U.S. Ski Team’s 2018/2019 Nominations

On Thursday, U.S. Ski & Snowboard released its roster for its 2018/2019 national cross-country team nominations, and the list includes five returning A-team members (four women and one man), an all-male B-team, and seven athletes on the D (development) team.

Noticeably missing from last year’s World Cup squad are retirees Kikkan Randall, Liz Stephen and Andy Newell (the latter of which isn’t exactly retiring), and Rosie Brennan.

Simi Hamilton leads the men’s team as its lone A-team member, while Sadie Bjornsen, Sophie Caldwell, Jessie Diggins, and Ida Sargent are all back on the A-team. The B-team includes three returners — Erik Bjornsen, Paddy Caldwell and Scott Patterson — as well as 25-year-old rookie Kevin Bolger, out of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF), who was named to the team after some breakthrough World Cup results last season.

All four of last year’s D-team were renominated, namely 2018 NCAA champions Katharine Ogden (who swept both races at the collegiate championships) and Ian Torchia, Julia Kern and Hannah Halvorsen. Joining them are three athletes who broke through at 2018 Junior World Championships: Hailey Swirbul, Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher.

Seven of the 16 nominees train with the Stratton Mountain School (SMS) in Vermont. Six others are based out of Anchorage, Alaska; five train with Alaska Pacific University (APU) while the 17-year-old Schumacher hails from the Alaska Winter Stars. The Craftsbury Green Racing Project has one athlete on the team (Sargent), as does SVSEF (Bolger). Torchia is entering his senior season at Northern Michigan University.

Here’s the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team’s nomination list. The team will be officially named this fall.

U.S. Ski Team 2018-19 Cross Country Nominations
(Hometown; Club; Birthdate)

A TEAM
Men
Simi Hamilton (Aspen, Colo.; Stratton Mountain School Elite Team; 5/14/87)

Women
Sadie Bjornsen (Winthrop, Wash.; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 11/21/89)
Sophie Caldwell (Peru, Vt.; Stratton Mountain School Elite Team; 3/22/90)
Jessie Diggins (Afton, Minn.; Stratton Mountain School Elite Team; 8/26/91)
Ida Sargent (Orleans, Vt.; Craftsbury Green Racing Project; 1/25/88)

B TEAM
Men
Erik Bjornsen (Winthrop, Wash.; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 7/14/91)
Kevin Bolger (Minocqua, Wisc.; Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation; 4/11/93)
Patrick Caldwell (Lyme, N.H.; Stratton Mountain School Elite Team; 2/18/94)
Scott Patterson (Anchorage, Alaska; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 1/28/92)

D TEAM
Men
Ben Ogden (Landgrove, Vt.; Stratton Mountain School; 2/13/00)
Gus Schumacher (Anchorage, Alaska; Alaska Winter Stars; 7/25/00)
Ian Torchia (Rochester, Minn.; Northern Michigan University; 3/8/96)

Women
Hannah Halvorsen (Truckee, Calif.; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 2/19/98)
Julia Kern (Waltham, Mass.; Stratton Mountain School Elite Team; 9/12/97)
Katharine Ogden (Landgrove, Vt.; Stratton Mountain School; 11/17/97)
Hailey Swirbul (Aspen, Colo.; Alaska Pacific University Nordic Center; 7/10/98)