Rosie will find good health to resume her form. Just like old times.
World Cup skiing now takes a two-week break for the holidays. Racing resumes on on December 28 in Toblach, Italy, when a skate sprint kicks off the 20th running of the Tour de Ski.
Diggins continues to lead the women’s overall World Cup standings after this weekend, with 644 points. Ilar follows closely with 630 points, and Sweden’s Jonna Sundling stands in third with 537 points. Diggins also leads the distance points, with 475 points to Ilar’s 456. Ebba Andersson, also of Sweden, is third there with 412 points. Julia Kern is the second American woman in both standings, 32nd in the overall and 38th in distance. Finally, Diggins is 11th in the sprint league table, with Kern 21st.
Full results from today can be found here.
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 going 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.
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Hedegart Wins Again in Norwegian ‘Mini Olympics’; Steel Hagenbuch Leads American Men in 30th
By Lukas Pigott
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.
Despite having only one representative in the sprint final yesterday, the Norwegian men went into today’s race, a 10-kilometer interval-start skate, as the clear favorite. They… did not disappoint.
Despite winning last weekend in Trondheim, Einar Hedegart (Norway) had pressure to perform today, because of places on the Norwegian Olympic roster being limited to seven, possibly eight. [With the benefit of hindsight, slash today’s results now in hand, it does look like Norway will get a full eight quota spots for Milan–Cortina, though that was absolutely still up in the air going into today’s race. The American men are going to be limited to seven quota spots. The American women will get eight. —Ed.]
However, it was not going to be an easy copy of his win in Trondheim, as Hedegart was up against strong competition from his teammates in one of the most important qualification races for the Olympics.
One of the most exciting skiers to watch in this race, Saveliy Korostelev, a Russian man competing as a neutral athlete, was competing in his first World Cup distance race. Korostelev started out hot, setting the pace at the first checkpoint. He was, however, quickly surrounded by a pack of Norwegians (not literally, but on the checkpoint times list) and would end up fading, finishing the day in 25th place.
At the halfway point going into the second 5km lap, Hedagart, Harald Østberg Amundsen (Norway), and Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (Norway) were all within 3.5 seconds of each other. They were 10 seconds ahead of another five Norwegians separated by only five seconds.
Klæbo was clearly eager to take revenge for yesterday’s events, where he exited a sprint in the quarterfinals for the first time since his very first World Cup race back in February 2016. After not finishing amongst the four best Norwegians in this discipline last weekend, Amundsen similarly told Viaplay after the race that he felt he had to prove something today, and that could be seen out on the course.
Hedegart, however, was also a man on a mission. After the race he told Viaplay that things started really working for him on the second lap. “On the second lap I got extremely good splits and that’s exactly how I want to solve ski races,” he said. “I got a little tired after two kilometers of the second lap, but I was able to really mobilize from the top until the finish. I didn’t feel the altitude. That’s something I’m really happy about.”
It appeared that many of the others, however, did feel the altitude. As one can see from the graph below, no one was able to keep Hedegart’s pace from 5km till 7.2km, and only Klæbo, in fourth, was able to bring back a little time (eight-tenths of a second) after that.
Hedegart set the fastest time across the finish line. His time of 22:40.7 passed the test of time as no one who started after him was able to match it. Amundsen clocked in second place, 11.7 seconds behind, with Mattis Stenshagen producing possibly the greatest race of his career to secure third. 12 seconds is a significant margin of victory for racing at this level, in an event with winning times under 23 minutes.
“I think I’m maybe even more content with my second World Cup victory than my first,” Hedegart told Viaplay after the race. “This was a ten out of ten race. This is the way I want to win. I don’t want to win with 0.4 seconds. I want to crush the others.”
Like last weekend, today was, as Norwegian Head Coach Eirik Myhr Nossum called it, “a mini Olympics” for the Norwegian men fighting for a ticket to Milan–Cortina. Klæbo, Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget, Emil Iversen, and Andreas Fjorden Ree all made it to the top eight today, but were split by a Brit (albeit a Trondheim-based Brit) finally showing some of the form that his prior performances show he is capable of.
“It’s at least a lot better than it has been the first weeks this year, because it’s been just insanely horrendous so far this season” Andrew Musgrave told Viaplay. “I’ve been struggling with a left leg that just falls asleep and I lose all feeling in it. I’ve had that a few years and had no feeling in it from the top down to the finish on the last lap today but the body generally; a little better.”
So you’re more optimistic going forward? At least less negative.
After multiple stellar performances from the Americans yesterday, with both Ben Ogden and Jack Young making it to the final, today was a tougher day. But that is not to say that there were not strong performances by the Americans as well.
John Steel Hagenbuch secured his first top-30 result of the season in 30th, 1:25.5 behind Hedegart.
