Partly for the sake of cost effectiveness, and partly for the joyful experience of a good old road trip, my ski Coach Hilary Greene decided that driving to Minnesota with three adults and three high schoolers would be a worthwhile experience. That was how I found myself skipping school on a Thursday and loading into a rented 2022 Chrysler Pacifica for a nice 20 hour drive. Day one started a lot later than we would’ve liked due to some snafus in the rental process for the minivan, but by two in the afternoon we were finally headed out of town. Between regular baggage, food, and ski bags for the six of us, the van was pretty packed. Still, I managed to find odd nooks and crannies to stash my water bottles, snacks, and the Canon Eos that my Dad had taught me how to use only that afternoon.
My name is Knowl Stroud, and I am a high school skier who was given the incredible opportunity (by Matt Voisin at FasterSkier) to attend and cover the Minneapolis World Cup. This article is a collection of some of the best moments from along the way.
It started snowing two hours into the drive: nice wintery ambience, but by the time we got to the rest stop for dinner the snow had been replaced by a miserable driving sleet, providing a suitably gloomy mood for the Popeyes that seemed to be out of literally everything we wanted to order. Just shy of midnight we arrived at the hotel, which was about the quality you could expect off the highway when prioritizing budget. If anything, the odd decorations and cramped room only added to the road trip vibes.
The next day was much of the same, plus some camera testing and a stop at Culver’s that was rewarded with surprisingly good Oreo Cheese custard free samples. Finally, after another day on the road, we celebrated our arrival in Minneapolis at the end of the day with pizza and watched Ben Ogden youtube videos in lieu of his presence.
Day One—Sprints
It was finally time to find out if this whole World Cup thing was worth the hype (and the drive). We skied through Wirth park to the venue and found a place to cheer with the rest of our group near a u-turn about halfway through the course. The atmosphere was amazing—even during warmup, every skier passing by was greeted with walls of noise louder than anything I had ever experienced at a ski event.
Still, once the races started the atmosphere got even more electric. It was both surreal and crazy seeing the athletes I had watched on TV now sprint past only a few feet away. They didn’t just exist on the race course or on Instagram—they were right in front of me!
Between the races, I interviewed some groups of younger fans, most of whom ended up being local skiers from Minneapolis. There is no way I could use all the things they said, but it was awesome just to see young kids be so excited about skiing. I took a bit of liberty and said that I was a reporter from FasterSkier, leaving out the whole “high school, unofficial, intern” part in favor of the shocked looks on their faces when I asked if I could interview them. If it was at all possible for the atmosphere to get even more electric, it did so for the heats. Each time a group went by, hundreds of fans would run from one part of the course to another just to see the racers as many times as possible. At the bottom of the last uphill, row upon row of screaming fans lined the course.
Our own cheering squad was loud as ever, transitioning seamlessly from cheering for high school skiers to World Cup athletes. At the encouragement of my teammates, I tried to take a selfie with Klaebo during the Men’s final, figuring that would be my best shot to get a claim to fame back home. It turned out okay, albeit a bit blurry. After the finals I made my way over to the finish area to try to snag an interview with a lesser-known foreign skier who I could ask about coming to the US or some other racer who would be sufficiently un-famous to be interviewed by a random highs chooler. I failed on the “lesser-known skier” objective, but within a few minutes I was hopping in on an interview that a few other reporters were doing with none other than Johannes Hosflot Klaebo! He provided gracious praise of the event so far and even said that he would “for sure add a notice for FIS that we need to come back” when asked about future World Cups on US snow. As for me, I was mostly focused on the fact that one of the greatest skiers of all time was standing only a few feet away. This was a guy who I watched compilation videos of on Youtube, and now I was interviewing him! After the interview wrapped up, I quickly asked him if he would sign my boot and let me get a selfie, which he was incredibly kind about considering he had just mentioned how long and tiring the sprint days were.
Although I was a bit too absorbed in my own moment to realize it at the time, the fact that Klaebo stayed to sign autographs for the hundreds of kids lined up waiting for him was incredibly gracious. Knowing the impact his kindness had on me—and that meeting him was the highlight of my year—I can’t fathom the amount of happiness his patience created. The autograph on my boot rubbed off almost instantly on the ski back through the park since I hadn’t remembered a Sharpie, but I still rode that high for the rest of the day.
Day Two—10 k
For Sunday’s interval start, I decided to forgo my photography fever from the previous day and focus on the action in and around the finish. Especially for the men’s race, that might have been the best decision I could’ve made. The previous day, our cheering location put us out of range of the announcer. From my new vantage point near the finish, I could hear the constant updates on positioning and timing that would come to form one of the best moments of the weekend, Gus’s win. After he finished, I can remember the announcer shouting out with increasing intensity how far each of the top athletes were back from his time. Every split checkpoint, the declaration that “Amundsen is FIVE seconds back on Schumaker!” would elicit a roar from the crowd. Then, as each of them came into the stadium, the announcer would name one of the usual podium suspects like Kruger or Klaebo and declare “He’s having a good race…but he’s not going to beat Schumaker!” As Schumacher’s potential victory went from an uncertain dream to a miraculous reality, all the team USA members became a massive Gus Fan Club, jumping up and down and screaming along with all the fans. It was crazy being right by the TV cameras, celebrating with people like Julia Kern like they were just normal fans. After the race, I got the newly dubbed “King of Minneapolis” Klaebo to re-sign my boot, this time in Sharpie. Even after missing out on the podium, he still showed the same kindness and patience he had displayed the previous day.
Next, for the women’s race, I headed back over to our familiar cheering spot to spend some time with the group. One of the most interesting skiers to watch was Sophia Laukli. I had heard about her vaunted uphill excellence, but seeing her in person allowed me to fully appreciate how easily she seems to just float up the hills. Another person for whom seeing them race altered my perception was Jessie Diggins. I had always thought that her stories about her vision turning pink and other examples of supposedly pushing further into the pain cave than most were at least partly apocryphal. However, I almost mixed up what lap she was on in the race because her second lap looked like it should’ve been her last, only for her to ski by again with the same vigor but somehow looking even more in pain than before.
The heroics of the women’s race were amazing, but for many the main focus of the day was on Gus. “I’m so happy for him; it’s just so motivating to see,” said Australian team member, Hugo Hinckfuss, who turned down any conversation regarding his own weekend to express his joy for Gus. Much training and preparation went into Gus earning that win, but for myself and many others it was still an incredible underdog story. As my teammate Declan Rogers put it, Gus showed that even if you aren’t always at the top of results you can still win. The confidence that anyone with the dedication and guts can pull off something special is huge for the skiers who don’t always top the results. For me, it means that I can fully believe that I can go out in any given race and go and beat someone like Declan, even if he’s beat me every race this season. Besides the confidence and memories, the weekend was also just a ton of fun. I felt incredibly cool holding up my press pass to get through security checkpoints and doing research on my school Chromebook in the media room with all the big shot reporters. Thank you so much to Matt Voisin and FasterSkier for this opportunity—it was more amazing than I could’ve ever imagined.
Knowl Stroud
Knowl Stroud is a junior at Mount Greylock High School in Williamstown, Mass. where he races on the ski team.
