Davos Team Sprint: Could It Be Anyone But Norway?

Luke DykowskiDecember 13, 2024

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Friday night in Davos: A fast course, fireballs, and a remarkably flexible field for the Men’s Team Sprint Finals.

After qualifying, the evening’s would-be winner was uncharacteristically unclear, with four nations represented in the top five qualifying times. Ben Ogden (USA I) started his second weekend of sprinting in pole position, having put a full 1.67 seconds on the individual favorite, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo (Norway 1). Edvin Anger (Sweden 1) qualified third; teammates and host-nation heroes Valerio Grond and Riebli Janik (Switzerland 1) were fourth and fifth, respectively. The Swiss duo’s combined times put Switzerland 1 at the front of the starting gate; USA 1 started in second position (with Zanden McMullen qualifying 26th), followed by Norway 1 (J.H. Klæbo and Paal Golberg) in third. USA 2 (J.C. Schoonmaker and Kevin Bolger, qualifying ninth and 24th) started the race in eighth, putting both American teams in the final. Further down the starting list, although hardly out of contention, were Sweden 1 (E. Anger and Johan Haggstroem) in fourth; and France 1 (Jules Chappaz and Richard Jouve) and France 2 (Remi Bourdin and Renaud Jay) in fifth.

Ben Ogden (USA 1), top qualifier in the Men’s Team Sprint. (Photo: Modica/NordicFocus)

Breathless after qualifying, Ogden panted a comment to FIS, expressing high hopes for the final ahead. “Last week was a good start but a bad finish. Today I’m turning it around: A good start and a good finish!” His race strategy was simple: “Ski fast in the first lap. Ski fast in the second lap. And then ski really fast in the third lap.” As for conditions, Ogden echoed the sentiment expressed across numerous athletes’ social media posts in the previous days, stating that the team is “Happy to be racing in beautiful Switzerland.” With thorough snow coverage, superb grooming, and no shortage of pyrotechnics (athletes were expressly warned to swing wide of the flamethrowers on the final corner), things appeared favorable for left-field performances: Notably absent from the grid were more Norwegians and Swedes (each nation qualified only a single team each); the French are benching Chanavat until tomorrow, and if the Germans or the Finns (other than Lauri Vuorinen, third in Ruka) have a solid Sprint team they haven’t bothered to tell anyone yet.

Switzerland 1: Courageous Performances from the Crowd Favorites

For optimistic viewers, the race was an exercise in suspending disbelief. Far from the self-assured Swedish dominance in the Women’s Team Sprint, the lead of the Men’s pack was repeatedly contested over the course of twelve laps, with a hard-out-of-the-gate start from Janik Riebli putting the Switzerland 1 at the forefront of the evening’s action. Norway’s Paal Golberg made an early challenge descending into the first exchange, but Valerio Grond fended off a few probing jump-skates from Klæbo to reclaim the lead on Lap 3. By Lap 4, the key contests of the evening had already been sketched: the Swiss Men were determined to fight for the front of the pack; the Norwegians wanted–and frequently got–control of the race, and Frederico Pelligrino, returned from a weekend of rest, was practically Klæbo’s shadow each time the two ascended the course’s singular climb–a blue specter locked as closely as possible behind the Norwegian’s white hat.

To more cynical fans, however, the outcome–which always seemed to favor Norway I, despite Golberg’s lackluster qualifying lap (he was 19th, over six seconds behind Ogden)–was clear by the start of Lap 6. Despite repeated challenges, an unflappable Klæbo danced over the hill-crest and around the slick downhill corner as the mass of Men around him appeared lunging (and occasionally stumbling) by comparison. Elia Barp (ITA I)–the young gun to “Daddy Chico’s” elder statesman–had maneuvered the Italians into second; Schoonmaker handed off to Kevin Bolger in third, with Ogden tagging McMullen in sixth, so there was still ample fighting ahead for podium finishes, but Golberg was pulling his weight and keeping the race where Klæbo needed it to be (which, realistically, was anywhere within ten seconds of the lead).

Paal Golberg (NOR) leads Janik Riebli (SUI) and Jules Chappaz (FRA). (Photo: Vanzetta/NordicFocus)

This was not to say that there weren’t a few fireworks in store. Beginning in Lap 8, Valerio Grond saw the writing on the wall and attempted to unnerve the Norwegians with a huge surge over the climb; he managed to open a ski-length against Klæbo and handed off to Riebli, who held onto first position through Lap 9. Golberg moved to reel in the Swiss, but his fatigue was becoming evident on the Lap 10 climb as Riebli initiated a furious jump-skate; dropping his shoulder, the Norwegian was losing turnover and power, but managed to stay in second through the final exchange. Elia Barp handed off to Pellegrino hot on Golberg’s heels, and the Frenchmen occupied fourth and fifth, just ahead of USA 1 and 2.