“I’m not happy with how Period 1 went, but that isn’t to say that I’ve written off the rest of the season,” Steel Hagenbuch told Nordic Insights after the race. “I felt the best today that I’ve felt during Period 1, and I think this was my best race so far.”
He then revealed that a crash he had during Saturday’s training affected his race on Sunday. “It’s somewhat bittersweet to have my best feeling today,” Steel Hagenbuch said, “as I fell hard on the ‘Super G’ downhill during training yesterday and subluxed my right shoulder, which I’ve done a fair number of times. Every time I poled today hurt, and I can’t help but think that I could’ve been a bit faster… alas, that’s ski racing.”
When asked about what was next for him, he replied, “While it’s been fun being over here with our team and great group of guys during Period 1, I’m excited to go home, rest, and get back to full health heading into U.S. Nationals.”
After his big day out yesterday, Ben Ogden finished in 44th while Zanden McMullen finished in 46th. “I am generally happy about Period 1” Ogden told Nordic Insights. “I feel I have sprinted very well and am excited with how that is feeling. The distance skiing hasn’t clicked quite yet, I have had some glimmers of success but in general I feel I am leaving this period wanting more.”
On his plans going forward Ogden said, “I plan on racing the Tour after Christmas and then focusing entirely on recovery and Olympic prep. I am not sure how Oberhof and Goms will factor into that yet but I will likely race at least one of those weekends.”
Luke Jager (APU) came home in 74th, 2:29 down, while yesterday’s breakout star Jack Young finished in 92nd. JC Schoonmaker finished the day in 39th, just 1.1 seconds ahead of Kevin Bolger. Both men are more traditionally known as sprinters.
Bolger went through the halfway point in 68th place, but put together a strong second lap to move all the way up to 40th at the finish. After the race he wrote to Nordic Insights saying, “Racing today was fun — I haven’t been to altitude in a long time, but I usually respond okay. I was a bit conservative opening up the start today — and then was really able to apply the pressure. Just wish I would have put the hammer down a bit sooner cause my second lap was great and I really moved up.”
When asked about how his Period 1 had gone he said, “I think it was solid. I would say as a whole it’s been my best Period 1 of my career.” Bolger continued, “The results I wish were a bit higher, but time backs are right there! So it’s a lot of confidence. I’ve never raced this much either in Period 1 so load management has been good.”
He finished by saying, “I’m happy.” Bolger added, “Christmas break is next and I’m really looking forward to it — some good skiing and relaxing!”
World Cup racing now takes the next weekend off. Period 2, slash the 20th edition of the Tour de Ski, begins in Toblach on December 28 with a skate sprint. Five more races follow over the next week, culminating with the Alpe Cermis climb on January 4.
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 going 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.
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Sundling Wins Sprint in Davos; Diggins 15th, Kern 16th, Sonnesyn 27th
By Lukas Pigott
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.
For the final sprint of Period 1 of World Cup racing, Davos played host to a late afternoon of thrilling racing. Two laps of a fast course with a false flat, a hill, and an icy corner would be the stage for several rounds of technical and tactical racing.
Despite the organizers’ best efforts to soften up the snow on the corner, it was clearly very icy, causing numerous casualties in the men’s races. While the women largely made it through unscathed, some athletes definitely managed it better than others. Despite this corner being one of the main talking points on the day, the strongest skiers eventually prevailed despite the looming threat of the icy slopes of southeastern Switzerland.
The day started with the qualification round, out of which three American women advanced to the heats. Julia Kern, Jessie Diggins, and Alayna Sonnesyn (Team Birkie) all made the top-30 cutoff, while Rossie Brennan just missed out on a spot in the quarterfinal by finishing 33rd, only 0.24 outside the heats. Luci Anderson (Team Birkie), Kate Oldham, and Erin Bianco (BSF) finished 41st, 48th, and 53rd, respectively.
Diggins chose the first quarterfinal heat today, a departure from her standard practice the last several seasons of choosing heat five. This left her up against the two pre-race favorites Jonna Sundling (Sweden) and Kristine Stavås Skistad (Norway). With both of them being amongst the fastest finishers, the field needed to keep the pace up for a chance of getting one of the lucky loser spots. Sundling, however, took control of the race, setting a steady tempo but one that ultimately would not make for any lucky losers from heat one.
With Sundling and Skistad finishing one–two in the heat to secure direct places to the semifinals, Diggins would not get the chance to continue racing today when she finished in third.
After the race, Diggins said that she felt that she didn’t feel like she had the “top end speed” needed on a fast course like the one in Davos.
Diggins accepted that this was the case, adding, “I would honestly be pretty shocked if I did. But I am proud of going out there and executing my plan to the best of my ability. I just needed to have carried more speed into that finishing stretch.”
