The U.S. cross-country skiing team’s recent World Cup success — for women and men — could translate to a historic World Championships with medal events starting Thursday in Trondheim, Norway.
The U.S. has never won medals in women’s and men’s events at the same worlds (and no men’s medals at worlds since 1982).
Yet Americans have been stepping onto podiums in women’s and men’s events on the World Cup with more regularity since the last worlds in 2023. Sometimes both on the same day.
Jessie Diggins, the most decorated U.S. cross-country skier in history, has also been the world’s best the last two seasons. U.S. men recorded 15 individual top-10 finishes last season and 14 more so far this season, its highest totals since the World Cup began in 1982.
Diggins has won five of her last 16 World Cup races since sustaining an injury that made it difficult to walk around New Year’s.
“It felt like I was tearing my foot in half,” she said.
She first started feeling pain near her heel after running on really soft, new snow during a Christmas training camp. She underwent an MRI after the Tour de Ski ended Jan. 5. It showed a partially torn plantar fascia.
“The timeline I was given was, roughly, it takes six to eight weeks to build up a bridge of scar tissue to make it the initial healing stages,” she said. “So this weekend is six weeks. So we’re getting there. It’s closer to three to six months to fully heal it. So I’m really lucky in that my healing progression has been freakishly fast.”
At the last worlds in 2023, Diggins won the 10km freestyle to become the first American cross-country skier to claim a world title in any individual event.
The 10km event at worlds next Tuesday will be in Diggins’ less favored classic technique. Events alternate between freestyle and classic at every worlds and Olympics.
“I actually just was writing my goals for World Championships, and one of the big ones is actually to realize that I am not my results and separate my self-worth from the number next to my name on a piece of paper,” Diggins said. “So I actually am not really thinking about the outcome. It’s more of who I want to be and how I want to act within the team and how I want to basically try to be someone who steadies the boat, not rocks it during world champs. So be kind, be courteous, look out for my team and just cross the finish line satisfied with what I’ve put out there because after that it’s out of my control. So we’re just going to go out there and ski my heart out and definitely leave it all out there. So you’re going to see a really tired Jessie at the finish lines, that I can promise.”
Twice already this season, a U.S. man made a World Cup podium on the same day that Diggins won a race. Only twice before in World Cup history had a U.S. man and woman made a podium on the same day.
Gus Schumacher, Ben Ogden and J.C. Schoonmaker — all born in 2000 — have each posted multiple top-five World Cup finishes over the last two seasons. Last February, Schumacher became the first American man to win a World Cup race in a decade (video below).
While Diggins has earned an Olympic medal of every color and two world championships medals of every color, a U.S. man hasn’t finished better than eighth individually at the Olympics or worlds since 2009.
The freestyle sprint is the first medal event of worlds on Thursday. Ogden, a Vermont native with his own face stickers, has a pair of sixth-place finishes over four World Cup freestyle sprints this season.
The 20km skiathlon (10km in classic and 10km in freestyle) is the second medal event of worlds on Saturday. Schumacher, who first skied in his Alaska backyard upon learning how to walk, placed fifth in a World Cup skiathlon on Dec. 8.
“We’re capable of winning,” Schumacher said while sitting with Ogden and Diggins for a pre-worlds press conference. “While we may not be the favorites, and that may not be what’s on the forefront of our mind, I think that’s a big change for both of us (Ogden and I) from any other championship is that’s a possibility now, and it’s important to not count that out, especially in the middle of a race. I noticed more and more while I’m in the middle of the race, I’m not just looking around at the front pack of 10 or 15, if I’m in it, having a good day, and saying, ‘Sweet, top 15 locked in if I just hang with them.’ I’m thinking more about what I can do in the end to get a podium or win. That’s a fundamental shift for me, and it’s one I’m excited to bring to World Championships.”
The U.S. women’s team made a similar shift more than a decade ago as Kikkan Randall began and then Diggins extended a new, medal-winning era.
“I’m trying to share everything I know and make sure that these guys can take it further than I have,” Diggins said, talking about the entire team, with Schumacher next to her. “That’s my job is to make sure that you can eclipse anything I’ve ever done.”
Schumacher interjected. “We’ve got a long way to go,” he said with a chuckle in reverence to Diggins’ accomplishments.
“Well I’m trying to make it hard, for sure,” Diggins said. “I share everything I know, but trying to set a high bar.”