Swinging in to slice across the apex of the first corner, Pellegrino led into the penultimate climb; Grond marked him on the inside, while Klæbo moved to the far left shoulder of the course to challenge the Italian. Appearing to stumble–perhaps catching a ski on Grond–over the crest, Pellegrino descended in third; now it was Grond to the front, with Klæbo adhered to his tails in second. Rounding the downhill corner, nine skiers jockeyed for prime positioning into the long, wide, and flat straightaway into the final lap, but Klæbo could smell the Gruyere (or perhaps the singed spandex) and unfurled himself into a fluid, ground-eating V2. Ben Ogden observed that, although today was an important exercise in “energy management,” this section was undoubtedly “the deciding point of today’s race.” Grond was pumping like mad, but by the base of the last climb, Klæbo had four ski-lengths on the field, and offered his competitors no slipstream on the descent.

With Grond and Pellegrino battling for the podium, and two Frenchmen, Bolger, and Ogden battling for fifth and sixth, the Swedes finally decided to start racing: Edwin Anger, largely absent from the evening’s excitement, leapt up the hill and into second. With a glance over his shoulder, Klæbo powered around the final corner and opened his arms in victory across the line, while the three men behind him–Anger, Grond, and Pellegrino–roared down the finishing stretch. With meters to go, Grond stepped to the outside to clinch second for the Swiss, and Pellegrino–appearing to cross the line in third–ultimately took fourth thanks to a tremendous lunge from Anger, who snuck his toe 0.02 seconds ahead of the Italian’s. France 1’s Richard Jouve was fifth; Ogden for USA 1 and Bolger for USA 2 were sixth and seventh.

Grond secures second place for Switzerland 1, ahead of Edvin Anger (SWE, not pictured) and Frederico Pellegrino (ITA, left), and in front of a raucous home crowd. (Photo: Modica/NordicFocus)

Golberg & Klæbo Steady to the Podium; More Sprinting Ahead

In retrospect, today was Paal Golberg’s race to lose, and the Norwegian showed no intention of doing so. In his post-race interview, Golberg noted he has historically struggled in Davos (his previous personal best was an eighth-place Sprint finish in December, 2011), and was gratified to secure tonight’s podium with Klæbo. For his part, the Norwegian anchor was gracious as always (well, at least since 2018), complimenting the venue and the night-racing format, and modestly stating that he will “come back tomorrow, and try to compete one more time, and see how it goes.” Today marked Klæbo’s 93rd World Cup victory; Saturday could well be his 94th.

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) crosses the line in the Men’s Team Sprint, his 93rd World Cup victory. (Photo: Modica/NordicFocus)

The Swiss Men appeared ecstatic to secure a podium in front of a home crowd, and Pellegrino–doubtless disappointed–will certainly have another bite at the cheese tomorrow. While the Americans may have had their sights set on a more competitive finish, both Men’s teams finishing in the top eight is a marked improvement from their performance in the single Team Sprint of 2023-24 (Lahti, where no Americans made the final) and from 2022-23 (when USA 1 was 12th in Livigno). Reached for comment, Ben Ogden admitted that he “wanted to better in the actual race and not just the pointless pre-race race.” While frustrated, he feels the American Men “learned a lot and were very close to [their] goals, so [they] are not disappointed.”

Kevin Bolger wrote that it’s “always fun battling between [USA] Team 1 and 2. We joke that at the end of the day, that’s the most important team to beat.” Bolger and J.C. Schoonmaker, ahead of USA 1 for most of the race, “wanted to stay in front and keep out of trouble,” and enjoyed being in the mix with Ogden and McMullen alongside them. While tomorrow will be a “tight turnaround” for the USA sprinters, the “only thing to do is eat, sleep, and try to be horizontal.” Today, “pretty much from the start of Lap 2 the throttle went down,” so there will be no shortage of lactate to flush out over the course of Saturday afternoon as the athletes head to another round of night sprinting.

The US Men are now in sixth in the Nations Cup, 20 points behind Germany.

Davos Men’s Team Sprint RESULTS

Davos Women’s Team Sprint QUALIFYING

 

Men’s Team Sprint podium: Switzerland (SUI): Janik Riebli (SUI), Valerio Grond (SUI), Paal Golberg (NOR), Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR), Edvin Anger (SWE), Johan Haeggstroem (SWE), (l-r). (Photo: Modica/NordicFocus)

 

Luke Dykowski

Luke Dykowski is an alumnus of the University of Minnesota Nordic Ski Club ‘22, and is the Founder and Nordic Coordinator of the Midwest Collegiate Ski Association. He is currently a law student at Georgetown University.

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