In the third heat Julia Kern was up against a strong-looking Laura Gimmler (Germany) and an in-form Maja Dahlqvist (Sweden). Exiting the final corner after the first lap she got boxed in on the inside, losing momentum and having to chase back on the famous false flat out of the stadium.
“I’m proud of making a detailed race plan, and starting faster in the qualifier today!” she said after her race. “I felt much more like myself out there today, and played the tactical game, with some good moves, and unfortunate outcomes with an obstruction by another athlete.”
She ended her heat in fourth and the day in 16th overall, one place behind her team sprint silver-medal teammate from the World Championships last season, Diggins.
In the fourth quarterfinal heat Alayna Sonnesyn was up against Jasmi Joensuu (Finland), who controlled the heat. Gina del Rio (Andorra) edged out last year’s sprinting sensation Coletta Rydzek (Germany) for the final spot in the semifinals from this heat.
On the final corner in the first semifinal Sundling led, with home favorite Nadine Fähndrich (Switzerland) and Skistad following. Skistad was carrying considerably more speed, and tried to go on the inside of Fähndrich. When Fähndrich held her line, Skistad came in from the inside and knocked her skis. While they both stayed upright this resulted in Fähndrich losing momentum and Skistad getting a yellow card, her second of the season, and thus being relegated.
This episode marked the continuation of Skistad’s season-long saga to gain a second yellow card, occasionally clumsily so. In the Norwegian’s first race of the season, the sprint in Beitostølen, she was handed a yellow card. Skistad then consequently told the media that she would try to get a yellow card the next day. Since she didn’t care about her result in the next race, she was fine about getting disqualified. Two yellow cards means disqualification, but more importantly for Skistad, it means that you don’t carry a yellow card with you any more.
[I’m gonna use my law degree and experience as a criminal defense attorney here to observe that publicly announcing in advance your intention to commit a crime is usually a bad idea. —Ed.]
In the race the next day, a classic interval-start race, Skistad decided to brazenly skate in the finishing straight, clearly trying to get a yellow card. This unsurprisingly backfired, as she got a direct DSQ for unsportsmanlike behavior instead of a second yellow card.
This meant that Skistad carried a yellow card into the World Cup season, and today lost out on a chance to fight for the win. I’m not sure she views it this way, but at least she finally got rid of her yellow card.
In the final Sundling tried to ski the race “like a prologue and see what happens,” she told media afterwards. On the final hill it looked like she was going to ski away from everyone, but Mathilde Myhrvold (Norway) managed to limit the gap. Going into the final straight Sundling had a few ski lengths on Myhrvold, but Myhrvold hadn’t given up quite yet. Showcasing her incredible finish, she almost caught up to Sundling.
In the end Sundling took the win with 0.08 seconds ahead of Myhrvold. Nadine Fähndrich, who made it through as a lucky loser despite Skistad’s attempts at getting rid of her yellow card, finished a strong third. Dahlqvist, Linn Svahn (Sweden), and Gimmler, in that order, rounded out the final heat.
Talking to Norwegian Viaplay after the race Myhrvold said, “It’s really cool to have such a good day, but it’s a little irritating to be so close.”
“She’s good” was what she had to say about Sundling.
Sundling was possibly even more understated, saying that all she knew for sure was that she was going to go to the finish line. The question was just what place she would get. “Forward with the foot and hope for the best” was her lunge tactic today, which delivered her her second win so far in Davos as well as a growing reputation for being the one to beat in skate sprinting.
After the race Kern said, “I’m excited to take this fresher energy into tomorrow, and the endurance base I feel to build on my momentum in a distance race and see what happens tomorrow.”
She will be joined on the start line for tomorrow’s 10-kilometer interval-start skate by Alayna Sonnesyn, Kate Oldham, Kendall Kramer, Rosie Brennan, Luci Anderson, Jessie Diggins, and Erin Bianco.
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 going 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.
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Lauren Jortberg Makes it Three in a Row With SuperTour Skate Sprint Win; Smith, Swirbul Follow
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.
KINCAID PARK, Anchorage — Lauren Jortberg has now done eight laps of the Kincaid sprint course at race speed over the past seven days. She has done every single one of those faster than all of the athletes around her.
Friday was more of the same, as the Centre National d’Entraînement Pierre-Harvey skier won her second consecutive sprint, and third consecutive SuperTour race of the 2025/2026 season, by simply, well, skiing away from everyone all day long. Between the move to Québec, a healthy support system, and the million other small things that go into making an athlete feel comfortable and valued, Jortberg is clearly in a good place right now, and it shows.
Second yesterday was Sammy Smith of Sun Valley, who had been playing in the College Cup final in Kansas City on Monday, traveling back to Stanford on Tuesday, traveling to Alaska on Wednesday, and spending her first day on snow for the season on Thursday. She appears to have made the adjustment easily enough.
A close third was Hailey Swirbul of APU, who could not be more pleased to be back and racing again.
Fourth through sixth went to Nina Schamberger of Colorado, Ruby Serrouya of Denver, and Katey Houser of Montana State, in that order. The proud Alaskan in me (one of those words is redundant) is that this point required to note that Houser is a local; she is a 2022 graduate from Palmer High School.
women’s podium (photo: Gavin Kentch) “I’ve been stoked on today,” said a clearly pleased Jortberg, walking through the stadium from the finish line back to the athletes’ belonging area with a reporter on each side. (You can read the Anchorage Daily News’s take on the day here, or here if you hit a paywall.) “I love skating, I love sprinting, so it’s my favorite event, and it felt good and felt strong.”
“The hill here is hard to pass on, and it’s definitely my strength,” said Jortberg, explaining her strategy for the day. “And there can be a lot of drafting effect on the downhill, so I didn’t want to give anyone a free draft effect. I wanted to ski the hill how I wanted to and give myself space and not have any tangles or crashes, so I was aggressive. And it’s early season, so it’s good to keep going hard and not just play tactics, so that you’re fit through the whole season.”
Speaking of the whole season, what’s next for the CNEPH athlete, who is guaranteed at least a share of the Period 1 SuperTour lead even if she is DNS tomorrow, and who will be the leader outright so long as she starts tomorrow and finishes at least 20th in a field of 43?
“I’ll decline the Tour [de Ski start rights] probably and focus on Nationals,” Jortberg said. “I haven’t totally decided yet, but that’s probably my thought. Lake Placid is a sweet place to race. I’ve never done the Tour, and I don’t know if this is the year I want to do it.”
Sensational! Stanford sophomore Sammy Smith secures skate sprint silver in season’s second snow session
Sorry, couldn’t resist harnessing my inner New York Post there for a second, in headline style if not in political views. Something about “Cardinal Rules” would probably also work here. Or like “Tree by the Sea,” but that’s a little more of a stretch. I am hilarious.
Anyway. It’s been a big week for Sammy Smith. On Monday night, she was playing in a soccer game in Kansas City. Not just any game; it was the final of the College Cup, the championship for NCAA D-I soccer. Smith, who is in her second year at Stanford, wears number 13 and starts at defender/forward for the Cardinal. An older sister also plays on the team. A brother plays for the Duke men’s team. Her father played soccer for Duke and her mother rowed for Stanford. The family is rather accomplished athletically.
Stanford lost to Florida State in the final, 1–0, following a heartbreaker of a goal in the 87th minute for the Seminoles. Florida State goalkeeper Kate Ockene stood on her head all night to keep her team in the mix until they finally broke through, facing nine shots on goal and saving all of them.
That was Monday night, in Missouri. Smith spent much of Tuesday in Kansas City; she had a final to take, and Stanford flew out a proctor so that the student-athlete could do so. She had a few hours back on campus Tuesday night, before leaving the Bay Area early Wednesday morning. A connecting flight was canceled and she spent some unplanned time in Seattle, but she got into town Wednesday night. “Skied yesterday for the first time and then out here today,” Smith said on Friday.
It’s a small town; I had seen Smith at the venue on Thursday when I was there for my own practice with my masters group. She looked… better than I do for my first day back on snow. And I live in Alaska and can consistently check in with on-snow feelings throughout the dryland season with a bit of hiking.
What on earth is it like to do race prep in your first day back on snow in eight-plus months, I had to ask.
“Honestly, it felt pretty bad yesterday,” said Smith, shivering amidst what she identified as a 60-degree temperature change over the past 48 hours.
“Yesterday felt pretty rough. Just slipping around a bit, didn’t really feel like the balance was there or any of that coordination,” she said. “But today felt a little bit better, but I know it’s definitely going to take some time to get back on skis. And this was just a way to kind of get back to racing and not really have any expectations, just have fun with it.”
In her second day on snow, Smith logged the morning’s second-fastest time in the qual. She was 4.20 seconds behind Jortberg and 0.15 seconds ahead of Swirbul. In the final, she would outlunge Swirbul to take second by 0.05 seconds.
Did you feel like you knew how to ski today, I asked Smith, hopefully not insultingly given those results that I just presented.
*pause*
“I felt like I was skiing.”
Smith continued, “I’m definitely not at a place where I want to be later in the season. But it’s great to be back on skis. And I know there’s a lot of work to do, but I think this is a good starting point, and hopefully a really good place to build from.”
Final question for Smith, with an eye to Sunday’s distance race: When is the last time that you classic skied?
*pause*
*long pause*
Finally: “I have no idea.”
Smith continued, laughing, “Yesterday was the first day on snow, and, you know, skated for an hour, raced today, and tomorrow will be the first day classic skiing. So we’ll see how it goes.”
I’m going to spend most of this section telling you that Hailey Swirbul is happy as a person, first, and happy to be returning to racing, second. I’ve done that here before, I know, but I make no apology for repeatedly treating athletes as people too (also I really like Hailey and I am glad that she is happy!).
But first, what was the race itself like from her perspective, as Jortberg once again went hard off the front and the rest of the pack ultimately duked it out behind her for second?
“I was in there jostling around, so I can speak to that,” Swirbul said.
“I think that what was super fun about this final is like, We’re skiing next to each other, which — I don’t know, maybe that’s bad strategy — but it’s just so fun, you’re like stepping on each other’s skis. And up the first part of Gong Hill, it was two skiers wide with like someone trying to come up the middle, and everyone’s V2ing, but kind of almost a V1.
“And it’s a little too narrow to go two across on that steep part, so it has to shuffle out somehow, and that’s where I think gaps really open up. And it’s a drag race to try to get to the finishing corner where you can get an inside line, and that’s a tough one to have to go wide on, too.
“But it was fun to just, like, play cat and mouse and see where a little gap opens, and can you close it and dig deep over the top, and maybe an extra pole plant over the top is enough to close it on the downhill. It’s really cool to also pay attention to, you know, if you tuck a little lower, can you speed up a tiny bit? I’m all excited about those tactics for racing. I haven’t felt that in a long time.”
If you’re keeping score at home, that’s three funs, one really cool, and one excited. This is the quote of someone who is having fun out there.
Is it fair to say that you’ve missed this, I asked.
“That feeling is something you can’t get anywhere else,” Swirbul said. “And I love that. I’m so glad to be able to do that at this chapter of my life. And that’s a feeling that I don’t take for granted anymore.”
Junior podiums
There were no separate heats on Friday for the juniors who raced, but multiple junior skiers placed top-30 in the qual and raced in the open heats. Based on final overall placing, the junior women’s podium for the skate sprint (slide two above) was Ruby Serrouya (Denver) in first, Miya Kam-Magruder (Alaska Winter Stars) in second, and Neve Gerard (Utah) in third.
Racing continues tomorrow with an interval-start classic distance race, precise course format still TBD depending upon how conditions shake out in official training today. It is currently set to be two laps of the Junior Nationals 5km course, the main FIS course used for distance races at Kincaid over the last several years.
It will, somehow, be windier at Kincaid tomorrow than it was last weekend. Today’s high school race was canceled. Today’s Solstice Tree Tour event was postponed by a week. If I have no finish-line audio for you because of wind shear on the microphone, I apologize in advance. Skiing is fun.
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 going 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.
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Ari Endestad Takes SuperTour Skate Sprint by 0.01 Second Over Zach Jayne; Michael Earnhart Third
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.
KINCAID PARK, Anchorage — It ain’t over till it’s over, as they say. But sometimes it ain’t really over until another 15 minutes after it first appeared to be over.
The men’s skate sprint final, the third race in the 2025/2026 SuperTour season, started here at, in round numbers, 1:55 p.m. It was 12 degrees above zero, with light winds of three to five mph. Humidity was 90 percent, because Kincaid (the stadium lies 500 meters from the Pacific Ocean). People who had not been at the venue last weekend said it was “cold.” People who had been here said that it was “warm,” also that it was “not a wind-blasted icy hellscape with a windchill of roughly 15 below evocative of Hoth and/or Alpensia Nordic Centre.”
Approximately two-and-a-half minutes later, Ari Endestad, of APU, and Zach Jayne, of Utah, came thundering down the finish stretch on the western edge of the cavernous Kincaid stadium. Endestad was on racer’s right, Jayne on the left. At the 800-meter mark of the race, Jayne had been soundly in the lead as the pack crested the high point of the sprint course. A hundred meters later, Endestad had used the Utah athlete’s slipstream, and some adroit positioning coming down the sweeping righthand curve off of Gong Hill, to move past him as they entered the final fourth of the sprint course . Now they were side by side once more.
Endestad V2ed. Jayne V2ed. Endestad surged forward. Jayne surged forward. Endestad possibly impeded Jayne slightly, but he would earnestly tell me later that he hoped he had not. Jayne would be deeply unconcerned, saying of the moment (in which Endestad probably did impede him a tad), “That’s just sprint racing. No foul play whatsoever.”
Endestad threw a lunge. Jayne threw a lunge. At precisely two minutes and forty seconds after the heat had begun, one of the men’s boot tips crossed the line. Precisely two minutes, forty seconds, and one one-hundredth of a second after the heat had begun, the other man’s boot tip crossed the line.
Endestad crashed into the finish zone in a cloud of snow. Jayne crashed into the finish zone in a cloud of snow. I thought that Jayne had it. Endestad thought he might have it.
Time passed. Both men got up off the ground and dusted themselves off, reassured that they had not broken a ski or a pole in the tumult. They had their bibs removed by volunteers and thanked them. They passed by the drinks cooler; at Kincaid I would typically say that it was Tang coming from the venerable yellow and red NSAA coolers, but I saw a raven poking at a red spot in the stadium snow today, so perhaps it was stronger stuff than that. They returned to the athlete clothing area and put on multiple very warm layers. Endestad accepted congratulations from his coach and from friends, and began a media interview (with me, but shoutout to Josh Reed with the Anchorage Daily News for also coming out today. We love our skiing here.)
A full 15 minutes after both men had crashed across the line, stadium announcer Adam Verrier’s voice rang out over the P.A. system, passing on the official results from the timing team: “First place today is Ari Endestad of APU.”
(And before I go any further: Second place was Jayne, of Utah, by a centimeter or two. Third went to Michael Earnhart, of APU, and fourth to Keelan Durham, of Craftsbury. Fifth place today was Hunter Wonders, also of APU. Sixth was Buster Richardson, also of APU. All of Jayne, Earnhart, Wonders, and Richardson have previously been on the national team. The level of American men’s domestic skiing is high right now.)
This announcement sparked joy among the APU contingent, which realistically speaking was about half the people still left in the stadium at this point. Endestad was swept up into the arms of his jubilant teammates, who hoisted him off the ground. “That’s my roommate!” yelled one man.
There was much rejoicing. Ari Endestad is an easy kid to root for. He is younger than my rock skis, slash my stepfather was racing against his father around the time I was born, so I get to call him that.
best photo I have of the finish (still from @apunordicski center Insta story) “Zach was going fast today,” said Endestad after the dust had settled. “In my semi, he went really fast to the top, and again in the final. I thought I had it in the bag, but he came up really close behind me, and it was a lunge for my life. I thought I broke my ski when I lunged, but had to do it.”
What do you do in that moment, I asked. You’re already going really fast; do you have another gear when you sense someone coming up alongside?
“I don’t know,” said Endestad. “I think I was kind of in my do-or-die mindset. Hopefully I didn’t impede him at all.”
“Honestly I’m just kind of in disbelief about the whole day,” continued the 24-year-old APU skier in between congratulatory hugs from friends.
“Because I went out here and felt strong, and I said, I have a mindset now that I shouldn’t be scared of these heats. I should just go out here, enjoy it, smile.
“And you kind of have to go into the mindset that you’re the best in the heat and earn your space. And honestly, that was hard today because everyone was starting really fast and taking their room. So I kind of had to weasel around. I had some good skis, was able to get the good drafts and take the lines in the — I’m going to call it ‘powder,’ but it’s like manmade-snow powder — and try to take the lines around that to be a bit faster on the downhill to use that to my advantage.
“I came away with a win today, and I’m really, really excited. And I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it.”
This was the second career-best result for Endestad in as many months, following his first career FIS-race victory in the Anchorage Winter Start 10km skate in November. At some point he may start believing it.
“I think this spring at SuperTour Finals, I didn’t even qualify in the skate sprint,” Endestad noted today. “I think I was like 40th. So to come back and qualify fourth and win today is just unreal.”
So what made the difference I asked, predictably but relevantly.
“I just think I have a really awesome team,” said the Fairbanks product who alternately skied for both APU and the University of Alaska Anchorage in undergrad before rejoining APU as a pro skier following his graduation from UAA. “It felt like a team time trial today in that final” (which also featured teammates Richardson, Earnhart, and Wonders. Jayne, of Utah, and Durham, of Craftsbury, were the only non-APU men in the final.)
“I have awesome teammates. And there’s a lot of guys [currently racing] in Europe as well who really helped push me this year under the great guidance of Erik Flora at APU. So I can’t thank them enough for everything they’ve done.”
It was fun to be in a final so dominantly APU blue, Endestad said. “It just felt like the pressure was off a bit. Like, I know these guys, I’m not scared of what they’re going to do. I mean, I am, but I’m not scared they’re gonna like hurt me. We’re just gonna go out and try to win.
“We practice this a lot: We go down the hills as a team and try to see who comes out first. It felt like we just were doing a warmup yesterday all together, having a good time and pushing ourselves.”
I should arguably segue to APU teammate Michael Earnhart at this point, but it was Zach Jayne who was second, so over to him.
“It was definitely up there” said Jayne, when I asked him whether this was his closest finish ever. “I’ve had some pretty close finishes throughout my career, but that was definitely the highest-stakes one.”
“He slingshotted me on the downhill,” recounted Jayne of the down-to-the-wire finish stretch. “I just really wanted to climb my way back. It was definitely a close finish, and we both fought it well.”
I asked Jayne if he liked the sprint course.
“Yes and no,” he said, not the first time this week I had heard a variation of that sentiment from an athlete. “The course is pretty simple, but it really rewards just strong and powerful skiing, which is — sometimes, that’s not my strong suit. But today I just really wanted that to be my goal: to just be a strong and technically well and relaxed skier, and I think I accomplished that today.”
Jayne explained that he was contrasting “strong and powerful skiing” with “just smashing it with tempo and just skiing frantically, which I definitely do.” (Been there, dude, particularly on this course.) “So it feels really good to just ski composed, I think is the right word, throughout the heats.”
photo: Gavin Kentch Michael Earnhart, third today — 0.07 ahead of Keelan Durham of Craftsbury — spoke with me longer after the close of the race, and had a more composed take on the day. Here’s how the final played out from his perspective:
“It was a decent start,” Earnhart said. “I was kind of in second or third going up the first hill. The only issue was I was kind of to the right of first place. And going into the first lefthand turn, I wasn’t very aggressive and let myself get kind of pushed out wide, and I moved back spots on that downhill being pushed out.
“So I came into the main climb in fourth or fifth. Which was unfortunate, because I think the main climb is definitely where my my strengths are. That jump skate is really where I feel comfortable. And being back in fourth or fifth, I wasn’t able to dictate the race there. I just had to respond and go where there was room, so I ended up coming over the top of the hill in fourth, and first and second were gone at that point. So at that point, I was kind of racing for third, but I had a good battle with Keelan, and I think I was able to take third. So, happy enough with it, but that’s sprinting — you’re always wishing for more.”
Earnhart crossed the finish line seven-hundredths of a second ahead of Durham, as noted. On the one hand, this is a margin seven times greater than his teammate Endestad had enjoyed in the battle for first. On the other hand, a single blink of a human eye takes approximately 0.10 to 0.40 seconds, depending on what you’re measuring, so there was not exactly a lot of daylight between the two men out there.
I asked Earnhart the same thing I had asked Endestad, if he does anything different in that moment. Everyone has heart in the finish stretch; do you also want to change your technique or some such.
“I think for me, it helps to be around someone,” Earnhart said. “Because I think then I focus more on my technique, and I forget about how my legs are feeling. I think in qualifiers, it’s very easy for me to kind of notice how flooded my legs are, and start skiing worse. But when I’m next to someone, a ‘if they can do it, I can do it better’ kind of thing is what’s going through my head. So I think the mindset of being next to someone helps me.”
Speaking of being next to someone, there were a total of four men in APU blue standing on that podium today (plus Hailey Swirbul third for the women, whose race article is by this point in the night going up tomorrow). I try to keep the APU lovefest to a minimum here — I’ve worked with my APU Masters coach, Galen Johnston, for nearly as long as Jessie has worked with Cork, so I’m not exactly unbiased — but four athletes from the same club in a sprint final at this level is legitimately newsworthy.
So I grabbed a moment with APU doyen Erik Flora, and asked him, “What’s the secret?”
“The secret probably lies in how hard these guys are working,” Flora said. And also “in Eagle Glacier. This year was huge: To be able to be up there and train as a team, I think has a big effect. The ‘secret’ for the APU men, APU ladies is, I think, start with the people, but then second, the training in Eagle Glacier.”
As for today’s races, Flora said that he was “always proud of my athletes, but excited for them today.”
What are you excited about?
“I think they all came today and did their best and skied really well, and you can see all of our skiers are making breakthroughs. So it’s really fun. And today in the the finals we had Hailey coming back, making her way to the finals. That was great. And then we had four boys in the men’s final, and Ari’s first win. Then we had Buster, first time in the finals. So we had a lot of really good stuff; it’s good racing today.”
Junior podiums
There were no separate heats today for the juniors who raced, but multiple junior skiers placed top-30 in the qual and raced in the open heats. Based on final overall placing, the juniors podiums today were Vebjorn Flagstad (Alaska Winter Stars), Quinten Koch (Plain Valley Nordic), and Lucas Wilmot (Utah) for the men, then Ruby Serrouya (Denver), Miya Kam-Magruder (Alaska Winter Stars), and Neve Gerard (Utah) for the women.
Women’s article?
Is coming tomorrow, sorry. Nothing personal, just very long days on this end recently, plus today was a school day as well as a World Cup day. And did I mention that it was cold? Anyway, check back tomorrow for the women’s race writeup, probably late morning Alaska time.
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 going 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.
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Norwegian Men Win Team Sprint in Davos; Water is Wet
By Angie Kell
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.
If you’re looking for excitement from Davos, Switzerland, to kick off the third weekend of men’s World Cup racing, the Team Sprint Freestyle event is not necessarily where you’ll find it. The nighttime race, featuring its famous awestriking blowtorches nestled aside the final hairpin turn to the finish, could be seen as a morale booster as the grind of World Cup racing pushes ever onwards, as the two-person event demands not only individual performance but also partnership and country pride.
But. In practice, it’s both the event itself and the time of the year that infamously brand the Davos team sprint as less than noteworthy. Despite this being one of only two team sprints we will see on the World Cup this year — both today in Davos and next month in Goms will be a team skate sprint, fine practice for the same event in the same format at the Olympics on February 18 — the rather cursory start list suggested that athletes weren’t keen on a chance to get in some reps.
Athletes wanting to conserve valuable energy at altitude (Davos sits at 5,120 feet of elevation) for the two other skate races of the weekend, which award highly sought-after overall World Cup points, opted out (Nations Cup points be damned).
[read more: Matt Whitcomb on Why No American Women Started the Team Sprint Today]
Illness is also starting to creep into teams, as the Swiss men are rumored to have fallen victim. Indeed, blowtorches and cowbells weren’t compelling enough to keep the USST’s Gus Schumacher perfectly primed and healthy for a race start with planned partner Ben Ogden. JC Schoonmaker was then moved up from USA II, where he had been slated to race with APU teammate Luke Jager, to team with Ogden on USA I. Schoonmaker and Ogden made up the only American team today, in either race.
But first they had to qualify. Team USA I fell victim to the course when Ogden crashed and broke a pole, losing valuable seconds. This ultimately landed the team 18th in the qualifier, just outside the top 15, and thus not moving onto the final. Notably, two American teams had an impressive showing at this same race and venue last year: after a second-place qualification, Team USA I had a 7th-place finish, and the USA II had an 8th-place finish overall. What a difference a year makes.
[Read more: Norwegian Men Win Team Sprint; Water is Wet; U.S. 7th and 8th in Davos (from 2024)]
Predictably, Team Norway I had the top spot in the qualifier, with Erik Valnes and returning Davos team sprint champion Johannes Høsflot Klæbo setting the pace. Team Norway II, featuring Harald Østberg Amundsen and Oskar Opstad Vike, took second, while Italy I, with 22-year-old Elia Barp and elder statesman Federico Pellegrino, took third.
On to the heats: The format was such that each leg of the two-man team completed two laps on the course three times, for a total of six laps per athlete. As nighttime and temperatures fell, the notable hairpin turn to the finish appeared to ice over, and anything less than a perfect line became teams’ downfall more than once. With the top fifteen teams from the qualifier competing in the final, it was a crowded course, and safe positioning became the ultimate strategy. This, of course, ultimately inured to Norway’s benefit.
As the nerve-wracking sounds of the start echoed throughout the venue, Valnes had a great start to lead the pack and set the pace for the first of two laps. Rounding the final turn in the first lap, Barp, following immediately behind Valnes, slipped on the terrain and rebounded quickly to rejoin the back of the group. Thankfully for Team Italy I (who, notably, would be exchanging to legendary sprinter Pellegrino), Valnes appeared to ease up on the second lap but kept his presence at the front of the pack for a clean first exchange to Klæbo.
Klæbo’s first lap looked to be calm, mixing amongst the pack, but it was clear that his fourth position in the tight group didn’t allow for Klaebo’s optimal line on the final, dicey turn, and he bobbed ever so slightly to maintain his footing — a rarity for the superstar. Swedish sprinter Edvin Anger would also find trouble with the inside line on the turn and fell as he went through. From here on out, Klæbo would maintain the outside line at this spot, and soon Valnes would do the same.
Klæbo then took control on his second lap to lead the field and circumvent any further drama for the day. It was at this point that Norway I would not cede control of the race, as both Valnes and Klæbo used the hill on the final second lap to separate themselves from the field to claim ultimate victory in a time of 14:00.95. Italy I, with the finishing sprint prowess of Pellegrino, claimed second in a photo finish with Sweden I’s Johan Häggström and Edvin Anger, who would finish third, with times of 14:02.99 and 14:03.04, respectively. Not bad for the 35-year-old Pellegrino.
Racing resumes tomorrow in Davos with the men’s sprint freestyle race. The start list can be found here, and includes Americans Jack Young, Ben Ogden, JC Schoonmaker, Zak Ketterson, and Kevin Bolger. Saveliy Korostelev of Russia, racing here as an AIN, also makes his World Cup debut.
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 going 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.
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